Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
This guys need to go better to save their seasons already.
The opening week of the NFL regular season might garner all the excitement, but Week 2 is much, much more important. It’s here where we get to see how players respond to the successes and failures of the previous week, as well as how coaching staffs can alter their approach installing new facets of the offense and defense. There’s a world of difference between starting 0-1 on the year, and falling into an 0-2 hole — meaning that this week is critical.
What we saw in Week 1 was a stunning amount of mediocre play, particularly at the quarterback position. While it’s true that NFL defenses have gotten better at using creative fronts and exotic blitz packages, we still saw passing down around the entire league in Week 1. It’s for this reason a lot of quarterbacks make the list of players who need to improve.
In order for teams to take a step forward we need to see much better play from these six players in Week 2.
No. 1: Deshaun Watson
The Browns should be in a position to be a playoff team this season, but what we saw out of Cleveland in Week 1 was anything but. This begins and ends with Deshaun Watson. There’s no nice way to say it: Watson is being paid too much money to play football like ass. It’s about resource allocation as much as anything else, and as it stands the Browns would be an equal, if not better team, with almost any other quarterback in the league right now.
The saving grace for Watson and the Browns in Week 2 is that they play the Giants, who will be vying with the Carolina Panthers for worst team in the NFL. There is absolutely no reason Watson shouldn’t have success, but if he struggles again, or God forbid the Browns fall to 0-2 — well, it’s going to get ugly.
No. 2: Aaron Rodgers
This is a fairly similar situation to Watson, though not quite as pronounced. Another sweetheart pick to make the playoffs, the Jets struggled in Week 1 because their defense couldn’t handle the 49ers’ ground game, while Rodgers wasn’t able to do enough to keep them in contention.
Rodgers and the Jets offense really need to get things moving against the Titans on Sunday. Every excuse for this team is gone now. In the past they were able to use Zach Wilson and poor QB play as the scapegoat for underperformance, but this simply can’t continue with Rodgers under center. Another game they should win, if the Jets fall to 0-2 we very well could be seeing the end of Robert Saleh’s tenure as head coach.
No. 3: Bryce Young
No fanbase came crashing down to earth more quickly in Week 1 than the Carolina Panthers. It’s not so much that Panthers fans expected brilliance of mass amounts of wins in 2024, but they wanted to see improvement — and instead got a 47-10 beatdown at the hands of the Saints.
Young wasn’t the only issue for the Panthers, but he was a big part of his. His mediocre, two interception day did nothing to assuage fears that these are the “same old Panthers,” and there’s already social media chatter about Carolina’s trade for him being one of the worst of all time.
That has to change against the Chargers. It’s less about winning the game, and more about actually showing some drive and potential even in a loss. Young needs to show he can command the offense and take a step forward, or we could be witnessing another ugly era of Panthers football.
No. 4 and No. 5: Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns
On paper the Giants looked like they were going to boast one of the best pass rushing duos in the NFC this year, and in Week 1 both their defensive ends were utterly awful. The Vikings have a stout offensive line, but there’s no excuse to field two elite pass rushers like Thibodeaux and Burns, but get almost no production out of them.
Thibodeaux lay a goose egg against Minnesota, contributing nothing in the game. His non-factor performance was coupled with Burns, who managed to register four tackles — but only one pressure.
This week they face the Browns, and an offensive line which was very shaky against Dallas. In turn there’s no excuse for a weak performance from these top pass rushers, and if they can’t get any disruption it’s going to be a long, long season in New York.
No. 6: Kirk Cousins
The Falcons made Kirk Cousins the highest paid player free agent quarterback with the belief he could get them over the top and secure the NFC South, and now one week in they’re tied at the bottom of the division with the Panthers.
Yes, it’s only one week, but Cousin’s first performance in the black and red was nothing to write home about. He failed to stretch the field, couldn’t find Drake London with regularity, and didn’t attempt a single pass of 20+ air yards.
The entire reason Cousins was signed was to be able to air it out where Desmond Ridder couldn’t, and we didn’t see any of that in Week 1. In order to restore some faith he’ll need a much better showing against the Eagles.
