Don't tell Steve Belichick the fourth preseason game doesn't matter

You don't hear too many people get excited about the fourth preseason game.

In many ways the preseason finale is the Rodney Dangerfield of NFL action. It gets dismissed and overlooked by most media and fans.

But in many other ways, that's really not fair. Just because Tom Brady and the most-notable Patriots rarely see action in the fourth contest of the summer, the cut-throat reality of regular season action little more than a week away, doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention.

Bill Belichick has preached for years that every game is important to the people involved in it.

Belichick's son, New England safeties coach Steve Belichick, had an even stronger response to the idea that the fourth preseason game is meaningless.

"That's just disrespectful to the game," the younger Belichick said this week. "People aren't going out there to go half-speed and stuff like that. We're going out there to play hard and win and coach hard and do the right thing. I can't relate to that. I don't know."

While no job is likely won or lost based solely upon action in the fourth preseason game, it is another line on the player's summer scouting report. And even if things don't work out on a current team, there are 31 other employers with potentially different needs and eyes on adding talent.

Before he was a trusted veteran member of the New England secondary, Jonathan Jones was an undrafted rookie looking to earn his way into the NFL. So he knows the importance of the seemingly unimportant fourth preseason game.

"Every time you get an opportunity to play you have to present your best. Everyone is watching. All 32 teams watch every preseason game. So it's an interview for you and you have to treat it like that," Jones said. "I think everybody understands what's at stake. I mean everybody is trying to make the team and everybody is putting out their best effort. So any time you get a chance to put on a uniform and step out there it's an interview."

Annual Reminder: Guys playing in 4th preseason game tonight are likely the best football players EVER from their hometown.For most, tonight is last time they will ever put a helmet and shoulder pads on & by Saturday they'll realize their lifelong dream/goal did not come true.

Bill Belichick echoed the importance of the preseason, including the fourth preseason game, this week in talking to the Ordway, Merloni & Fauria show on WEEI.

"I think everybody understands if they want to play in the National Football League, getting out and playing in preseason games is an opportunity," Belichick said. "It's either for the team you're playing for, or maybe somebody else will recognize and identify a strong performance. I think everybody is motivated to play well. I like the 90-man roster now because it does give some players an opportunity they wouldn't have had back when the cuts were at 75. Those guys get to close out opportunities and I think we've seen a number of players in the last few years, certainly here, that have come on strong in the preseason and that has helped them make the roster."

The Patriots and Giants close out the 2019 preseason on Thursday night at Gillette Stadium.