I probably should have realized last week was the first of what aligns to be a nonstop firehose of Thursday night live football games through the end of the year. The fact that the NFL pre-season launched in earnest last night with no less than six statistically meaningless but nonetheless consequential exhibitions underscored that reality check all the more dramatically. So I guess it’s time that I dedicated this space accordingly to my–and with the possible exception of one poor distracted Cubs-obsessed person–and just about anyone else’s favorite sport. For the balance of 2026, we will dedicate our Fridays going Forward to what transpired the previous night and what we think likes ahead for the weekend ahead. Down the line, we might even try and play Swami, since our hairline and Medicare card place us closer to Chris Berman than ever before. But not even I’m arrogant or crazy enough to attempt to pull that off in full week one of the pre-season.
I will share that there was more than a smattering of anticipation for what went down in Allegiant Stadium last night. While Carson Beck chose to sit out what could have been a showcase showdown after he thrilled the Canton crowd with his own debut last week , the guy who actually won all the hardware last fall made a fairly decent professional debut of his own last night, as THE ATHLETIC’s Chris Branch reported this morning:
There was plenty of meaning in Las Vegas last night, though, as No. 1 draft pick Fernando Mendoza saw his first NFL action…Mendoza threw a touchdown later in the game and generally looked sharp. It’s easy to wonder when he starts this year, with all apologies to Kirk Cousins, who looked great in his one drive last night.
And as his colleague Sam Warren underscored:
Mendoza finished 10-for-16 passing for 97 yards against the Arizona Cardinals…The last pass Mendoza threw in the first half was his lone touchdown of the night, a slant to second-year receiver Jack Bech on third-and-goal.
But even with Beck on the sidelines the Cardinals did provide a rookie debut story last night which allowed BLEACHER REPORT’s Gary Davenport to lay effusive praise on perhaps the top running back breakout you should have on your fantasy draft board, ex-Ohio Stater Jeremiyah Love:
Both highly-drafted rookies in this game played well…(b)ut Love gets the nod here after turning 14 total touches into 71 yards and a couple of impressive plays. You can question the wisdom of giving Love 14 touches in a meaningless contest, but based on what we saw Thursday when games do start to count? Feed that young man. Early and often.
Meanwhile, a name you might not yet have had on your bingo card made enough of a splash for PRO FOOTBALL FOCUS’ Nathan Jahnke to lead his piece with:
Germie Bernard makes his case to start: The second-round rookie for the Pittsburgh Steelers led the Steelers’ offense throughout the first half, primarily making plays out of the slot in a position that D.K. Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr. don’t typically occupy…Bernard was the Steelers’ primary source of offense throughout the first half.
D.K. Metcalf has been the top Steelers wide receiver since last season, while Pittsburgh traded for Michael Pittman Jr. to be the second option. When Bernard was drafted in the second round, it was generally expected he would win the third spot. Throughout training camp, third year receiver Roman Wilson has been playing ahead of Bernard.
Metcalf and Pittman have been missing practices due to injuries and didn’t play in this game. This means we didn’t find out which of Wilson and Bernard are currently ahead, as they were the two primary receivers. One hint that Bernard might be further in the pecking order is that he played more than twice as many snaps as Wilson out of the slot. Both Metcalf and Pittman have spent their careers as outside receivers, so it’s likely that Bernard or Wilson will play primarily out of the slot this season.
Bernard caught four passes for 51 yards, while Wilson only caught one pass for 7 yards, although they were catching passes from backup quarterbacks instead of Aaron Rodgers. The fact that both receivers played the entire first half after several starters exited the game suggests there is no clear winner at this point.
It’s names and stories like these that make August football worth watching and booknoting at all. With the Steelers’ propesenity for injuries indeed we might not see the name Bernard on any musing for months, if at all. But check in around Thanksgiving and assuming they are still in the hunt in an otherwise tumultuous AFC Central it might be resurrected. If one needed any reminder of how that all could change in a mere three months we got a sobering reminder of that by the fact that the Cincinnati Bengals felt it was necessary to trot their recovering QB1 out on pre-season night one, which the byline-shy AROUND THE NFL staff at the eponymous dot.com covered:
The under-center play-action game the Bengals offense wanted to employ more in 2026 struggled early in training camp. The first-team crew smoothed out that operation in the first preseason game. Joe Burrow’s first pass was a play-action strike from under center to Ja’Marr Chase for 16 yards. Over two drives, Burrow was under center on seven of 13 snaps, including going 2-of-2 passing for 25 yards. Cincy is hoping to employ more under-center usage, particularly in the play-action game, to make the offense more diverse this season. Given how the adjustment was going early in camp, it’s good to see positive results in the preseason. The negative: Burrow was smoked twice, taking a sack on the opening drive and being hit hard after left tackle Orlando Brown allowed a quick pressure.
Burrow made it through his first Thursday of the season unscathed and optimistic. Hopefully we all made it through what turned out to be our second in similar fashion.
Courage…