The Opening Drive, 8/15: Preseason Preview by Position Group

Taking a look at what to expect from each position group as a whole in tonight's game.

After a wild offseason with more twists and turns than an acclaimed piece of Russian literature (I’ve ready plenty of Russian literature, trust me), Baltimore Ravens football is officially back on our television screens tonight. In some form or fashion, that is.

Preseason football is what I would call “for the sickos,” a product not heavy on entertainment value or important storylines, but rather a pure love of the grind - not just the grind that is the sport of football, but the grind that it takes to try and make it as a professional athlete in general. Dreams are made and broken in these strange, simulacra of NFL football that populates our TVs at odd times throughout August, and that’s something worth watching in my humble opinion.

For this Ravens team, there’s plenty of open competition on the roster to make things spicy. So rather than provide a preview of the game overall, or single out a few storylines to track, I figured I’d focus on one thing I’d like to see from each position group on this team - each of which has been duking it out in practice for the last few weeks, and some of which don’t have a settled starter yet.

This game (or any of the others) may not prove to be the deciding factor in said positional battles, but getting off to a solid start certainly won’t hurt anyone. So without further ado, let’s get into just what a solid start would entail:

Quarterback

We already know Lamar Jackson won’t be suiting it up in this game, and that the share of snaps will be split between some combination of Tyler Huntley, new signing Austin Reed, and Joe Fagnano. I’d like to see two things from this group: a clean, injury-free start from Huntley, and something to think about from the other two guys.

We know what the Ravens have in “Snoop” at this point, and after some of his heroics from last year (and the two year contract extension they earned him in March), we can safely pencil him in as the backup quarterback this season. Beyond him, it becomes a question of, do the Ravens roster three quarterbacks? Reed is fresh off the street after a run in the UFL, and Fagnano is the relatively unknown rookie who’s just hoping to make the roster; I’d like to see one of the two (or both) of them make a case for why they should be on this roster in Week 1.