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:
WINNERS
Trey Lance
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.
Thursday’s performance won’t necessarily vault him past Taylor Heinicke to be Justin Herbert’s primary backup for the Bolts. But Lance is playing for a coach, Jim Harbaugh, who’s a former quarterback with a reputation for maximizing his passers. It was just 13 years ago that Harbaugh rolled with little-known dual-threat QB Colin Kaepernick over former No. 1 pick Alex Smith, a decision that propelled the 49ers all the way to Super Bowl 47. Just sayin’.
Said Harbaugh after Thursday’s win: ‘Big night for Trey. Just played calm, cool, collected, ran the operation, threw the ball really well.’
Nikko Reed
The undrafted Chargers rookie corner carried his training camp momentum over into his professional debut, picking off a pass and returning it 60 yards to set up LA’s second first-quarter touchdown. And make no mistake, there are jobs and reps to be won in this secondary.
Pro Football Hall of Fame
Earlier on Thursday, the HOF announced that KeyBank will sponsor a new event center, its construction scheduled to begin later this fall. The Hall hopes the venue, which will have nearly 20,000 square feet of space, will be open in time for the induction of the 2027 class of Hall of Famers. Heat and rainy weather have been known to regularly disrupt enshrinement ceremonies in recent years, and this seems like the solution.
Pro Football Hall of Fame … Game
Speaking of disruption, a game that’s been plagued and/or canceled by inclement weather, poor field conditions, COVID-19 and even the 2011 lockout in recent years was functionally played without a hitch. For a change.
Nyheim Miller-Hines
He last played in the NFL in 2022, suffering a torn ACL during a jet ski accident in the summer of 2023. Now trying to make the Chargers’ roster, Miller-Hines’ versatility fueled a positive first step Thursday. He had 79 all-purpose yards on 11 touches, getting eight carries and catching a pass while returning one punt and one kickoff.
Grant Stuard
A fifth-year reserve linebacker for the Lions, he was a bright spot for Detroit’s defense, making four tackles − including a sack and another for a loss. With Malcolm Rodriguez still recovering from a torn ACL, Stuard could create an opportunity to get himself on the field this season when Detroit loads the box.
LOSERS
Grant Stuard
Lions coach Dan Campbell allowed Stuard to return the night’s opening kickoff, which he advanced 26 yards … before fumbling. The Chargers were in the end zone five plays later. There’s a reason linebackers don’t return kickoffs, Coach … though, to Stuard’s credit, he brought the next one back 36 yards. But overall, a tough outing for Detroit’s special teams, Jakobie Keeney-James also muffing a punt on a night when the Lions finished with five turnovers.
Jared Goff’s backups
Neither Kyle Allen, who started behind center for Detroit, nor Hendon Hooker distinguished themselves while trying to earn the nod to back up Goff, the Lions’ QB1, this year. Heading into his seventh season, Allen’s experience should serve him well. And yet he served up a pair of bad interceptions instead − and both were poor decisions, not the functions of playing with bottom-of-the-roster players.
And Hooker, a third-round pick two years ago who effectively took a medical redshirt as a rookie, still needs to show he’s ready for a bigger role. He was also pilfered, though his INT can be fairly attributed to rookie WR Dominic Lovett, who had the ball taken away from him downfield.
Detroit Lions
The HOF Game typically pits two teams sending at least one former star apiece into the Hall, and longtime Bolts TE Antonio Gates will be enshrined Saturday as will San Diego native Eric Allen. But not only did no Lions go in this year, two players who victimized them for years – former Green Bay Packers WR Sterling Sharpe and former Minnesota Vikings DE Jared Allen – will be honored. Sorry, Lions fans, you’ll have to take pride in the fact that Gates hails from Motown.