Pre-season football is where jobs are won and lost.
Just three games and weeks of practice to show your talent before rosters are cut from 90 to 53 ahead of the regular season. That leaves over 1,100 athletes without a job.
It's a brutal part of the business — one that reaps many rewards once you make it. But the cutthroat nature of the National Football League adds benefit to fans at a time where everyone is ready and waiting for the real thing.
Did the rookie win the starting job? What about the off-season acquisition? It's the position battles that give extra meaning to the pre-season, and they are now front and centre on every team's to-do list with the regular season kicking off on Sept. 9.
So with that, here are some of the top competitions going on around the NFL:
Love and co. in Arizona
The Arizona Cardinals are loaded in the backfield, and if everyone were healthy, it would be a four-headed monster.
But injuries can't be turned off, and the Cardinals are already dealing with health issues at the position after just one week into the pre-season.
That aside, talk about an embarrassment of riches at the running back position.
The Cardinals had James Conner — who was coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons before being limited to just three games last season — and 2024 third-rounder Trey Benson, then signed Tyler Allgeier in the off-season to a two-year deal and added prized rookie Jeremiyah Love with the third-overall pick in April's draft.
Allgeier has played in all but one game over his pro career, topping 1,000 yards in his rookie campaign and then rushed for eight scores last year in Atlanta.
Love, meanwhile, notched 1,372 yards and 18 TDs on the ground last year at Notre Dame, and is widely expected to become a superstar at the next level. Unfortunately, he suffered a high-ankle sprain in the pre-season opener after touching the ball 14 times in the first half — an absurdly high workload that clearly carried too much risk.
The youngster is now out for the remainder of the pre-season and his Week 1 status is in jeopardy, which adds even more intrigue to the position battle.
Will Conner be back and healthy and ready to contribute? Will Arizona move on from Benson, or hope he too can figure it out when healthy? Will money come into play? Allgeier and Conner are both on the hook for over $4 million this season, while Love's cap hit is north of $9.6 million.
All will be answered soon enough, but for now, the Cardinals have four quality options at the RB position and only one ball to go around.
Lefties in Atlanta
Which left-hander will be under centre come Week 1?
That's the question in Atlanta, where former first-rounder Michael Penix Jr. and newcomer Tua Tagovailoa are battling it out for the right to hand the ball off to Bijan Robinson.
Just kidding.
Drake London and Kyle Pitts also exist, and whoever takes the snaps come Week 1 will have weapons most QBs dream of dishing it out to.
The Falcons shocked many when they selected Penix Jr. eighth in the 2024 draft, mainly because they handed Kirk Cousins $180 million and $100 million guaranteed just a month earlier.
But you have to plan for the future in the NFL, and right now the future in Atlanta is competing with another highly drafted and injury-plagued QB.
Tagovailoa signed with the team in the off-season on a one-year deal after a six-year stint with the Dolphins, and the fit was simple on paper. New head coach Kevin Stefanski would tailor his offence to the lefty Penix Jr., and Tagovailoa could fill in seamlessly as a southpaw himself.
But through one week of the pre-season, Penix Jr. is still rehabbing his knee injury that ended his 2025 campaign early, while Tagovailoa struggled to get anything going against the vaunted Broncos defence.
In a league where quarterbacks are paramount to success, the Falcons find themselves in a spot they thought they could avoid just three seasons ago.
Broncos' three-headed rushing attack
The Denver Broncos are another team with quite an interesting battle in the backfield. But where the Cardinals have too many expensive mouths to feed, the Broncos invested some early-ish picks to complement J.K. Dobbins and his new two-year deal.
Dobbins is joined by RJ Harvey (2025 second-rounder) and Jonah Coleman (2026 fourth-rounder), two youngsters who are looking to establish themselves at the NFL level.
Harvey took over the lead role last season when Dobbins went down with an injury — something that has plagued him his entire career. Harvey showed tons of promise with his opportunities, but also showed there's plenty of room for improvement.
Dobbins proved he is one of the league's best runners when healthy, as his 772 yards were eighth-most in the league after Week 11 despite getting injured in Week 10.
And Coleman, well, he's done nothing but impress the Broncos coaching staff since arriving at camp, and he needed just four rushes in his debut to validate those opinions.
"I didn't need to see additional evidence of what I've been seeing for three weeks," head coach Sean Payton told reporters on Monday.
Denver is more than prepared to give its trio plenty of touches throughout the season to keep everyone fresh. Payton believes in all three. It comes down to who will force Payton's hand.
Jackpot in Las Vegas
The Las Vegas Raiders hope they have finally found their franchise QB under centre in first-overall pick Fernando Mendoza.
But that doesn't mean he's a lock to start Day 1.
Mendoza enjoyed a solid pro debut, tossing for 97 yards and a touchdown, but it's Cousins who appears to still be the favourite to start Week 1 for Klint Kubiak's squad.
Cousins joined the Raiders in the off-season, and 37-year-old comes equipped with tons of experience and success. A 14-year veteran, Cousins has made four Pro Bowls and tossed for over 4,000 yards seven times in an eight-year span.
However, the last three seasons haven't been too kind to him, and there will be tons of fan pressure to get the youngster on the field as soon as possible.
Would the Raiders really buck the trend of top picks starting immediately?
Since 2009, just two (Baker Mayfield, 2018; Jared Goff, 2016) of the 13 QBs selected with the top pick did not start the regular season opener.
So if history is any indication, odds are in Mendoza's favour. But heading into Week 2 of the pre-season, it appears the ball is in Cousins' court.
Quick hitters
Cleveland's QB carousel: Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel. Yikes.
Minnesota Murrays: Kyler Murray has already been announced as the starter, but will former first-rounder J.J. McCarthy get another chance?
Patriots' third WR: A four-man battle is taking place for the third wideout spot on the AFC champion Patriots behind newcomers A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs. DeMario Douglas, Kayshon Boutte, Kyle Williams and Mack Hollins are all vying for that spot.
Lions' RT: Taylor Decker's departure moved stud Penei Sewell to the left side. It's between rookie first-rounder Blake Miller and veteran Larry Borom to replace Sewell as the right tackle.
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