{"id":298004,"date":"2025-08-18T12:50:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T12:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/298004\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T12:50:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T12:50:30","slug":"how-former-wisconsin-quarterback-graham-mertz-fared-in-season-nfl-preseason-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/298004\/","title":{"rendered":"How former Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz fared in season NFL preseason game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz returned to an NFL field on Saturday during the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/houston-texans\/325\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Houston Texans;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Houston Texans<\/a>&#8216; 20-3 preseason Week 2 victory over the Carolina Panthers.<\/p>\n<p>The former Badger and <a href=\"https:\/\/gatorswire.usatoday.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Florida Gator;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Florida Gator<\/a> was the last of four Texans quarterbacks to see the field, following starter C.J. Stroud, backup Davis Mills and projected third-string Kedon Slovis. Mertz played just the final three drives of the contest, completing both of his two pass attempts for one total passing yard. He began with a three-play, six-yard touchdown drive before finishing the next two drives with a punt and a kneel-down, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Mertz&#8217;s limited playing time against the Panthers follows his <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/former-wisconsin-quarterback-graham-mertz-121306095.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:struggles in the Texans&#039; preseason opener;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">struggles in the Texans&#8217; preseason opener<\/a> last weekend. Following Mills and Slovis, Mertz played the Texans&#8217; final five offensive drives of that contest. He completed just seven of his 14 pass attempts for 28 passing yards, zero touchdowns and three interceptions in that time.<\/p>\n<p>Despite being a sixth-round draft pick, Mertz is still battling for a spot on the Texans&#8217; 53-man roster entering the 2025 season. His performance in the preseason opener and subsequent limited playing time suggest he may be on the outside looking in. At the least, the former Badger will need a strong showing in the Texans&#8217; preseason finale against the Detroit Lions on Aug. 23.<\/p>\n<p>Contact\/Follow\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thebadgerswire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:@TheBadgersWire;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">@TheBadgersWire<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/badgerswire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/ncaaf\/teams\/wisconsin-badgers\/3442\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Badgers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Badgers<\/a> news, notes and opinion<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/badgerswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/badgers\/football\/2025\/08\/18\/wisconsin-graham-mertz-nfl-stats-preseason-week-two\/85703330007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Wisconsin football quarterback Graham Mertz stats NFL preseason Week 2;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Wisconsin football quarterback Graham Mertz stats NFL preseason Week 2<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz returned to an NFL field on Saturday during the Houston Texans&#8216; 20-3 preseason&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[1028,260,24165,14207,7,2496,221,253,2368,1728,6,17686,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-298004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-c-j-stroud","9":"tag-carolina-panthers","10":"tag-davis-mills","11":"tag-florida-gator","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-graham-mertz","14":"tag-houston","15":"tag-houston-texans","16":"tag-houstontexans","17":"tag-kedon-slovis","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-preseason-opener","20":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115049859012439357","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}