The top 6 position battles to watch in the final week of the NFL preseason

Only one more week before rosters are set. So who’s getting cut?

Don’t expect to see many established starters Thursday night as the NFL preseason comes to a close. Week 4 of the exhibition season is a rest week for the players who’ve got their roster spots on lockdown. Instead, this final 16-game slate will be the last chance for fringe players to convince coaches and executives they deserve a spot on the final 53-man roster this September.

For some teams, that means filling out their last few special teams and bench spots. Others have much more pressing issues at hand. A big performance this week will go a long way toward finding a stable role on a roster and avoid being shunted to the practice squad or, worse, the unemployment line.

Without much of the starting lineup to stand in their way, it’s time for undrafted free agents and nearing-the-end veterans alike to shine.

So who will have the brightest spotlight as the NFL inches its final step toward the games that matter? Here are the position battles and roster decisions that loom largest in Week 4.

Will a top target emerge in Dallas?

The Cowboys overhauled their receiving corps thanks to the retirement of Jason Witten and release of Dez Bryant — the team’s top two targets in 2017. That leaves two standbys, Cole Beasley and Terrance Williams, to ascend to the top of the depth chart, but they’ll have competition.

Dallas was proactive in adding receiving talent this spring, trading for former Rams first-round pick Tavon Austin, signing former Jaguar Allen Hurns, and selecting Colorado State star Michael Gallup in the third round of the draft. All five players will have roles with the team, but the questions remain: who will be the team’s WR1 in 2018, and will he be a true lead receiver, or just a depth player elevated to a bigger role due to his team’s lack of top end talent?

The outlook is even more dire at tight end, where the top options are some combination of Geoff Swaim, Blake Jarwin, and Dalton Schultz. One player in the race who has been entertaining as hell to watch has been Rico Gathers. The former Baylor basketball center/forward has dazzled with his strength and athleticism as a receiver for the team:

But his issues as a blocker currently have him slated as the team’s fourth tight end — a position that doesn’t usually have a spot on the 53-man roster. He’ll have to either find a way to handle oncoming defenders or truly stand out as an elite mismatch receiver up the seam in order to justify sticking around for 2018.

Will RGIII have a place in the league?

Griffin came back to the league after sitting out 2017 with plenty to prove. The former rookie of the year was uninspiring in injury-limited action with the Browns in ‘16 — though he is the last quarterback to win a game for Cleveland — throwing just two touchdown passes in five starts and looking full-stop removed from his breakout 2012 campaign.

He signed with the Ravens to mount an NFL comeback, then sat and watched as the team traded back into the first round to pick former Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson this April. His path to playing time was further blocked when Joe Flacco, owner of the league’s lowest yards-per-pass figure in 2017, sprang back to form in limited snaps this preseason.

But while his path to prosperity has been blocked by Baltimore circumstance, Griffin has played well enough to suggest the league isn’t done with him yet. Playing against a combination of starters and backups, he’s completed nearly 66 percent of his passes while throwing a pair of touchdowns and just one interception in 41 attempts. Those aren’t great numbers — but they’re perfectly reasonable for a backup quarterback, especially one with starting experience.

The Ravens could keep him as Flacco’s understudy, easing the pressure off Jackson in what could be a developmental year for the rookie. They could trade him before the roster cut-down date, but the weak market for Teddy Bridgewater — another quarterback who was impressive early in his career before injuries raised doubts about his future — says there may not be much of a return to be gained. A strong performance Thursday could be enough to push him to the top of a backup-needy team’s priority list when clubs start to scavenge the waiver wire next week.

Who will be the Bills starting quarterback?

After leading Buffalo to its first postseason appearance of the millennium, Tyrod Taylor was rewarded by being exiled to Cleveland. In his place are 2017 fifth-round pick (and owner of what may go down in history as the worst NFL debut of all time) Nathan Peterman, former Bengals backup AJ McCarron, and 2018 first-rounder Josh Allen.

All three were given the opportunity to earn the Bills’ top spot this preseason. Head coach Sean McDermott cycled through his unproven trio as starters and has yet to name his regular season QB1 — though an injury set back McCarron, who sat out Buffalo’s game last week against his former team. That leaves Peterman and Allen, two players with 49 NFL passes (and five interceptions) between them, with the monumental task of leading Buffalo back to the postseason.

