You don’t always know how a players’s season or a team’s season will turn out based on the opening week, but indicators can be seen. Based on what we saw in all of Week 1’s action, here’s how all 32 NFL teams are ranked, from bottom to top.
32. Miami Dolphins
Ugh. Everybody knew the Dolphins were tanking, no matter what the players or head coach Brian Flores said through the preseason. Trading left tackle Laremy Tunsil and receiver Kenny Stills to the Texans for a bunch of high draft picks proved the theory. And what was left of the wreckage was mortally embarrassed by the Ravens on Sunday as Lamar Jackson put up a perfect passer rating and enjoyed one of the best quarterback games in recent NFL history. Is it any wonder that multiple Dolphins players were said to be asking for a trade? You just have to feel for Flores here. He got pantsed 59-10 in his first regular-season game, and the Patriots, his former team, will almost certainly do something similar next Sunday.
31. Arizona Cardinals
In his first NFL preseason, No. 1 overall pick Kyler Murray completed 23 of 36 passes for 193 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions. The passing game plan was safe as milk for the most part, and Murray ran around a lot to get out of pressure behind shaky offensive line combinations. Through the first three quarters of Arizona’s opener against the Lions, it was more of the same. Then something clicked, Murray was 14-of-17 for 154 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, as the Cardinals made up a 24-6 deficit to force the game to overtime. In that regard, the eventual result — a 27-27 tie — has to feel like a win if Murray can operate Kliff Kingsbury’s offense like this in Week 2 and beyond.
30. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
When Bruce Arians became Tampa Bay’s head coach, it was assumed that the Quarterback Whisperer might be able to tame Jameis Winston’s inconsistent tendencies and improve the things that make him potentially great. If Week 1 is any indication, Arians might want to punt and select a quarterback early in the 2020 draft. Winston threw three interceptions — including two pick-sixes — to a 49ers team that had just two interceptions in the entire 2018 season. The only good news for the Bucs in their 31-17 loss to San Francisco was a pass defense that did a decent job of keeping Jimmy Garoppolo in check.
29. Denver Broncos
Given that Joe Flacco has been one of the NFL’s least effective quarterbacks over the past four seasons in Baltimore, it wasn’t too surprising he wasn’t that great in his first regular-season game as a Bronco. Flacco completed 21 of 31 passes for 268 yards and a late touchdown, but for most of the 24-16 loss to the Raiders on Monday night, he struggled mightily with Oakland’s man coverage — throwing late and off-target far too often. The real surprise was Denver’s lack of effectiveness on defense — this was a unit loaded from front to back and coached by a defensive mastermind in Vic Fangio, but the pass rush was negligible, and coverage was spotty at best.
28. New York Giants
For the moment, at least, Eli Manning may have beaten back those who wanted him benched in favor of Daniel Jones after the rookie’s torrid preseason. Manning completed 30 of 44 passes for 306 yards and a touchdown to Evan Engram, who joined Saquon Barkley in looking explosive in Big Blue’s offense. The problem for the Giants in their 35-17 loss to the Cowboys was a defense that let Dak Prescott do whatever he wanted on the way to a four-touchdown day and a perfect passer rating of 158.3.
27. Washington Redskins
One couldn’t have expected the Redskins to hang with the Eagles offensively — not with Case Keenum as Washington’s answer to Carson Wentz. But Keenum bedeviled Philly’s defense with receivers Terry McLaurin, Chris Thompson and Vontae Davis as his primary targets in a 32-27 loss. Keenum isn’t an ideal quarterback, but his 2017 season with the Vikings showed that he can be credible when given a schematic opportunity. Washington’s defensive backs, however, will be smarting all week from what DeSean Jackson did to them — and they have Dallas’ newly explosive passing game to deal with in Week 2. An 0-2 start wouldn’t do much for Jay Gruden’s job security.
26. Detroit Lions
The Lions started the 2019 season out hot, with a 24-6 lead over the Cardinals early in the fourth quarter. But then Detroit’s man-heavy coverages fell apart as Kyler Murray started to find his feet, leading to a crazy Cardinals comeback and a 27-27 tie. Had Cardinals defensive back Trumaine Brock not dropped what should have been an interception by Matthew Stafford in overtime, the Lions might have been on the wrong end of a highly embarrassing defeat, as opposed to a tie. But the tactical decisions put forth by head coach Matt Patricia and his staff have to be worrisome, and they took the wind out of rookie tight end T.J. Hockenson’s record performance — Hockenson’s 131 receiving yards are the most ever for a tight end in his NFL debut.
