Week 1 of the 2024 NFL Season is in the books and we’ve already learned a lot about each team from their week 1 performances. Heading into week 2, we’ll be predicting the outcomes for each matchup.
Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins
This article was completed after this game concluded, but before this game, we had the Buffalo Bills locked in as victors. The Buffalo Bills going into this game won 13 of their last 15 games against Miami and Josh Allen was undefeated on Thursday Night Football. We know the Bills mafia travels well and all momentum is going to be towards the Bills to win.
Winner: Buffalo Bills
New Orleans Saints at Dallas Cowboys
Two teams that put on defensive clinics in week 1 square off against one another. The Cowboys won by 16 points against Cleveland and the Saints annihilated the Panthers by a whopping 37 points. The Saints were a pleasant surprise, but the Dallas offense is a very different one than the Bryce Young led Panthers. Dak Prescott is a Pro Bowl quarterback, CeeDee Lamb is a top 5 receiver in the league, & the Cowboys defense gets their offense the ball much more often. The Cowboys winning this game sets the tone that they are a legit Super Bowl contender and puts the doubters to rest.
Winner: Dallas Cowboys
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Detroit Lions
In a rematch of the divisional round series that ended with the Lions coming out on top, the Lions and the Buccaneers face off once again. Much like that game, the story is going to be similar with the Lions winning a close fought game with both Baker Mayfield & Jared Goff having big performances. Ultimately it comes down to the running backs for Detroit who give the Lions the edge where they can put the ball into the end zone and not put the pressure on Goff to convert in the red zone.
Winner: Detroit Lions
Indianapolis Colts at Green Bay Packers
The Indianapolis Colts face a Green Bay Packers team that is going to be without Jordan Love even if the Packers haven’t announced him as out, there is less than 1% chance that he’ll actually be able to play. The next option for the Packers is Malik Willis who has 67 pass attempts in his career without a single touchdown and 3 interceptions. After Willis is Sean Clifford who isn’t much better. The Colts catch a break without Jordan Love being able to play and manage to get a big road win to add to their resume with some explosive plays from their quarterback Anthony Richardson.
Winner: Indianapolis Colts
New York Jets at Tennessee Titans
The 49ers spoiled the first full game of Aaron Rodgers as a member of the New York Jets. He gets an easy opportunity to redeem himself and work on getting his rhythm back in with a Titans team that just lost to the Chicago Bears. These are the types of games where Aaron Rodgers will have a field day and we’re excited to see the multi-touchdown masterpiece he’s about to unleash.
Winner: New York Jets
San Francisco 49ers at Minnesota Vikings
The San Francisco 49ers will be without Christian McCaffrey for another week as he was ruled out for week 2 and is potentially looking at a stint on the IR. No worries for the 49ers as Jordan Mason stepped up with a monster 100+ yard performance and a touchdown in week 1. The 49ers offense proved they don’t need to rely on Pro Bowler CMC and should fare well against Minnesota. Even though Darnold knows the offense well and can share his insights with the Vikings defense, their defense is nowhere near the level of skill as the 49ers are.
Winner: San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks at New England Patriots
To earn their week 1 victories, the Patriots and the Seahawks leveraged the run game to their advantage. With a different script to the game & Kenneth Walker likely to be out this game will need to feature more passing. If it comes down to that, Geno Smith and the Seahawks offense clears anything that the Patriots can offer in that department. It’s going to be a Seahawks victory as they get off to a hot start to 2-0 on the year.
Winner: Seattle Seahawks
New York Giants at Washington Commanders
The Giants are regretting their decision on franchise quarterback every game that gets played and for the Commanders, after one week, it looks like their decision on franchise quarterback has paid off. Daniel Jones could soon find himself without a job and for Jayden Daniels, he was the lone bright spot on the Commanders offense in their week 1 loss against Tampa Bay. Jayden Daniels reminds us a lot of Lamar Jackson and for good reason. Like Lamar Jackson, we expect Jayden Daniels to pull out a win this week and get the first victory of his NFL career.
