No quarterback passed for more yards or touchdowns during the 2024 NFL season than Cincinnati Bengals superstar quarterback Joe Burrow. It made what Burrow did to begin the 2025 season all the more remarkable Thursday night: He actually played in a preseason exhibition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we got 15 reps tonight, so we\u2019re 15 reps better,\u201d Burrow said after Cincinnati\u2019s preseason-opening loss to Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
That equaled how many preseason snaps Burrow had played in his previous five NFL seasons combined, according to Pro Football Focus<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Bengals elected to play multiple starters Thursday partly because they were healthy, and partly out of hope. After starting 0-2 in five of its last six seasons, the team seemed to agree with criticism that trying to preserve its roster\u2019s preseason health had stunted its readiness for the regular season.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t find their rhythm until like Week 5 of 6,\u201d former Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason said last month<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Yet the Bengals\u2019 shift in preseason philosophy isn\u2019t the norm in a league where the preseason is getting started, but many of the biggest names will likely not. Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, the reigning MVP, will not play in Saturday\u2019s preseason opener against the New York Giants. Washington\u2019s Jayden Daniels, last season\u2019s NFL Rookie of the Year, was among multiple starters who didn\u2019t take the field in Thursday\u2019s preseason opener in New England. Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson hasn\u2019t played a preseason snap in four years.<\/p>\n If key, highly valued players do appear in the preseason, it\u2019s often during the last possible game, and then even not for long as teams largely believe the chance to build rhythm isn\u2019t great enough to outweigh the risk of injury.<\/p>\n Inside the league, blame or praise for the trend of sharply reducing or outright eliminating starters\u2019 preseason workloads is often attributed to Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay, who began holding out his best players entirely during the preseason in his second season in Los Angeles in 2018, even though the Rams were starting a young quarterback.<\/p>\n Los Angeles went on to advance to the Super Bowl, and whether the preseason rest for key players was connected at all to its play during the regular season, it was enough in a copycat league \u2014 where new ideas do not stay proprietary for long \u2014 for others to adopt the same approach.<\/p>\n During the 2024 preseason, 14 teams didn\u2019t play their presumed starter for a single snap during the first two weeks of the preseason \u2014 up from just one team in 2014, according to a comparison<\/a> done last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel confident and comfortable with the approach we\u2019re taking and we understand that it might not be for everybody,\u201d McVay said in 2019.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cEverybody\u201d included those who contend that building rhythm during the preseason is worth the risk of injury.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, to have a sharp knife, I have to really sharpen it,\u201d former Rams quarterback Vince Ferragamo told the Los Angeles Times<\/a> in 2018. \u201cSometimes what you do in practice and then play in a game is a whole different aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n McVay and the Rams might not have put their top players on ice during preseason games if not for the rise of another trend happening at the same time, as franchises increasingly began hosting \u201cjoint practices.\u201d Their appeal stemmed from the opportunity for quality repetitions but in a more controlled scrimmage than a game. Although a starting defense could face off against its opponent\u2019s starting offense in a joint practice, tackling was often limited and hitting quarterbacks was effectively outlawed.<\/p>\n Before making his preseason debut last season, No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams said he believed preseason \u201creps are always paramount for anybody like myself: a young rookie, second-year guy, [or] third-year guy.\u201d Yet this year, as a second-year guy playing under a new head coach in Chicago, the quarterback will not play in the Bears\u2019 preseason opener. The team instead wanted to prioritize his playing time during joint practices with Miami.<\/p>\n