There’s a definite psychology of “winning” that, once experienced by a team, can have a powerful positive effect on the entire season. And if I were advising an NFL head coach (which I’m not) I would also recommend that he play his regular season starters as much as possible during the pre-season games, with limited playing time for his new talent. The reason for this is so that the starters will be in better physical condition when they actually play their first league game. Some teams lose their first or second game of the regular season primarily because their starters didn’t get enough playing time during the pre-season and appeared to run out of gas.