Winner: Washington Commanders
Los Angeles Chargers at Carolina Panthers
Both the Chargers and the Panthers didn’t do much in the passing game from their week 1 performances. For Justin Herbert, it was more so that the breakout of JK Dobbins that he didn’t need to be throwing as much. For Bryce Young, he was doing nothing but throwing and it was not pretty. The Chargers aren’t great, but until Bryce Young can prove us wrong, the Panthers should continue being the worst team in the league with a bottom 5 offense.
Winner: Los Angeles Chargers
Cleveland Browns at Jacksonville Jaguars
Two teams that had some offensive troubles in week 1 and lost, now come in seeking a win that will be key for how the rest of the season will play out. Both teams are looking to avoid an 0-2 start that could haunt them come playoff time. The Browns need to realize that they made a massive mistake with Watson as their quarterback and the Jaguars need to let Trevor Lawrence play like the quarterback that they paid for him to be. The latter can be fixed in the short-term as they learn from their mistakes in the second half against Miami and let Trevor air the ball out to his plethora of receivers. The Jaguars get a big win in their home opener in their stadium being labeled as TreverBank Field for the weekend.
Winner: Jacksonville Jaguars
Las Vegas Raiders at Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens might have lost last week, but they enter this week as the largest favorites for the week and rightly so. The Ravens came up just short against the Super Bowl champions and are going to come out to this game guns blazing. The Ravens are easily going to clear the 8 points they are favored by against a Raiders team that just lost by 12 to the Chargers.
Winner: Baltimore Ravens
Los Angeles Rams at Arizona Cardinals
Both of these NFC West teams couldn’t hold on to win in their season openers. The tougher loss was for the Rams who lost Puka Nacua for an extensive period of time with a knee injury that landed him on the IR. Nacua was a key focal point of their offense, but Cooper Kupp rose to the occasion and stepped up in his absence. With Kupp back to being the #1 option on the Rams, we’re confident he & the remainder of the Rams offense can still perform while Nacua is on the IR. They face a Cardinals team that let Josh Allen put up 4 touchdowns in their second half collapse. The Cardinals need to get Marvin Harrison Jr the ball more. Unlike Los Angeles getting Kupp the ball, we don’t think Kyler is going to do the same with MHJ and it’s going to cost them this NFC West showdown.
Winner: Los Angeles Rams
Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos
Former Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson is unlikely to play against his former team. It would have been so fitting if he is able to play against the team that moved on from him so quickly. Without Wilson, the Steelers should still be able to get past the Broncos from their top-tier defense alone. Led by 2021 defensive player of the year in TJ Watt, the Steelers defense is going to get to Bo Nix quickly & often making the rookie continue to struggle to start his career. Last week was proof that the Steelers offense doesn’t need to play well for the Steelers to win games.
Winner: Pittsburgh Steelers
Cincinnati Bengals at Kansas City Chiefs
The Bengals and the Chiefs have formed a bit of a rivalry in recent years, but with the way Cincinnati looked in week 1, this does not feel like one. The Bengals offense could not get things going and going against an offense that can put up points like no other like the Chiefs, the Bengals are in for a long afternoon.
Winner: Kansas City Chiefs
Chicago Bears at Houston Texans
Both the Chicago Bears and the Houston Texans narrowly pulled out victories in week 1. This week, only one of the two teams can win and it’s not going to be a narrow victory either. The Texans should have no problem shutting down the Bears who managed only 148 total yards of offense last week compared to the Texans with 417 yards which is good enough for 2nd in the league. Expect a big game from CJ Stroud and multiple of the weapons he has at his disposal against a Bears team that barely beat the Titans.
Winner: Houston Texans
Atlanta Falcons at Philadelphia Eagles
Kirk Cousins is no stranger to playing the Philadelphia Eagles as he spent the first six years of his career in Washington and has faced them 11 times in his career. Winning 6 of those 11, Kirk Cousins has a winning record against them but that’s not going to last very long as he’ll fall down to .500. The Eagles knocked off the Packers in the NFL’s first Brazil game & the Falcons couldn’t even beat the Steelers who failed to score a touchdown in the entire game. The Eagles offense despite the offensive line mishaps was 10x more impressive than Atlanta & should continue to be so in the 2nd Monday Night Football game of the year.
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