25. Oakland Raiders
No Antonio Brown? No problem for Derek Carr, who had his way Monday night with an allegedly strong Denver pass defense in Oakland’s 24-16 win — a game that wasn’t as close as the score might indicate. Carr completed 22 of 26 passes for 259 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions, finding Tyrell Williams — the new Raiders receiver who actually wants to be in Oakland — for six catches, 105 yards and a touchdown. Oakland’s defense also surprised, bring an estimable pass rush to Joe Flacco and Denver’s offensive line, and first-round running back Josh Jacobs registered two touchdowns on the ground. Given the circus this team has gone through in the preseason, the win was impressive, no matter the quality of the opponent.
24. Atlanta Falcons
How far the Falcons have fallen from their 2016 season, when they had the NFL’s most diverse, effective offense, and quarterback Matt Ryan was the league’s Most Valuable Player. Against the Vikings in a 28-12 loss, Atlanta was actually down 28-0 before Minnesota stopped clamping down defensively, and Ryan was able to eke out two meaningless touchdown passes. Before that, Ryan was absolutely under siege, just as he was in the preseason behind an offensive line that seemed incapable of protecting him. Ryan isn’t mobile enough to survive this if it continues, and when you add in a defense that bent all over the place against the Vikings’ rushing attack, this is a team in trouble on both sides of the ball.
23. Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers may have fewer distractions without Antonio Brown, but they also have fewer top-flight weapons to take enemy defenses apart, and that was proven in their 33-3 loss to the Patriots. Erstwhile No. 1 receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster was limited to six catches for 78 yards, and Ben Roethlisberger completed just 27 passes in 47 attempts for 276 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception. Still more disconcerting was the performance of a Pittsburgh secondary that had absolutely no answer for Tom Brady and his targets, no matter whether they went with man or zone coverage. If this is the defense they’re trotting out in 2019, this franchise could easily miss the playoffs for the second straight season.
22. New York Jets
This game was an embarrassment for Jets head coach Adam Gase. The Bills were hapless through the first three quarters of this game, as turnovers foisted any offensive plans. Gase’s team had a 16-0 lead midway through the third quarter, but when linebacker C.J. Mosley left the game with a groin injury, Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen caught fire in a relative sense, and the Bills slipped away with a 17-16 win. A missed extra point from kicker Kaare Vedvik — one of several kickers the Jets have tried out this year — kept the game from tie status, but the larger issue is that Gase seems to have no command over the big picture. The Jets’ next stop is Cleveland for a Week 2 Monday night game, where New York and the Browns — two currently bruised franchises — will try to set things right.
Meanwhile, Gase is spouting off with stuff like this:
21. San Francisco 49ers
It was a good day for a 49ers defense that had just two interceptions in the entire 2018 season — they picked Jameis Winston off three times and returned two for pick-sixes in a 31-17 win. Rookie pass rusher Nick Bosa had a sack and several successful pressures in his NFL debut, and overall, this defense looked to take a step forward against Tampa Bay’s offense. But before the 49ers can talk about contention, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo will have to be more effective on a snap-to-snap basis when it comes to making plays that aren’t schemed open to a ridiculous degree. Garoppolo completed 18 of 27 passes for 166 yards, one touchdown and one interception, and he looked overwhelmed by complex coverages.
20. Cleveland Browns
The Browns came into the season as the most hyped team in the NFL, but everything that had people believing Cleveland would be a credible playoff contender for the first time in years fell apart in an embarrassing 43-13 loss to the Titans. Baker Mayfield threw three backbreaking interceptions in the fourth quarter alone. Left tackle Greg Robinson was kicked out of the game after he kicked Tennessee defensive back Kenny Vaccaro in the face. A defense that was supposed to be lights-out from front to back had serious assignment and spacing issues. Are the Browns not what we thought they were, or is this a momentary blip? We’ll have to wait until next Monday night, when the Browns take on the Jets, to find out.
