NFL Odds: Several Stars Won’t Play in Preseason Finales

You won't see Tony Romo tonight. (AP Images)

The NFL’s final week of the preseason is essentially worthless at this point for starters, as most coaches choose to play the guys still fighting for those final roster spots – final cuts come this weekend. Thus starters might play a series at most and some lines are a bit odd – Miami a 1-point favorite on Bodog’s NFL odds at Dallas, for example.

But some coaches choose not to even tempt fate at all and sit their starters completely, so that means you will have to wait to see a few of the NFL’s star quarterbacks until Week 1. For sure out tonight is Minnesota’s Brett Favre, as Brad Childress plans to rest all of his starters. That means plenty of backup Tarvaris Jackson, Sage Rosenfels and rookie Joe Webb.

The Indianapolis Colts are traditionally the worst preseason team in football, having lost 22 of their past 26 exhibition games. And Indy almost never plays its starters in the preseason finale. For example, QB Peyton Manning hasn't played in a preseason finale since 2004, when he directed one series.

"If you look at our history," coach Jim Caldwell said to reporters, "don't expect anything to deviate much from the norm."

Because of injuries, Indy’s projected starting offense has yet to be play one snap together in three preseason games. That has to give hope to Houston in Week 1.

The Bears offense hasn’t looked very good this preseason but quarterback Jay Cutler won’t play in the final tonight at Cleveland. The first-team Chicago offense has just two TDs in 16 drives this preseason. Cutler is 19 of 37 (51.4 percent) for 275 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions. His passer rating was 62.4 and he was sacked 10 times.

The Dallas Cowboys also plan to sit pretty much all their starters, and Tony Romo won’t get on the field. Neither will rookie WR Dez Bryant even though he has been cleared to play from an ankle sprain that caused him to miss all of camp and every preseason game so far. Dallas has an even better reason for sitting its main guys because this is actually its fifth preseason game (as it will be the Bengals’). In four preseason games, Romo completed 26-of-46 passes for 287 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. He had a passer rating of 64.3.

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