Top NFL QB Draftees Dinged Up in Pre-season Openers

It’s August, dudes and dudettes.

You know what that means.

That's right. Brace yourself for the vanilla glitz that often puts even WWE to shame, built around the battle cry:

Are you ready for some football?

Well, pre-season football to be specific.

Sure, the games don’t count at all -- the point spreads do -- but after six months of waiting, practice games are preferable to no games at all.

This year, football fans' thirst was delayed a little while longer when the Hall of Fame Game was cancelled due to concerns over unplayable field conditions.

But this wouldn't be the only thing to go wrong in the early going.

Consider the Los Angeles Rams 2.0 and the Philadelphia Eagles, who wheeled and dealed their way to the top of April’s NFL draft. With their respective Nos 1 and 2 overall picks, Jared Goff and Carson Wentz, they were ready to fast-forward their future.

After weeks and weeks of waiting and speculating of how these two would perform in their big league debuts, fans of both franchises were expecting to see their shiny new toys on display this week.

Unfortunately for these tortured teams, they may have been better off if they'd been a bit more patient.

The biggest blow hit Philly, who saw Wentz take a massive hit in the game’s waining minutes.

Besides putting up a mediocre stat line of 12 completions in 24 attempts for 89 yards, including an interception, the Eagles later discovered that Wentz suffered a hairline fracture in his ribs.

They're projecting the former North Dakota State Bison chucker to return by the end of the pre-season. This isn’t the worst-case scenario, but it certainly won’t aid in the dude’s development. Especially when many believed Wentz could have earned the opening day job before month's end.

Top pick Goff didn’t fare much better in his debut. It was LA's first NFL game in over 20 years, but Goff didn't rise to the occasion, posting a dismal performance by only completing 4 of his 9 pass attempts for 38 yards, including a pick.

After finishing up his third series, the former Cal Bear was pulled with what's being described as a sore shoulder in his non-throwing arm.

Both Goff and the team have downplayed the injury, but Game 1 certainly wasn’t good for the Rams, especially when you consider that Goff was outplayed by the Cowboys fourth-round pick, Dak Prescott.

Is it too early to admit that 2016 will simply be a same old same old season for these clubs with recycled QB fodder at the helm?

Probably not, but it's still a blow to see their young chuckers dinged up at a time when they could be getting more reps.