That’s right. There are only two preseason games this week. That’s because every team plays on the same day in Week 4. It’s the last Thursday before the regular season kick-off game. Don’t be disappointed. Week 4 is largely useless when it comes to figuring out what a fan’s favorite team will look like when the regular season beings. Starters won’t play. If a veteran player is playing this week, that means they are in danger of getting cut from the roster. Let’s get to the games that are on television. Here’s the full slate. Per usual, everyone will have in-market games on local stations and everyone will be able to watch the remaining national preseason games. All times are Eastern Time Zone, and the home team is listed second.
Pittsburgh Steelers v. Carolina Panthers
7:00 p.m. NFL Network
Yes, that’s Cam Newton in the photo above, but he definitely will not be playing in the final preseason game that the Panthers play in 2019. We will also not see Ben Roethlisberger or Juju Smith-Schuster. We won’t see Christian McCaffrey, and probably most of the Panthers wide receiving corps. Luke Keuchly is definitely out of the game.
We could see a lot of Will Grier and we can get an idea of whether he is good enough to be Newton’s backup. Right now, that position belongs to Kyle Allen. We will see a quarterback battle come to what should be its close with Mason Rudolph and Josh Dobbs if Rudolph can prove he is the most capable backup to Big Ben.
Both teams should rest their first-stringers on defense as much as possible.
Los Angeles Chargers v. San Francisco 49ers
10:00 p.m. NFL Network
Jimmy Garoppolo will not play and maybe that’s a good thing. The Chargers have been on a ton of nationally televised preseason games. They should be hoping no one gets hurt since they are obviously cursed with preseason injuries.
The real question could be whether Easton Stick can somehow beat out Cardale Jones for the third quarterback spot on the roster — if the Chargers decide to keep a third quarterback spot on the roster.
The only Niners drama will be when it comes to monitoring Dante Pettis. There’s been a lot of rumblings about his performance in the preseason and those rumblings haven’t been great.
