Detroit Lions vs. Buffalo Bills preseason Game 1 open thread (First half)

The long wait is over.

Of all the teams in the NFL, I’m not sure one had a more momentous offseason than the Detroit Lions. It’s been a wild ride for fans, from losing one of the best quarterbacks this franchise has ever seen to gaining one of the most charismatic coaching staffs in the team’s history. Throw in a new front office, an owner facing her first offseason, a change of the team’s flagship radio station, multimedia reporter, and a Hall of Fame induction thrown in there, too, and it’s been a pretty fulfilling offseason.

But the reason we follow this team so intimately during the offseason is to see the success on the field, and Friday night is our first peek at that. The Lions host the Buffalo Bills in an exhibition match with nothing on the line but jobs. Don’t listen to the people that say preseason doesn’t matter, because it certainly does to the players on the roster bubble, and it matters to us die-hards who are looking for reasons to be optimistic about the year of rebuild.

So let’s enjoy ourselves some football tonight because we’ve waited long enough for this.

Before the game gets started at 7 p.m. ET, here’s all of our pregame coverage of the game.

Lions vs. Bills pregame coverage

• Latest injury updates for the Lions
• Position-by-position Lions vs. Bills preview podcast
• 5 players to watch on Friday night
• 7 depth players to watch
• Full depth chart, roster numbers
• How to watch Lions vs. Bills: TV channel, radio info, online streaming options

Feel free to chat during the first half of the game in the comment section below. We’ll have a separate thread for the second half posted during halftime.