Tuesday Takeaways: NFL Week 1 Reactions

 Welcome to the newest series on the blog, "Tuesday Takeaways", where we write about 5 things that we found interesting about the weekends games. With the first week of the NFL finished, it is time to discuss what stood out! Let me know what reactions you guys had to this weekends slate of games!

1. Mahomes, Lamar, Allen (and Stroud?) are in a league of their own.

Other than a brainfart interception to end the first half, Mahomes was nearly perfect in executing what the Chiefs needed from him on Thursday. Rashee Rice seems like he is picking up where he finished last year, and Hollywood Brown is on his way still. Chiefs are the clear team to beat.

Lamar was not perfect by his standards, having a few questionable decisions and missing a few throws (including the tying touchdown). Despite this the reigning MVP was a dynamic runner and still made great plays. In what was a subpar game for his standards Lamar was still very good and almost led the comeback.

Allen was extremely impressive leading his young and inexperienced team to the comeback victory accounting for 4 touchdowns.

All in all these 3 QBs should be the unanimous top 3 in the league, and I do not think that there is much argument. CJ Stroud looks poised to enter the conversation, but I will hold off for now until I let him sneak into these talks.

2. Joe Mixon the needle mover?

The Texans were the young and fun team last year and entered this year with expectations to sit at the table with the other league contenders. They have young dynamic playmakers on both sides and have expectations that Houston has not had very much in their existence as a franchise. The one question mark that I thought could hold them back was their running game. Last year Devin Singletary was fine, a serviceable back. In the offseason the team made the move this year to acquire Joe Mixon and after one week this seems like a fantastic move. Mixon averaged 5.3 yards a carry on 30(!) touches! He looked explosive and dangerous every time he touched the ball. If the Texans can get anything close to this consistently to compliment the passing game, the Texans will surely be one of the best offenses in the league. 

3. Maybe there was some logic to the 8th pick in the draft.

Everyone was scratching their heads in April when the Atlanta Falcons selected Michael Penix Jr. 8th overall after signing Kirk Cousins to a $180 million contract. Maybe they knew something that we didn't. In his first game coming off last years injury, Cousins looked like a shell of himself. He looked borderline immobile. The Falcons ran close to no play action, Cousins never went outside the tackle box, and he showed disappointing pocket awareness, failing to step up in the pocket and taking multiple hits and sacks. While this could just be a case of rust coming off missing a majority of last season, the performance was concerning from Kirk.

4. Panthers fans start preparing those #1 overall mock draft selections.

I am on record as being a believer in Bryce Young showing improvement this year, but after one week I am almost ready to say that I was completely wrong. Young looked bad, missing reads, and having inaccurate throws. The Panthers as a whole also looked horrible. I do not see any team being worse than them this year. While it is only one game, I do not think it is much of an overreaction to say that the Panthers will end up with the worst record in the NFL this year.

5. The Ravens offense needs some tweaking.

The offense that intrigued me the most this weekend was the Baltimore Ravens. With a 2x MVP at QB with Lamar Jackson, an exciting second year WR in Zay Flowers, one of the best TEs of the past 5 seasons in Mark Andrews, and the addition of the best RB since he entered the league in Derrick Henry, I expected some fireworks. We did not get that. The first drive they looked great, marching down the field for a Henry touchdown. Then they went away from Henry for the rest of the game. They didn't offer much threat vertically, using Flowers mostly in the screen game. Andrews was a non factor. While it makes some sense considering they were passing to come back in the game, Justice Hill was on the field for 54% of the offenses snaps. They were too predictable. I would like to see the offense make some strategical changes next week against the Raiders. I do believe they have the potential to be as dangerous offensively as they were last week, and that this week was mostly a case of needing to refine some things early in the season.