Mr. Preseason: Sage Rosenfels

“In the preseason, a lot of times the defenses aren’t as complex,” Rosenfels said. “They don’t blitz quite as much, and the coverages are sometimes a little bit more simple, particularly in the second half of these [games].

“But I’ll tell you what, when you’re standing in the pocket in the fourth quarter of a preseason game, you might have a guy who’s 6-foot-5, 265 [pounds] sacking you. That feels the same as Dwight Freeney sacking you. It’s still chaos in the pocket; it’s still an extremely violent game.”

In an era when the NFL is considering phasing out the preseason and teams are playing fewer starters than ever, exhibition games might seem like they matter less and less. But for players on the fringe, they still represent a major opportunity to put extra information about their skills in the hands of coaches and general managers.

“I think [teams] take everything into account,” Rosenfels said. “They’re taking in practice. They’re taking in how guys have progressed or not progressed. What [other options are] out there. And obviously the preseason games, too. The nice thing for me was, I always thought I was a better ‘gamer’ than a practice guy. It’s hard to consistently practice well all the time, but I always played better once I got in those preseason games.”

And regardless of whether a player ends up making one particular team’s final roster, the preseason represents a chance to audition in front of the entire league as a whole.

“Preseason games are the time that you add to your resume for all 32 NFL teams,” Rosenfels said. “They’ll tell you early on, you don’t really play for one team — you play for 32. You’re really playing for a job in the NFL. And there’s a scout on every team watching every preseason game. What you put on film there is what other teams think of you, because they don’t see all the practice days in the offseason and things like that.”