NFL Preseason Week 2: What to Watch for in Friday's Action

The NFL preseason can be a tempting judgment period, but it's one that requires advanced context. In the offseason, every player is coached up to tell the media that the coming season will be his best year. It's to the point where it's hard to believe any praise given when microphones are around, as seemingly everyone claims to have improved over the spring and summer.

On the opposite spectrum, there's regular-season footage. As many coaches and scouts like to say, the eye in the sky doesn't lie. Coaches' film has no bias and tells the tale of every athlete's result on every play.

The four-week period before the regular season is a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, there's football being played, which can be evaluated, but any scouting needs to take the situation into consideration.

If a third-string defensive end is blowing up a third-string offensive tackle in the fourth quarter of a preseason game, he's probably not going to develop into an All-Pro pass-rusher. Defensive linemen are rotated heavily at the professional level, which means third-string players might be talented enough to see game-day reps in the fall, while typically only seven to eight offensive linemen make a 53-man roster. That means half of the NFL's "second-string" offensive line won't even make it through cuts.

There's plenty of glitter in the preseason, but separating what is and what isn't gold is the real struggle. There are plenty of battles that will impact the near future for these franchises, but many go unseen by the casual eye. In an attempt to avoid pyrite, we'll break down the matchups and storylines you should watch out for in Friday's two games: Atlanta Falcons vs. New York Jets (7:30 p.m. ET) and Seattle Seahawks vs. Kansas City Chiefs (8 p.m. ET).

Atlanta's New Toys on the Defensive Line

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Vic Beasley (No. 44)

Last season, the Atlanta Falcons essentially played a 4-3 defense with defensive linemen who traditionally would be considered better suited for a 3-4 defense. Instead of flying around fast and aggressive, which 4-3 defensive linemen are asked to do, the Falcons usually made little to no impact with penetration in the running game or pressure in the passing game.

Under new head coach Dan Quinn's leadership, though, the team has changed direction. Bringing in a philosophy that emphasizes athleticism—which he may have picked up as defensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks—Quinn has added new contributors to the line.

The biggest name is Vic Beasley, who was one of the best pass-rushers in college football the last two seasons. He was an All-American twice for the Clemson Tigers and did enough as a pass-rusher to warrant Atlanta picking him with its first selection in the 2015 draft at No. 8 overall.

Another key Falcon is Adrian Clayborn, a former first-round pick who began his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and is trying to bounce the trajectory of his career back up after two major injuries kept him off the field for the majority of the last three seasons.

Both Beasley and Clayborn should contribute as defensive ends, the main pass-rushing position in an even-front defense, which will help Atlanta improve on its 22-sack season in 2014, the second-lowest mark for a defense in the league last year.

If Beasley can bring enough to the table as a pass-rusher while holding up at the point of attack as a run defender, and if Clayborn looks like the 7.5-sack player he was during his rookie year of 2011, the Atlanta defensive line can go from a slow liability to an athletic strength of the roster. Ra'Shede Hageman, a high-upside selection from the 2014 draft class, is another potential star to watch at the defensive tackle position.

Justin Britt Switching Roles

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One of the more surprising draft selections in the 2014 class was Justin Britt, who went in the second round to the Seattle Seahawks. Britt's name wasn't shocking, since he was known in the draft community, but no one predicted he would go off the board as high as the 64th overall pick.

For example, Bleacher Report's Matt Miller didn't rank Britt in his top 100 and listed the Missouri product as his 22nd overall offensive tackle, a lower grade than five bookends who went undrafted. NFL.com's Nolan Nawrocki projected Britt as a sixth- or seventh-round pick in his predraft report, and CBS Sports' Rob Rang slated the former Tiger as a fifth-round athlete.

Rang's comparison of Britt to David Bakhtiari, the starting left tackle of the Green Bay Packers—the franchise where Seattle general manager John Schneider spent 12 years during his career—is interesting. Both Bakhtiari and Britt were considered as hybrid zone-blocking offensive linemen coming out of college; they earned a shot to compete at offensive tackle—the premier position on the offensive line—but had fallback options at either guard or center if they couldn't hack it on the perimeter of the unit.

Early on in Seattle's first preseason game against the Denver Broncos, the tone was set for Britt's sophomore season: He just hadn't improved enough in space.

When looking at his combine profile, his lack of lateral agility manifests in his three-cone time, which ranked in the ninth percentile of offensive tackles, according to Mock Draftable. Due to that attribute, he will always struggle on the edge against more athletic pass-rushers, which occurred over and over in Week 1 of the preseason against Denver's Von Miller, to the point where Pro Football Focus' Steve Palazzolo so nicely captured Britt's struggles in a Vine.

