For the 13th consecutive season , the New York Giants and New England Patriots will close out their National Football League preseason schedules by facing each other, and the game will live stream from Gillette Stadium on Thursday in what is expected to serve as a showcase for the backup quarterbacks on both teams.
For the defending NFL Champion Patriots, who staged a record-setting 25-point comeback to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51, the final preseason game caps an eventful week.
New England will be entering what could turn out to be the post-Julian Edelman era after the 31-year-old slot receiver suffered a knee injury in the team’s third preseason game, and the Patriots announced that the injury would sideline Edelman for the entire 2017 season.
But despite earlier signing the hard-nosed, undersized receiver who has become a personal favorite of Patriots’ future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady to a two-year contract extension designed to keep the once-unheralded 2009 seventh-round draft pick through the 2019 season, the injury now casts significant doubt on Edelman’s future with the Patriots.
With only $7 million of Edelman’s contract guaranteed , the Patriots would need to eat only one season’s worth of salary for Edelman if they cut him in 2018.
Non-contact knee injuries are bad news. Hoping Edelman’s OK, but this doesn’t look good. pic.twitter.com/w5qUXzxW5m
— Liam Martin (@LiamWBZ) August 25, 2017
To find out how to watch a live stream of the New York Giants vs. New England Patriots NFL preseason finale matchup, see the streaming information at the bottom of this article. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 4:30 p.m. Pacific, at the Patriots’ home of Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Thursday, August 31.
The Patriots open the NFL season the following Thursday, September 7, when they host the Kansas City Chiefs. And because the season opener for New England will arrive quickly, neither Brady nor top backup Jimmy Garoppolo is expected to see much, if any, of the field against the Giants.
Instead, football experts predict second-year, third-stringer, Jacoby Brissett , will take the overwhelming majority of snaps under center. In fact, Brissett may play the entire four quarters.
On the Giants’ side of the ball, veteran signal-caller Eli Manning is also projected to spend most of the preseason finale as a sideline spectator. Instead, rookie Davis Webb may get the chance to impress Coach Ben McAdoo as the 22-year-old, third-round pick out of the University of California battles New York Jets castoff Geno Smith for the chief backup role behind Manning.
To watch the New York Giants vs. New England Patriots NFL preseason Week Four match-up live stream on Thursday for free, fans will need to sign up for a seven-day free trial of the NFL Game Pass package, available at this link . Fubo TV is also set to live stream the game as part of its overall streaming TV package and offers a week-long free trial as well, which may be accessed at this link .
[Featured Image By Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images]
