Get ready to watch draft pick No. 1 vs. pick No. 2 in a preseason battle

Baker Mayfield and Saquon Barkley will battle it out (kind of) in a Thursday night preseason showdown.

Thursday night will feature 12 thrilling football games to kick off the official first week of the NFL preseason.

The marquis game of the night pits the Browns against the Giants for some terrible (cough, preseason) football featuring the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft: quarterback Baker Mayfield against the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft: running back Saquon Barkley. They’ll never be on the field at the same time as they both play on offense, but their teams are facing off live on NFL Network at 7 p.m. ET.

If you decide to watch this game, quarterback play will be one of the main storylines. For the Giants, Eli Manning is entrenched as the starter (and he wants to play on Thursday), but is his successor on the current roster? Do any of Davis Webb, Kyle Lauletta or Alex Tanney have what it takes to be a starting NFL quarterback?

I went to Giants training camp last Friday and the backup quarterback play was a scary sight. Lauletta was a fourth round pick this year, so he’ll need time to develop in the NFL. Webb, now in his second NFL season after joining the Giants as a third round pick, was downright bad on Friday at camp. And Tanney is currently with his eighth NFL team since going undrafted out of Monmouth College (Illinois) in 2012. The backup quarterback situation isn’t all that promising in New York so the Giants will be closely watching that throughout the preseason.

As for the Browns, the expectation is Tyrod Taylor will be starting in Week 1 of the regular season and Mayfield will be his backup. But, how close is Mayfield to being ready to start? He is the future in Cleveland -- so they hope -- and he’s expected to play “quite a bit” on Thursday. Behind Taylor and Mayfield on the depth chart are Drew Stanton and Brogan Roback. So we should get a look at all four of them for varying lengths of time on Thursday.

Here’s more of what to watch if you’re interested in the Giants, and a defensive lineman worth keeping an eye on for the Browns.

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