Each week through the 2019 season, former NFL defensive back and current BBC analyst Jason Bell will highlight five things to look out for that weekend.
Here are J-Bell's thoughts heading into the first weekend of regular season action.
The first one is definitely quarterbacks in general and the reason I say that is because there is a huge amount of talent in these young guys. They have the ability to turn the corner and become great. We know if you have great quarterbacks, you have great teams - if you have one of those quarterbacks, you have the chance to be a playoff team. A guy like Sam Darnold is ready to explode and if he does, what do the New York Jets become? You see that theme throughout the league with the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott is right there. You can add in Baker Mayfield. Somebody has to become the guy in that bunch for the forseeable future and I'm interested to see how that shakes out.
Patrick Mahomes didn't throw a touchdown pass when he played Jacksonville last year and those two corners for the Jags in Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Buoye are the best duo in the league, for me. When you have two guys like that, they can step up to the plate. And the other significant factor will be the weather in Jacksonville and that is hot. If you've not been through training camp in that heat and humidity, it's hard to play. A lot of teams can play in cold weather and get warm. It's hard to cool down and that slows fast guys down. All that team speed? If you're sucking air and you're dehydrated, you slow down and that helps Jacksonville. Let's see how that plays out.
Obviously, the Browns have controlled the offseason narrative. Baker Mayfield, OBJ... all of the star power. But the big thing I want to see with the Browns when they take on Tennessee is what happens along that questionable offensive line? Mayfield has the ability to get rid of the ball quickly and he does a really good job with that but these guys want to get the ball downfield and he is going to be pressured to hold the ball a little longer to make those big plays. I want to see if this offensive line can man up and build a wall around Baker Mayfield to protect him. When you play against the Titans, they give you more looks than any other team on defense. Mike Vrabel was an old Patriots guy and it's all about flexibility on defense. They're going to throw a ton of different looks, that puts pressure on the offensive line and that's going to be the battle. If there is a weakness up front for the Browns, teams are going to expose that. How do you stop an explosive offense? Put the quarterback on his back. We've got to see how the Browns manage that because they know that's their weak spot and everybody in the league knows that.
With the Cowboys at home against the New York Giants in Week 1, everyone is going to want to see that toy. Even though he is not a new toy, he is the expensive toy. For Zeke, those soft tissue injuries can happen when you just get out there and get thrown on the field. Maybe the Cowboys take care of Zeke but then what happens if they're losing? Then what do they do? They cannot lose that game and go behind in the division. Let's see what kind of load he can handle and maybe he turns out to be superhuman. It's not about the carries, it's more about him being out there, moving around and coming out healthy. I want him on the field - I want him picking up blocks, I want him catching balls out of the backfield. I don't necessarily want him getting a high volume of runs between the tackles with guys hitting him from multiple directions. He can be more elusive in open space and get out of bounds. Taking all those hits is something you get used to as the season progresses. This is a very important game.
Antonio Brown has a new helmet so maybe we will have a new guy! In all seriousness, this game is very important for a couple of other reasons. We've got to see what the Broncos are on defense under Vic Fangio. And how does he cope calling the defense from the sideline because he has sat in the booth his entire career? He will have a guy up top whose eye he trusts. How will he see the game from down on the field? For the Raiders, can you control this chaos of a team as the game is going on? Who knows... maybe it all works out? Off the field, it's the same old Raiders but, on the field, maybe this formula works. We're going to see. As things go right or wrong, will these Raiders collectively figure it out between the white lines and during the game? We're about to find out.