The good news is Peterman has looked solid so far. The second-year passer has been one of the preseason’s top performers, completing more than 80 percent of his attempts, throwing for more than 10 yards per pass, and perhaps most importantly, throwing just a single interception in three appearances.

Allen hasn’t been as impressive, thanks in part to a disappointing supporting cast who have dropped passes, run the wrong routes, and treated blocking as a theoretical pursuit instead of a physical one.

He was sacked five times last week and the accuracy issues that stung him at Wyoming — he completed just 56 percent of his passes as a college QB — have cropped up again.

But Allen’s strong Week 2 performance showed what he can do with the ball in his hands, and another above-average showing could convince McDermott to roll with his high risk, high reward rookie over Peterman. The Bills are going to deal with some growing pains behind center either way; time will tell if 2018 starts with potential redemption for Peterman, or an ahead-of-schedule start for Allen.

Which Colts running back will take the pressure off Andrew Luck’s surgically repaired shoulder?

Indianapolis’ streak of poor management has left the Colts with a depleted roster, and any chance of a revival rest solely on a quarterback who made news earlier this summer just by throwing a dang football. Luck isn’t going to get much quarter from an offensive line that’s still very much a work in progress, and he might not get much ground support from a young running back corps.

The question for Indianapolis is who will step up. Marlon Mack failed to usurp a 34-year-old Frank Gore for the team’s starting role as a rookie in 2017 and has missed the bulk of the preseason due to a hamstring injury. 2018 fourth-round pick Nyheim Hines was effective as both a rusher and receiver at North Carolina State, but doesn’t fit the profile of an every-down back. Jordan Wilkins averaged more than six yards per carry last year at Ole Miss and leads the team in preseason rushing attempts — but he’s also averaging just 2.8 yards per touch as a pro.

There are veteran options as well, but they aren’t especially encouraging. Robert Turbin is stuck at 3.1 yards per carry in his two years with the Colts, and he’s set to miss the first four games of the season after violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy. Christine Michael spent 2017 out of the NFL. Branden Oliver gained 109 total yards last year with the Chargers.

A stagnant running game is going to make Luck’s comeback significantly more difficult. The Colts need one of the Mack, Hines, and Wilkins trio to step up and balance out their offense. Whoever steps up Thursday could have the inside track.

Who will the Cardinals throw to, besides Larry Fitzgerald?

Arizona is in a weird spot, stuck between its old guard and a rebuild after losing Carson Palmer to retirement, then signing Sam Bradford and drafting first-round pick Josh Rosen to take his place. The top two options for either quarterback will be some combination of Fitzgerald and tailback David Johnson (80 receptions in 2016), but the team’s list of targets gets exceedingly thin after that.

Second-round pick Christian Kirk has gotten a chance to prove himself during the preseason, topping out the team’s receiving ranks with eight catches and one of the team’s two receiving touchdowns. After him, the club’s depth chart gets much less exciting. Inconsistent veterans Brice Butler, J.J. Nelson, and Greg Little — who hasn’t played an NFL game since the 2014 season — are battling for a spot in the team’s starting lineup.

All three could all be frozen out by some young, lesser known wideouts. Chad Williams only made three catches as a rookie but has been working with the first team offense this August. Undrafted free agent Trent Sherfield has made a positive impression on Arizona’s coaches, even if that’s only resulted in four targets this preseason. There will be plenty of targets to go around in Glendale this fall, especially if Bradford can return to his 2016 form. The question is who will get them.

Is Alfred Morris actually back?

The San Francisco 49ers signed Jerick McKinnon to be their starting running back this season and had pegged Matt Breida as the primary backup. Due to some injuries, they’ve spent a lot of time giving Joe Williams and Jeremy McNichols work at running back, and neither of them have impressed.

Enter Alfred Morris, the 29-year-old veteran who spent the last two seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. Morris has 1,262 carries for 5,503 yards and 32 touchdowns for his career, but was left without a job until he signed with the 49ers a few weeks ago. In Week 3 of the preseason, he blew up against the Indianapolis Colts, carrying the ball 17 times for 84 yards.

Now there is talk of Morris working so well in Kyle Shanahan’s offense that not only could he make the roster, he could take on a featured role in the offense, perhaps even as the primary backup while taking snaps from McKinnon, who the 49ers paid quite well this offseason. Expect to see a lot of him in the preseason finale — and maybe as the starter in Week 1.