xwalker
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This would certainly improve the team’s level of play going in to the first couple of games. The offense as a whole needs to improve so that they don’t struggle to pass for 200 yards a game anymore.
Yes, and they have time to rest between the pre-season and regular season.
Last Pre-season Game: Thursday Aug 29
First Reg-season Game: Sunday September 8
They can still rest any starters that have minor injury issues that wouldn't keep them out of a regular season game, but all of the starters that are near 100% should play that entire final pre-season game.
The only downside I see as compared to playing the starters in the 2nd to last pre-season game is that they wouldn't have that last game to evaluate fringe players that they have to decide to cut or keep; however, I think the vast majority of those decisions are already known at that point.
The trade-off is that I wouldn't give the starters as many practice reps early in training camp. Guys like Tyron Smith just need whatever is the minimum amount of practice reps to get them into "football" shape.