HALL OF FAME GAME: NEW YORK JETS VS CLEVELAND BROWNS

BY ADAM GREENE

I hope you are sitting down. Our long national nightmare, placated only by spring and summer football and no other sport, is finally over. Yes, the NFL is making its triumphant return to our pathetic lives, opening with the annual Hall of Fame preseason game at Tom Benson Stadium in Canton, Ohio.

This year, we will get to watch the scrub version of the New York Jets take on the scrub version of the Cleveland Browns. It just so happens that the scrub version of the Jets might look a lot like the actual, purposely fielded version of that team they put onto the field last year. What a difference a single offseason can make.

NEW YORK JETS VS CLEVELAND BROWNS (+2, O/U: 34)

Location: Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, Canton, Ohio

Broadcast: NBC

Kickoff: Thursday, Aug, 3, 8 p.m. EST

NEW YORK JETS (0-0)

There’s plenty of excitement surrounding the 2023 version of the New York Jets and rightly so. The arrival of Aaron Rodgers has changed this team’s fortunes and nothing will exemplify that change more than seeing Zach Wilson take the field as New York’s starting quarterback in this game. Because I can’t see any way head coach Robert Saleh lets Rodgers take a single snap in the preseason. If you recall, Wilson himself got injured last preseason and missed the first few games of 2022. With Breece Hall coming off an injury and Garrett Wilson a little banged up, don’t expect to see them either. So this will be Wilson handing off to Michael Carter in the first half and tossing off-target passes to Mecole Hardman, Jr. and Xavier Gibson.

CLEVELAND BROWNS (0-0)

Last season the Browns had to play their starter, Deshaun Watson, in the preseason because he was due to sit out the first 11 regular season games. That’s not the case this season and all of Cleveland’s postseason hopes, and there are plenty, rest on Watson’s super tight, ropey, and unrelaxed shoulders. As such, we should see Joshua Dobbs, the greatest future astronaut to ever throw a football, taking the first-half snaps, followed by Kellen Mond and rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who will cost Mond his job before the season kicks off. I’d suspect that Nick Chubb, Amari Cooper, David Njoku, and Myles Garrett won’t even dress. But, if you’re at the game, you can probably still get an autograph. They’ll have plenty of time to kill.

THE PICK

The key to picking preseason games usually comes down to the quality of the backup quarterbacks and how mobile that guy is, considering he won’t be playing behind the starting offensive line. Wilson is a mobile guy and has plenty of physical tools, but Dobbs is significantly smarter and, probably, just better. Wilson was a bad pick and a draft bust because of where he was selected. If he’d been picked in the third or fourth, where he should have been, no one would have a bad word to say about the kid. Except maybe the adult children of all the cougars he beds regularly. I don’t buy this spread and think Cleveland will win outright. Browns 20, Jets 13

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter @TheFirstMan.

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