19. Buffalo Bills
The Bills overcame a 16-point deficit against the Jets to come back and steal a 17-16 win, but one such victory against a talented but dysfunctionally coached team does not a successful season make. There are still serious questions about quarterback Josh Allen’s consistency as a passer, and the defense was far too pliable against Sam Darnold and Le’Veon Bell. Rookies Ed Oliver and Devin Singletary gave the team hope for the future with impressive performances, but as is true with every NFL team, the Bills will go exactly as far as their quarterback can take them. In Allen’s case, we have no idea what that means just yet.
18. Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals looked better than many expected in a 21-20 loss in Seattle, a game in which they had chances to win late. Receiver John Ross, the Washington alum who has been a profound disappointment through the first two years of his NFL career, seemed to enjoy his homecoming, as he caught seven passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns against Seattle’s unimpressive new-look secondary. And Cincinnati’s defensive fronts had their way with Seattle’s offensive line for the most part. Still, when your quarterback attempts 55 passes and you only run the ball 14 times for 34 yards, it tells you a bit about your offensive balance. Joe Mixon’s ankle injury made this a problem.
17. Houston Texans
It was a heartbreaking ending Monday night in New Orleans for Deshaun Watson, who used the Texans’ two new trade chips — left tackle Laremy Tunsil and receiver Kenny Stills to optimal effect. Tunsil allowed Watson to use the screen game as Houston’s former blindside blockers had not, and Watson hit Stills for a 37-yard touchdown with 37 seconds left to put the Texans up, 28-27. Problem was, Drew Brees had enough time to drive the ball down to the Houston 40-yard line, where Wil Lutz banged the 58-yard field goal that sent the Texans home with a 30-28 loss. However, the 0-1 start doesn’t reduce Watson’s brilliant play in the game, the ways in which the Houston defense often had Brees at loose ends, or a running game that marched for 180 yards. Watson and the Texans gave it their all, and as sometimes happens in the NFL, one team can look more impressive in defeat than another does in victory.
16. Indianapolis Colts
It’s a testament to the work of general manager Chris Ballard that the Colts were able to remain relatively stable in quality after Andrew Luck’s surprise retirement. In three years, Ballard has built a team solid enough in the run game, along the offensive line and on defense to take a decent quarterback and contend for a division title. The good news for the Colts is that Jacoby Brissett, who has been on this team since 2017 and replaced Luck in that season due to Luck’s shoulder injury, has developed exponentially as a quarterback. The Colts weren’t able to beat the Chargers, but Brissett’s performance — he completed 21 of 27 passes for 190 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions — should have people believing that this team can recover from the bombshell loss of a franchise quarterback better than most teams could.
15. Carolina Panthers
The star of the show for the Panthers in their 30-27 loss to the Rams was running back Christian McCaffrey, who has gone against positional type by becoming a truly indispensable part of his team. McCaffrey had 128 rushing yards and two touchdowns, along with 10 receptions for 81 yards, and he’s the only player in the Super Bowl era to have at least 120 rushing yards and 10 receptions in multiple games. His performance was all the more remarkable given that Cam Newton didn’t throw a touchdown pass and struggled with his accuracy throughout the game. That, and a run defense that didn’t show up against the Rams, will have to be solved if the Panthers are to recover against the Buccaneers on Thursday night.
14. Jacksonville Jaguars
In the offseason, the Jaguars signed former Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles to a four-year, $88 million contract with a $25 million signing bonus and $50.125 million guaranteed. The thought was that the franchise was just a quarterback away from Super Bowl contention. As it turned out, Foles suffered a broken collarbone early in Jacksonville’s 40-26 loss to the Chiefs, and it was up to rookie sixth-round pick Gardner Minshew to maintain a passing game. Surprisingly, Minshew did just that, completing 22 of 25 passes for 275 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. That earned the Washington State alum starting privileges while Foles recovers. But this is not a team that can claim to be one or two players away from greatness — not with an undisciplined on-field mindset and a defense that continues the communication issues that plagued it in 2018.
13. Tennessee Titans
With three consecutive 9-7 seasons, the Titans have been the very definition of league average lately. If their 43-13 win over the Browns is any indication, this is the year when Mike Vrabel’s team steps up to make a statement. Not only did defensive coordinator Dean Pees drive Baker Mayfield nuts with multiple coverages, looks and disguises, but quarterback Marcus Mariota and running back Derrick Henry blasted a Cleveland defense that was supposed to be one of the league’s best. If Tennessee puts up a similar showing against the Colts next week, it might be time to consider bumping the Titans up to the league’s first tier.
