{"id":439065,"date":"2026-08-21T04:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T04:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/439065\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T04:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T04:46:12","slug":"2026-nfl-preseason-week-2-game-takeaways-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/439065\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NFL preseason Week 2: Game takeaways, analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"


Week 2 of the2026 NFL preseason<\/a> kicked off Thursday, giving us more insight into position battles and the push to make 53-man rosters before the cut-down deadline Aug. 30. Action kicked off with two games Thursday, and that will be followed by three Friday, 10 on Saturday and the first Sunday night game of the season to wrap things up.<\/p>\n

What are the biggest questions for the teams after each game? What have we learned about how depth charts are shaping up? And what solutions could present themselves based on preseason play in Week 2?<\/p>\n

Our NFL Nation reporters picked out what you need to know about big roster decisions and more coming off Week 2 of the preseason.<\/p>\n

Quick links:<\/p>\n

Full schedule<\/a> | Where to watch<\/a><\/p>\n

Depth charts<\/a>| Sign up to play fantasy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Thursday’s games
\"\"<\/p>\n

Raiders:How much confidence do the Raiders have in their secondary?Las Vegas’ secondary has potential, but will that lead to success in 2026? Second-year cornerback Darien Porter<\/a> is still learning the position after spending most of his college career as a wide receiver. He started 10 games as a rookie, but he has a lot more growing to do. Fourth-round rookie corner Jermod McCoy<\/a> hasn’t played football in more than a year because of a knee injury, so it will take time before he feels like his true self. Fifth-round rookie cornerHezekiah Masses<\/a>is also learning. Second-round safety Treydan Stukes<\/a> has the best chance of making a positive impact as a rookie, but the Raiders are taking his development slowly because they are asking him to play deep safety and nickel.<\/p>\n

The Raiders have struggled in coverage in two preseason games. Cardinals quarterbacks Jacoby Brissett<\/a> and Gardner Minshew II<\/a> combined for 16 straight completions in the first half last week, and Texans backup Davis Mills<\/a> completed 11 of 15 passes for 93 yards in the first half Thursday night. The Raiders’ young secondary could be quite good in a season or two, but asking it to fix last season’s pass-coverage issues immediately might be too tall a task.–Ryan McFadden<\/p>\n

Next game: vs.San Francisco 49ers<\/a>(Aug. 27, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN Unlimited)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Texans:What will Houston’s offensive line eventually look like?Houston’s starting tackles Thursday were Trent Brown<\/a> and Aireontae Ersery<\/a>. First-round pick Keylan Rutledge<\/a> started at left guard instead of center, where he has played for most of training camp, andEvan Brown<\/a> took first-team snaps instead. Ed Ingram<\/a> started at right guard, leaving two free agent signees (right tackle Braden Smith<\/a> and guard Wyatt Teller<\/a>) running with the second unit.<\/p>\n

The Texans signed Smith to a two-year, $20 million deal and Teller to a two-year, $16 million contract, with the expectation that both would start and boost the team’s frequently problematic offensive line. So how will Houston decide which linemen to start Week 1? And do the Texans want $36 million worth of offseason signings on their backup unit?–DJ Bien-Aime<\/p>\n

Next game: atCarolina Panthers<\/a>(Aug. 28, 7 p.m. ET)<\/p>\n

San Francisco 49ers<\/a> at Los Angeles Chargers<\/a>, 10 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Friday’s games<\/p>\n

New York Jets<\/a> at Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>, 7 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

Carolina Panthers<\/a> at Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>, 7:30 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

Green Bay Packers<\/a> at Denver Broncos<\/a>, 9 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

Saturday’s games<\/p>\n

Washington Commanders<\/a> at Detroit Lions<\/a>, noon ET<\/a><\/p>\n

Buffalo Bills<\/a> at Cleveland Browns<\/a>, 1 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

Atlanta Falcons<\/a> at Indianapolis Colts<\/a>, 1 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

Baltimore Ravens<\/a> at Minnesota Vikings<\/a>, 1 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

New Orleans Saints<\/a> at Los Angeles Rams<\/a>, 4 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

New York Giants<\/a> at Miami Dolphins<\/a>, 4 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicago Bears<\/a> at Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>, 7 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> at New England Patriots<\/a>, 7 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> at Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>, 7:30 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

Dallas Cowboys<\/a> at Arizona Cardinals<\/a>, 10 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunday’s game<\/p>\n

Seattle Seahawks<\/a> at Tennessee Titans<\/a>, 8 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Week 2 of the2026 NFL preseason kicked off Thursday, giving us more insight into position battles and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[174174,174173,750,10567,17180,6424,752,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-439065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-174174","tag-2026-nfl-preseason","tag-espn","tag-fantasy-nfl","tag-houston-texans","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}