5 Things We Learned From Week 1 of the 2023 NFL Season

With week 1 in the books, we’ll be looking at 5 takeaways we have from the first week of the NFL season.

#1: San Francisco 49ers & Dallas Cowboys are Super Bowl Favorites

The Cowboys won 40-0 on the road against a division rival and the 49ers wiped the floor with the Steelers. Both teams are talented on both ends of the ball. They’re the teams to beat and when they face off in October, it could be a glimmer of what we might see in a NFC Championship matchup. 

#2: Young Quarterbacks Have a Lot of Work to do

Howell, Ridder, Stroud, Richardson, Pickett & Young all did not play well in week 1. The 3 rookies and 3 sophomores struggled throughout their respective games. We’re the most hopeful Pickett can turn things around since he played against the toughest defense, but the rest outside of Stroud don’t really have an excuse. They played poor pass defenses and they still weren’t moving the ball. It’s going to be an uphill battle for all 6 of these guys and their games aren’t going to get any easier. 

#3: Race to 2,000 Receiving Yards

Cooper Kupp came close to breaking Calvin Johnson Jr.’s record for receiving yards in a single season but the feat has yet to be done. In 2022, Tyreek Hill & Jefferson were both less than a couple hundred yards short from Megatron’s record. Week 1 it was apparent that their respective offenses were going to run through them as Jefferson had 150 yards and Tyreek put up over 200 hundred yards. We think this season it is highly possible that one of them set the record on their way to over 2,000 receiving yards. 

#4: The AFC is up for Grabs

The Defending Super Bowl Champions lost and the team that they beat in the AFC Championship game also lost. After the Chiefs and Bengals losses, we turn to other contenders like the Jaguars, Dolphins, Chargers, and Ravens. Ravens & Jaguars didn’t have their greatest wins ever and the Dolphins were in a shootout with the Chargers. It truly is up for the taking this year and there’s a lot of teams in the running. 

#5: Defense Wins Championships

Outside of the Dolphins, Chargers, & 49ers, there weren’t many offensive spectacles that stood out. A lot of the matchups that were played weren’t shootouts or high scoring affairs. The Cowboys had the most points on the week with 40 but 2 of those touchdowns were defensive. We also saw a couple other defense / special team scores across the league such as DeForest Buckner’s fumble return and the Jets punt return to win in overtime. Defense was a key factor in many of the week 1 matchups and it goes to show that the emphasis on defense is greater than ever. Teams need to be investing more into that side of the ball and a lot of offenses were slowed down as a result this past weekend.