The Baltimore Ravens have one final preseason game, and this time, it’ll be on the road at Green Bay. This clash comes on Saturday, following a joint practice between the two teams.
According to Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, he has a “couple of different thoughts” about how many starters will play or sit next weekend.
Of course, he’s engaging in gamesmanship with his rhetoric here, as all NFL coaches do, but then again, this is just the preseason finale, so the stakes are lower.
There is less motivation to be coy here because preseason games have devolved significantly in recent years.
In the era of four preseason games, the third contest typically mattered the most because the unwritten rule was to play more starters in this game than in any other.
Things have changed since then, and starters play less than ever in preseason these days. (Yet many NFL teams still charge full price, which is an insane concept we could explore at another time.)
LaFleur told the media he didn’t play the starters in the 27-2 loss at Denver because those same starters are expected to see a lot of action in the joint practice against the Ravens this upcoming week.
If that’s the case, we may not see much of the starting lineup in the game on Saturday. Of course, LaFleur has a couple of different ideas about what he wants to do, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