12. Minnesota Vikings
In the Vikings’ 28-12 win over the Falcons, Kirk Cousins attempted just 10 passes, completing eight for 98 yards and a touchdown to Adam Thielen. The Vikings became just the 11th team to attempt 10 or fewer passes in a game in the new millennium. Per Pro Football Reference, teams passing 10 or fewer times in a game since 2000 are 10-1. Not that this means the Vikings are better off running the ball 38 times a game and shelving Cousins for the most part — though some might argue they would be. This game plan was more about the dominance of Vikings running back Dalvin Cook and a Falcons team that couldn’t get anything going on offense until the game had descended into garbage time. Cousins will have to air it out a few more times next Sunday against the Packers if the Vikings are to improve to 2-0.
11. Chicago Bears
There are a ton of questions about quarterback Mitchell Trubisky after his disaster against the Packers on Thursday night, and that’s appropriate for a third-year guy who still struggles with basic offensive concepts and looked helpless against Green Bay’s defense in a 10-3 loss. However, head coach Matt Nagy has to be comparatively overjoyed with a defense that switched defensive coordinators from Vic Fangio to Chuck Pagano in the offseason and might be even better going into the 2019 season. That defense will have to maintain a terrifying level of performance if Trubisky is stuck at the level he showed opening night. He’ll next have to face a Broncos defense designed by Fangio, Denver’s new head coach and a man who will certainly understand how to make Trubisky uncomfortable.
10. Seattle Seahawks
Pete Carroll has two major issues to address, though his Seahawks picked up a 21-20 home win over the Bengals to open the season. The first is a stale offensive game plan that saw receiver Tyler Lockett targeted just twice — he caught a 44-yard touchdown pass on one of those targets — and a post-Legion of Boom secondary that features nothing in the way of obvious lockdown prospects, unlike when Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor were finding their feet in the early 2010s. It was nice that running back Chris Carson ran 15 times for 46 yards and a touchdown, but predictability will get you nowhere when facing better teams in more important situations. One would think the Seahawks should’ve learned this from their playoff loss to the Cowboys that ended their 2018 season.
9. Los Angeles Rams
The good news for the defending NFC champs in their 30-27 win over the Panthers is that running back Todd Gurley, whose injury situation has prompted more than its share of discussion in the last calendar year, looked ready to go against the Panthers, gaining 97 yards on 14 carries. The Rams’ run game was also aided by Malcolm Brown, who scored two touchdowns on the ground. The bad news is that Jared Goff, who signed a record-breaking contract extension last week, looked very much like the quarterback he was in Super Bowl LIII — tentative and inaccurate on deep passes, unable to take the playbook off-script and heavily reliant on Sean McVay’s route concepts. Goff is now paid like a true franchise quarterback — at some point, he’d better start playing like one.
8. Green Bay Packers
While the Packers offense under Matt LaFleur proved to be slightly more expansive than it had been under Mike McCarthy over the past few years (a low bar, to be sure), we don’t yet know what it will look like against defenses that aren’t up to the standard of what the Bears put out there Thursday night. The new Monsters of the Midway pressured Aaron Rodgers relentlessly, bottling up most of his attempts. The real encouragement in Green Bay’s 10-3 win was a revamped defense that matched Chicago’s blow for blow, making Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky look helpless. Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine now has the perfect personnel for his schemes, and that’s why the Packers are more dangerous that they’ve been in recent seasons.
7. Los Angeles Chargers
If running back Melvin Gordon thought he had an inch of leverage in his contract holdout, that thought was dismissed in the Chargers’ 30-24 win over the Colts. Austin Ekeler, the third-year undrafted back from Western State Colorado, ran 12 times for 58 yards and a touchdown, adding six catches for 96 yards and two more scores. He is the first undrafted player to record at least 150 scrimmage yards, two receiving touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in a single game since Dan Reeves had 156 scrimmage yards, two rushing touchdowns and two receiving touchdowns for the Cowboys on Nov. 5, 1967. Ekeler is more of a flash-and-dash player than a pure power guy, but in this offense, he’s the kind of yards-from-scrimmage monster who can easily become the primary force in a versatile run game. Gordon has little choice but to return to the Chargers and wait it out until he’s a free agent in 2020.
