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Three overreactions to Week 1 of the NFL season
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We live in a world of absolutes.
When discussing NBA legends, LeBron James is either better than Michael Jordan, or he’s not even in the same stratosphere as him.
The NFL is no different.
After months of prepping for another season on the gridiron, we now have tangible results to sink our teeth into.
Some people might take Week 1 and throw it out the window; call it an outlier and say that you can’t make a sweeping generalization after just one game.
I am not those people.
We do, after all, live in a world of absolutes.
Here are three overreactions to the NFL regular season’s opening week.
“Who’s got it better than us..?”
Call it an overreaction. Call it being late to the party. But I’m buying stock in Jim Harbaugh and the Los Angeles Chargers.
Harbaugh is the definition of a culture change, which is what the Chargers desperately needed.
Quarterback Justin Herbert has been in the league for five years and he’s already on his fourth head coach.
After being a playoff team in 2022 and blowing a 27-0 lead in the wild-card round, the Chargers felt destined to fail when head coach Brandon Staley was brought for the 2023 season.
Staley lasted 14 games before being fired. He had a record of 5-9 last year and went 24-24 during his tenure as Chargers head coach. Going .500 with a top-five quarterback talent in the league is unexpectable, especially when you’re supposed to be a defence-first guy.
But after botching the head coach position at the start of Herbert’s career, the Chargers added one of the best head coaches in the world to their staff in the off-season.
Sure, the Las Vegas Raiders aren’t world beaters, but there is nothing wrong with a team opening the season with a statement win inside the division.
In fact, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Harbaugh take over a non-playoff team and lead them to a divisional win in Week 1.
The first time he did that was with the San Francisco 49ers in 2011, when he coached them to a 33-17 win over the Seattle Seahawks to open the year. The 49ers went 13-3 that year and won the division.
While the Kansas City Chiefs remain the class of the AFC West, it appears the Chargers will finally challenge them in the division this year. I’m betting on this team to find a way to get back to the postseason under a head coach who has made the playoffs in three of the four years he’s coached in the league.
Pick: Chargers to make the playoffs +122
Bang, Bang Bird Gang
The Eagles are back.
If you’ve heard me say it once, you’ll hear me repeat it. One of the sharpest NFL minds I know is a Philadelphia Eagles fan.
In August of 2022, he told me, “I haven’t felt this way about an Eagles team since the Super Bowl year.” Lo and behold, they went to the Super Bowl.
So, imagine the look on my face last year when he texted me after Week 1, saying, “This year is ruined. Our coordinators are going to cost us the season.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Something with the Eagles was off all year. The quarterback was the same, the weapons were the same, the head coach was the same, but everything felt different.
Both coordinators were let go after the team lost six of its last seven games to end the season, which included a 32-9 drubbing at the hands of the Bucs in the wild-card round.
With Kellen Moore running the offence and Vic Fangio manning the defence, this team suddenly looks alive again.
Some pieces have come and gone, but the team that went to the Super Bowl two years ago is primarily still intact.
Early returns on running back Saquon Barkley appear to be good as the 27-year-old finally gets to run behind a good offensive line and isn’t the main focal point of a team’s defence.
Considering that no team in the NFC East has repeated as a division champ in 18 years, the division feels like it is Philly’s to lose after Dallas claimed it last year.
I was cautiously optimistic about the Eagles entering this season. After seeing one week, I’m comfortable saying this team will reach the NFC Championship game, where my guess is they clash with the Detroit Lions.
Pick: Eagles -140 to win NFC East
With the first pick in the 2025 NFL Draft….
It’s funny how fast things change in this league.
Entering the season, I had the New England Patriots tabbed as the team most likely to finish with the worst record in the league.
I wasn’t buying what new coach Jared Mayo was selling, and thought they would win three games at best. It turns out I might have miscalculated what a good defence with an inspiring head coach can achieve.
Congrats, New England. You’re back.
This year's worst team in the league will be the New York Giants.
New York can opt out of Daniel Jones' four-year $160 million extension at the end of this season, and I believe this is his final year with the team.
The Giants are expected to be underdogs in 14 of their final 16 games this season, and if Week 1 was any indication of how the season will go, I doubt they will upset many teams.
For the first time since 2017, the Giants’ starting running back in Week 1 wasn’t Barkley. The team suffered, managing just 240 yards of offence. Last year, 15 of the 17 games against the Vikings featured the opposing team going over that number.
The loss at home against Minnesota was tough, as the rest of their schedule at MetLife Stadium doesn’t get any easier.
Outside of the three NFC East teams, they will host the Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens and Indianapolis Colts.
Every one of those teams will circle New York as an “gotta have it” game, and I don’t see them winning more than one of them.
The schedule isn’t any easier on the road.
They’ll travel to their three divisional rivals and also visit Cleveland, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta.
The most winnable road game on their schedule appears to be Week 10, when they will be the away team for a neutral-site game against the Carolina Panthers.
Speaking of the Panthers, at +260, they are the favourites in this market.
Carolina was drubbed 47-10 in Week 1, another sign of a long season to come. Yet, with a first-year head coach and a sophomore quarterback, I think Carolina will look to build on a solid finish to the season, while New York will limp to the finish line.
Pick: New York Giants worst record in NFL +600