Football is back.

Yes, football has technically been back since the beginning of training camp, but it’s different when you’re seeing actual games. While this is undoubtedly an exciting time for all football fans, there’s some rookies who had a rough preseason debut last week.

The top-overall pick, quarterback Jameis Winston of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had his fair share of up and downs against the Minnesota Vikings. Winston completed 9-of-19 throws to go along with one interception. Also, Winston experienced two mishandled snaps, with one of them resulting in a sack.

However, head coach Lovie Smith isn’t too concerned. 

“I thought he seemed into the game,” Smith said. “He wasn’t rattled or anything. Disappointed when he didn’t do some things that he knows he can do better. Felt pretty good about the good things he did. I thought it was a typical Jameis Winston day.”

One of the guys Winston had success on was fellow rookie cornerback Trae Waynes. 

“He’s got some things to work on,” Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said. “He’s going to have to continue to get better, keep fighting and getting practice. This is the best deal for young guys — to get a chance to go up against receivers like they’ve got [in Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans]. Those are two pretty good receivers. Those are the kinds of guys you need to go up against, to find out what you need to do to get better.”

Minnesota has already played two preseason games and it’s evident that Waynes has a lot of growing pains to go through. During the Hall of Fame Game, Waynes was penalized three times and got burned for a 35-yard completion.

Flipping back to the offensive side of the ball, decorated running back Melvin Gordon didn’t show Chargers fan much in his debut against the Dallas Cowboys.

Gordon carried the ball six times for a grand total of 11 yards. 

“I definitely have a lot of work to do,” Gordon said. “It definitely wasn’t what I expected at all, but we have some more preseason games before the regular season to fine tune myself.”

This performance shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering Gordon hasn’t been impressive throughout training camp. At Wisconsin, Gordon was a very confident downhill type of back, but he’s been timid at this level thus far.

“They can’t block all 11 guys, so it’s on me to make that guy miss and make something happen,” he said. “So I got to get better there and I will.”

I couldn’t mention Winston without bringing up Marcus Mariota and to be fair, the former Heisman Trophy Winner’s stats didn’t look bad in the box score, but he started off shaky to say the least.

Mariota hasn’t thrown one interception all training camp, however, his third pass against the Atlanta Falcons resulted in a pick and during his second possession, he fumbled which ended up being scooped up and returned for a touchdown.

Despite his early struggles, Mariota was able to bounce back and lead a touchdown drive.

“I just kind of shrugged it off and figured we needed a good drive and we finished with a decent one,” Mariota said. “I think battling through some adversity is gonna make us a better team. For us as an offense to battle back, it’s only gonna make us better.”

It’s understandable if you’re not enamored with preseason football and think it’s a waste of time, but for these rookies, preseason is extremely valuable to their growth. It allows them to get a taste of the speed and physicality of the game before they start playing in games that really matter.