Any game is important to me. At Boston College, when I went out for the spring games, I wanted to win. Maybe it is more important than other preseason games. It's just that everyone is expecting a lot from me in my first week of professional football. I want to confirm my expectations.
I love preseason games. They are fun to me because you get to go out there with guys that are on the NFL field for the first time and playing against guys who are going to be on the field for the first time.
Preseason is just a way to screw fans out of money.
To me, the preseason is the most over-analyzed 10 plays or whatever it is - ever.
Not only do you have 16 regular-season games, you also have four preseason games. Then if you make the playoffs, you can have four more games before you get to the Super Bowl. So you can already have 24 games without the 18-game season. And 24 games takes a real toll on somebody's body.
Philly was a great opportunity because I met Pat Shurmur. I was very grateful for that. Unfortunately I wish I had more football memories there. I didn't play in any regular-season games, which sucks because I wanted to play.
The preseason games are always weird because you know you're not going to play a ton, but you have to get ready like it's a regular-season game. There can be pressure to go out there and do well.
You never really know about a quarterback until he plays in a real game.
The whole goal was to get an opportunity to go somewhere for OTAs because OTAs in this league are extremely important, especially for undrafted guys and guys who are on the bubble. You don't get a lot of opportunities in preseason games and training camp, so OTAs are huge.
In the NFL, there's never really that moment where you're like, Hey, I made the team. Or: Hey, you made the practice squad. You just kind of show up the next day and go to work. Nobody really says anything. You just kind of go to work.
You want to play a whole game, but in the preseason you've got to be smart.
Thank you... preseason football, for having all the excitement, commercials, and time-outs of the regular season, but with none of the mattering. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Let's not have a postseason tournament. Let's have a preseason tournament where you're guaranteed three games: we go somewhere, and all the fans come in, and we celebrate our league. We'll have great games to start the year, and we'll do it prior to the year.
I used to struggle mentally in these preseason games because you know you're not going to be in there long.
