NFL Preseason 2017: Marquee Games and Ticket Info for Week 2 Schedule

As the start of the NFL preseason's second week showed, it's prime time for guys like Ryan Mallett and Nathan Peterman to headline the action. 

But only on the surface, of course. Marks in the win or loss column don't end up mattering, and a guy blowing up the box score only matters so much when he's facing vanilla defenses and perhaps not even having to deal with first-string players. 

Where the preseason is a big deal for teams comes down to roster battles at key positions and a chance to shape the best possible depth chart. The preseason might be too long in the eyes of some, but it doubles as a chance for players to get live game action before the real thing and shake off the rust. 

For fans? It's nice to have football back on the television at all. Like the entertaining first week, those in charge of the schedule know what they were doing and have crafted a week of action said fans won't want to miss. 

NFL Preseason Week 2

Friday, August 18

Minnesota at Seattle, 10 p.m. ET, NFL Network

Saturday, August 19

Carolina at Tennessee, 3 p.m. ET, NFL Network

Kansas City at Cincinnati, 7 p.m. ET 

Indianapolis at Dallas, 7 p.m. ET, NFL Network

N.Y. Jets at Detroit, 7:30 p.m. ET 

Green Bay at Washington, 7:30 p.m. ET

New England at Houston, 8 p.m. ET 

Denver at San Francisco, 10 p.m. ET, NFL Network

L.A. Rams at Oakland, 10 p.m. ET 

Chicago at Arizona, 10 p.m. ET

Sunday, August 20

Atlanta at Pittsburgh, 4 p.m. ET, NFL Network

New Orleans at L.A. Chargers, 8 p.m. ET, NFL Network

Monday, August 21

N.Y. Giants at Cleveland, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN 

Full schedule available at ESPN.com, live streaming at NFL.com. Tickets available at StubHub.com.

Minnesota at Seattle

On paper, this is an encounter between a pair of teams fancying themselves as NFC playoff contenders. 

The Minnesota Vikings collapsed down the stretch a year ago, but Sam Bradford completed north of 70 percent of his passes and has some new pieces along the offensive line in front of him and a rookie running back by the name of Dalvin Cook. 

As Rotoworld's Evan Silva noted, the exciting rookie back handled a big chunk of the work in a Week 1, 17-10 win against the Buffalo Bills: 

The Seattle Seahawks aren't exactly a mystery, not after clubbing the Los Angeles Chargers 48-17 a week ago. Even the dominant showing didn't answer the most important questions surrounding the would-be contender, though, as head coach Pete Carroll and his staff still need to figure out who starts across from Richard Sherman and whether Eddie Lacy can provide the necessary jolt to the backfield. 

"[Lacy] didn't play but the first five games last year, so it's been a long time," Carroll said, according to ESPN.com' Sheil Kapadia. "He needs to play football and come back. He did a nice job last week. He had a very good week of work. So to get him to come back this week was ... I think it's a real sign that he's back and going."

This would be a physical encounter during the regular season, and fans can expect to see much of the same in an exhibition as two teams try to figure things out in the trenches and get running games going. Meaning, it's quite fitting it stands as the only Friday contest. 

Denver at San Francisco

Technically speaking, the Denver Broncos and San Franciso 49ers are two very different teams when it comes to their ability to compete in 2017.  

It's almost hard to tell given the buzz around both teams, though, as the Broncos seem mired in a quarterback competition between Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch. Neither guy threw a touchdown pass in a 24-17 win against the Chicago Bears a week ago, and the rumblings for most of the offseason haven't been overly encouraging. 

So much so, in fact, Sandy Clough of 104.3 The Fan in Denver reported the Broncos might have an interest in trading for Cincinnati Bengals backup quarterback AJ McCarron, a notion general manager John Elway himself took to Twitter to shut down. 

Chatter out of San Francisco has been more encouraging, as the team has managed to find guys they like under center with Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley and generally been praised as one of the draft's biggest winners after landing defenders like Solomon Thomas and Reuben Foster.

Thomas, as Pro Football Focus noted, has been a force already: 

Denver, obviously, still has the better defense thanks to names like Von Miller and Chris Harris. But the perplexing quarterback question still without an answer makes this one of the week's notable games. 

With one contender searching for a solution, the 49ers could look to make a statement. 

N.Y. Giants at Cleveland

Monday's contest between the New York Giants and Cleveland Browns doesn't seem like much.

But those Giants enter 2017 with gaudy expectations slapped on their shoulders after going from a pair of 6-10 campaigns to last year's 11-win showing. Now a 36-year-old Eli Manning once again faces questions as to how much longer he can play at a high level, to which he told ESPN.com's Ian O'Connor he still has years left in the tank. 

"That's the way the body feels. ... Again with football, you don't know what's going to be the difference, how you're going to feel next year. And right now I still have the same enthusiasm and I'm working hard and I like doing the training and watching film and doing everything ... I have to do to prepare for it. So I don't see it slowing down. I think until the time comes or that changes, I'm going to keep going as hard as I can," Manning said. 

It's good news for the Giants, a team that brought in notables such as veteran wideout Brandon Marshall and rookie tight end Evan Engram. The Browns, too, should provide stiffer-than-expected competition if they give their starters more snaps than usual. 

Those Browns took down the New Orleans Saints 20-14 in the first week of the preseason and more importantly than anything got a strong performance from Myles Garrett, who hasn't been a stranger to praise as of late. 

"I've never had a chance to draft the first overall pick ever, but I've had some pretty high draft picks,'' Cleveland defensive coordinator Gregg Williams said, according to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. "He's the one that has jumped out and fit in faster than any of the other ones, and I have had some really, really good ones. The reason that he moved up the depth chart was because of him and his teammates, not because of my evaluation.''

The Browns also have quite the interesting competition at quarterback, where the veteran Brock Osweiler will look to hold off rookie DeShone Kizer, though easier said than done with Kizer going 11-of-18 with a touchdown against the Saints. 

With premier chips on both sides of the football in Cleveland, once again, those in charge of the schedule have flexed here with a strong matchup. 

Stats courtesy of NFL.com.