Preseason Week 1 spotlight: Falcons get Tua Tagovailoa in the starting lineup, Jets start starters vs. Buccaneers while Baker Mayfield sits

NFL preseason Week 1 moved into its next wave of games with lineup decisions that will be watched closely by coaches, beat writers, and fans focused on early indicators. According to Yahoo Sports, Tua Tagovailoa is expected to start for the Atlanta Falcons, while the New York Jets plan to play their starters Friday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the same report, Baker Mayfield is described as sitting, a decision that underscores how each team is balancing evaluation of depth and long-term quarterback planning with the need to get game reps.

For the Falcons, a Tagovailoa start matters beyond the single game because preseason snaps are often where timing, footwork, and play-call rhythm become apparent. Tagovailoa’s presence with the first unit also affects how offensive coordinators evaluate the surrounding pieces, particularly the interaction between the quarterback and the route structure. In preseason, the first-team offense is limited by design, but those limited drives can still reveal whether the offense is syncing early enough for the regular-season execution that teams rely on from week one.

The Jets’ plan, as reported, to play starters against Tampa Bay takes on its own meaning. When teams keep starters on the field longer than some preseason games allow, the evaluation window expands. That can be important for timing between quarterbacks and receivers, as well as for assessing protections and coverage reads with more live tempo. It also increases the stakes of the early portion of the preseason because mistakes have a clearer paper trail, and coaches are more likely to tie what they see to specific game plan elements.

Meanwhile, Mayfield sitting, in the Yahoo Sports account, indicates a deliberate approach to the quarterback rotation. Preseason quarterback usage can reflect multiple goals at once, including workload management for any veteran, giving other quarterbacks a chance to establish clarity with the playbook, or ensuring that coaches are comparing like-for-like scenarios. Even when the broader quarterback picture is not fully settled, the decision to sit one passer while another starts provides a window into who is being prioritized for the earliest evaluation benchmark.

The Buccaneers’ role in the matchup is also worth noting, because opponent context matters in preseason. A team that faces an opponent’s starter group the way the Jets plan to do will often see different defensive looks, tempo changes, and coverage disguises than it would against a purely second-string opponent. That can help coaches evaluate whether their fundamentals hold up under a higher level of live complexity, including how the pass rush coordinates and how defensive backs communicate in real time.

As the preseason progresses, the common thread across these lineup decisions will be who coaches trust most for early-game rhythm. The Falcons starting Tagovailoa, the Jets playing starters, and Mayfield sitting are all decisions that point to specific evaluation priorities for Week 1. What happens on the field will not determine the entire season, but it can clarify early questions about timing, chemistry, and how each team’s offense and defense respond when the game is moving at near-regular-season speed.

Next to watch is how long the starter units are kept in, and whether coaches shift to deeper roster groups after a limited number of drives. For Atlanta, the key question is how quickly Tagovailoa’s offense gets into scoring rhythm and sustains consistency with the first-team group. For New York and Tampa Bay, the focus will be whether the starter-versus-starter emphasis produces clean evaluations, particularly in protection and coverage matchups, before both teams move into larger personnel and scheme rotations later in the preseason cycle.