6. Baltimore Ravens
If you want to know what a departure Lamar Jackson’s performance against the Dolphins represented over his rookie season, consider this: Per Pro Football Focus, Jackson threw for 224 yards on throws of 20-plus air yards downfield in all of 2018. In just three quarters of Baltimore’s 59-10 win over Miami, he racked up 155 yards on such throws. Jackson peppered the Dolphins defense with deep passes to rookie receiver Marquise Brown, who became the first receiver in NFL history to have two touchdown receptions of 40 yards or more in his first regular-season game. Yes, it came against a team obviously tanking for the future, but Miami’s secondary may be its only credible position group. Baltimore plays the Cardinals next week, and if Jackson goes off anywhere near the way he did in Week 1, we might want to start paying attention.
5. Dallas Cowboys
The Giants weren’t equipped to put up much in the way of resistance to Dallas’ passing game under new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, but the larger point is that with Moore replacing Scott Linehan, Dak Prescott found open receivers through play-action and route combinations that had Big Blue without a clue. Prescott completed 25 of 32 passes for 405 yards and four touchdowns and a perfect 158.3 passer rating. A team that went 10-6 in 2018 with a reductive offense could make a lot of noise with a playbook that has moved definitively into the 21st century. Amari Cooper is still the star receiver in Big D, but watch out for second-year man Michael Gallup, who caught seven passes on seven targets for 158 yards.
4. Philadelphia Eagles
Carson Wentz looked just fine in his first action since last December, completing 28 of 39 passes for 313 yards and three touchdowns in a 32-27 win over the Redskins. DeSean Jackson certainly helped, as the former Washington receiver put up a spectacular revenge-game performance with eight catches for 154 yards and two of those scores. Jackson will be 33 years old this December, but he can still vaporize most cornerbacks with his deep speed and route awareness. What the Eagles have to worry about is a defense that allowed Case Keenum to put up even better numbers than Wentz did — the journeyman went 30 of 44 for 380 yards with three touchdowns and no picks.
3. New Orleans Saints
With 3:04 left in the first quarter against the Texans in the Superdome, Drew Brees rolled to his right, missed a couple of open reads and inexplicably tried to hit running back Latavius Murray with linebacker Whitney Mercilus right in Murray’s way. The interception and subsequent touchdown put the Texans up 7-0, and Houston had a 21-10 lead at one point in the third quarter. But Brees turned things around, hitting Taysom Hill for one touchdown and Tre’Quan Smith for another, answering every Texans strike with one of his own. His final quick drive to put Wil Lutz in position for a game-winning 58-yard field goal. Brees still has it.
2. Kansas City Chiefs
Last season, the Jaguars were the only Chiefs opponent to hold Patrick Mahomes without a touchdown pass. Jacksonville maintained that pace for less than two minutes into Sunday’s rematch before Mahomes drilled a pass to Sammy Watkins for a 68-yard touchdown. Any questions about how the Kansas City offense would run without Kareem Hunt (now in Cleveland) and Tyreek Hill (who left early with an collarbone injury and could miss a few weeks or more) were definitively answered by Watkins, who matched his three-touchdown total from 2018 in this game, and recent addition LeSean McCoy, who is perfectly suited to run the vertical routes Hunt used to kill defenses with. As long as Mahomes is on the field, the other pieces are fairly fungible. The reigning MVP had completed 25 of 33 passes for 378 yards and three touchdowns. Regression? Not in this case.
1. New England Patriots
The NFL’s One Percent just gets richer with the addition of Antonio Brown, and New England beat the daylights out of a Steelers team that certainly could have used Brown’s services on Sunday night. Keep this in mind, though — even with Brown added to a receiving corps that already includes Josh Gordon and Julian Edelman — the Patriots’ most formidable position group is still the secondary, and that showed in the ways they shut down Ben Roethlisberger over and over. The offense will make all kinds of splash plays this season, but it’s the defense, with Bill Belichick’s increased involvement this season, that will make the Patriots as difficult to beat as they’ve ever been.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar has also covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018.