According to Stephen Cohen of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Tom Cable, the Seahawk offensive line coach best known as the former head coach of the Oakland Raiders, has tinkered with Britt's role post-Miller meltdown, kicking him inside to left guard in practice. 

Can Britt reinvent himself as a starting guard?

He might be the key to the interior offensive line of a team in the middle of a stretch of Super Bowl runs. Seattle already lost guard James Carpenter to the New York Jets in free agency and center Max Unger to the New Orleans Saints in the Jimmy Graham trade this past offseason. Britt needs to make the grade at either tackle or guard for the Seahawks to continue their run in the NFC West, but with the lack of film on him at guard, it's hard to say he's a shoo-in to be a quality contributor at the position.

Travis Kelce's Progression

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Travis Kelce (No. 87)

At the University of Cincinnati, tight end Travis Kelce flashed the potential to be a Rob Gronkowski type of dual threat as a pass-catcher and run-blocker. That upside is why his name was called on Day 2 of the draft in 2013. Unfortunately for Kelce, though, his career almost came to a screeching halt before he even had a legitimate shot to progress.

During his rookie season, the former Bearcat only participated in one game before suffering a knee injury that required microfracture surgery. The intense procedure is linked to the likes of NBA stars Greg Oden and Tracy McGrady, who never fully recovered their athleticism after the operation.

Somehow, Kelce entered his 2014 campaign with just as much hop in his step as he had in college. While he didn't start every game, he did manage to record five scores and more than 800 receiving yards for the year. Throughout the offseason, Kansas City Chiefs fans continuously brought up the fact that Alex Smith didn't throw a single touchdown to a wide receiver last season, but they may have skipped over an important variable: Kelce has the best upside as a pass-catcher on the team, more than any of the true wideouts.

Kelce has the chance to vault his name into the Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham tier of tight ends, but in order to achieve that goal, he must head into the 2015 regular season with a full head of steam. The Cleveland area product will need to improve on his two-reception effort against the Arizona Cardinals last week with a flashier game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Just in Case: Ryan Fitzpatrick

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Unless you've been under a rock for the month of August, you've heard about the Jets' quarterback situation. There isn't a tight battle for the starting gig like there is for other franchises in the league—Houston, for example. Instead, a locker-room altercation led to quarterback Geno Smith suffering a broken jaw.

The Jets swiftly released the player who landed the blow on Smith, pass-rusher IK Enemkpali. That didn't solve all of the Jets' issues, though. Heading into the regular season, there's a real possibility that Smith won't be ready for Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns.

Defensively, Todd Bowles' team looks to be elite on paper. Offensively, though, it's a struggle to imagine how the Jets will even put out an average performance in 2015. Despite that, a game manager might just land them a playoff spot as a wild-card team this season.

Last season with the Houston Texans, Ryan Fitzpatrick, the quarterback behind Smith on the New York depth chart, threw for 18 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. That effort allowed him to post his highest quarterback rating for a single season in his NFL career: 95.3.

Against the Detroit Lions in the first week of the preseason, Fitzpatrick only attempted three passes before he was pulled off the field. He notched completions of four and 12 yards on the night, but a sample size of three attempts isn't enough to evaluate.

If for some reason Smith isn't ready to strap on his helmet in early September, it's going to be on the Harvard graduate's shoulders to lead the team. At this point, it's too soon to tell what Fitzpatrick is going to be in Chan Gailey's offense, but with an opportunity to face Atlanta's new-look, hyper-athletic defensive line, the football world might have a much better feel for how Fitzpatrick can contribute to the squad by the end of the weekend.

Frank Clark: Splash or Flash?

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Frank Clark (No. 55)

No one had a better first game in the preseason than Frank Clark. The Seahawks took him in the second round out of the University of Michigan this year. He wasn't able to finish his senior season in Ann Arbor, though, as he was arrested for domestic violence and subsequently kicked off the Wolverines roster.

According to Stephen Cohen of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Seahawks' front office didn't believe Clark committed the crime, which led to the team selecting him with the 63rd overall pick. So far, the choice looks warranted.

Pro Football Focus gave Clark the second-highest grade for a 4-3 defensive end one week into the preseason: a plus-6.9 mark. The site also credited him with six solo tackles, two assisted tackles and five stops, which puts him at the head of his position in all three of those categories. He is miles ahead of anyone with his run grade of plus-5.6; the next best score came from Tampa Bay's Lawrence Sidbury at plus-3.2.

Clark has rare athleticism at a position that largely depends on short-area burst and the ability to bend through contact. He has the makings of someone who can have an impact for a contender, and Clark might even be a dark-horse Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate. A one-game sample won't make or break the former Michigan pass-rusher, but if he can replicate that stellar performance Friday night, it will be hard for Seattle to keep him out of the main rotation.