The NFL is officially back on Thursday night when the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns go head-to-head in the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game. This is the first of four preseason games for the Browns and Jets, so you shouldn’t expect much from this contest.

Nonetheless, it doesn’t mean there aren’t things to watch in this game. Below you’ll see five things to keep your eye on as you check out the Hall of Fame Game Thursday night.

Don’t know how to watch the game, check out the How to Watch article by clicking HERE.

Let’s get to what you should be watching for in the game tonight:

1. Injuries

There is nothing more gut-wrenching than players leaving the field on a cart in a meaningless preseason game. It isn’t meaningless to the players, but to watch their season, and sometimes their careers, end is still tough to watch. Here’s hoping both teams leave with a clean bill of health across the board.

2. Depth Players

Sure, preseason games are meaningless, but not to those fringe players who are trying to make a name for themselves and land on the 53-man roster. If not their current team’s 53-man roster, another team’s roster. When you have that level of desperation, you see players going all out on every snap. If you love players playing their hearts out till the final whistle, watch preseason games and you’ll see the heart and desire some say is gone in the professional game.

3. Officiating/New Rules

This will be the first time fans will see new rules which have been implemented this past offseason. Sometimes it takes getting used to, but it will eventually become the new normal. On top of that, when you watch the officials in the preseason you always get a feel for what the league wants them to focus on during these exhibition games. One year the focus was on defensive pass interference. They flagged everything trying to get players to change their bad habits. Once the regular season started, the flags went back to normal, but you can tell a lot about how these preseason games are officiated.

4. New faces, new places

It isn’t just Aaron Rodgers, who won’t be playing tonight, who has a new home. Don’t forget about former Jets wide receiver turned Cleveland Brown Elijah Moore as another player who has a new home. There is always roster turnover across the league, and these are just a few of the new faces in new places.

5. Field Conditions

There was a time when the league was bashed for having a professional game at the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. The turf was so bad you saw players getting injured at an increased rate during this annual preseason game. Nonetheless, the league stated they would improve the playing surface, and they’ve done that thus far. Will that remain, or will the turf be an issue again? We’ll have to watch to find out.

Will you be watching the game tonight? If not, be sure to stay tuned to FFSN for all the latest coverage on the Browns and Jets with our Cleveland Browns feed “The Fanatical Elfz Network” and our New York Jets feed “This is the Jet Life”. Links to those feeds are below:

Fanatical Elfz Network: Apple / Spotify

This is the Jet Life: Apple / Spotify