Football is back (kind of).
The Patriots and Lions will meet in the preseason opener for both teams Thursday night in Detroit, but it seems unlikely the majority of star players will see any time.
It's been reported Tom Brady will not play and it likely will be a lot more.
The two teams had three joint practices this week in Detroit and looking back at how Bill Belichick typically approaches the first preseason game that follows a joint practice week, the majority of impact players do not see the field.
There were no joint practices last summer, but in 2017 the Patriots hosted the Jaguars prior to Week 1 of the preseason. In that game, the Patriots had a whopping 40 players sit out the game, which included almost every starter on both sides of the ball. For context, Jimmy Garoppolo started at quarterback with K.J. Maye, Austin Carr and Tony Washington as his wide receivers. Garoppolo actually played into the third quarter before Jacoby Brissett took over.
The summer before that, the Patriots hosted the Saints for joint sessions before the first preseason game. In that contest, the Patriots had 19 players not play at all and those included basically the entire offense. The defense did see some time, but not much at all. It should be noted the Saints first team offense started, so it likely was a case of both first teams wanted more work following the joint sessions.
Bottom line, Belichick values joint practices more than the games for the starters because of the situations that can be simulated and because of that and the work the team put in already, do not expect to see many starters Thursday night.
