NFL football is back. Sort of. Sort of NFL football.
Regardless, the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game was the first time any of the league’s teams had met between the lines since Super Bowl 59 – and, sadly, Thursday night’s contest was somehow exponentially less suspenseful than the Philadelphia Eagles’ one-night dismantling of the Kansas City Chiefs’ dynasty in February.
The Los Angeles Chargers' 34-7 shellacking of the Detroit Lions in Canton, Ohio, didn’t feature many players likely to contribute much to those teams this season. But hey, let’s celebrate the sorta kinda return of NFL football anyway with a few of the winners and losers now that the league’s preseason is officially underway:
The high point of his NFL career was being the No. 3 overall pick of the 2021 draft by the San Francisco 49ers. Since then, Lance has been held back by injury, inexperience and lack of opportunity – Brock Purdy taking advantage of his absence with the Niners before Lance sat behind Dak Prescott for two years with the Dallas Cowboys.
Balling out in a preseason game won’t erase years of frustration for Lance, but he flashed the talent commensurate with a man taken so high in the draft – ripping the ball downfield, making good decisions and showing off his mobility. And, yes, he was playing against fellow backups, but the poise, confidence and joy was unmistakable as Lance finished 13-for-20 for 120 yards and two touchdowns through the air.
