Arizona Cardinals at Las Vegas Raiders

Jacoby Brissett is locked in as Arizona's starter, but LaFleur has already capped his workload at one or two possessions, which hands the game over fast to rookie Carson Beck — the same passer who completed 15 of 19 for 188 yards and a touchdown with no picks in the Hall of Fame Game loss to Carolina. Las Vegas is running it the other direction: Kubiak is coaching his first game as a head coach anywhere, and he's committing real snaps to Kirk Cousins before turning it over to No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza, who's set for extended run of his own.

Marvin Harrison Jr. is fully healthy and has been making plays in camp, while James Conner is still working back in gradually. On the other side, Ashton Jeanty is part of the Raiders' group expected to play, and Brock Bowers and Tre Tucker give Mendoza and Cousins a real receiving corps to throw to even in a preseason opener. Neither offense is hiding much — this is closer to an actual evaluation than the usual preseason paint-by-numbers.

None of that changes the stakes: this is preseason football, and the box score means almost nothing for either team's real season. What it does mean something for is snap counts, depth charts, and whether either new coaching staff's system looks like anything at all on tape.

Arizona closed last season having lost 5 straight, a stretch that got Jonathan Gannon fired and LaFleur hired. Las Vegas at least salvaged the finale, having won their last game to close the book on their own coaching change. Neither record matters for Thursday, but it's the backdrop for why both franchises are starting over.

Keep an eye on the roster bubble, too — names like Malik Benson and Jeremiyah Love are playing for depth-chart spots that get decided in exactly these kinds of games, even if nobody watching at home notices until final cuts.

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