All-22: Week 1

Welcome to the first installment of my weekly column, All-22! For the next 18 weeks, I’ll be providing 22 observations from each week of the regular season. I’ll cover as much ground as I can every time while making sure I hit on the most relevant topics as much as is called for.

Week 1 of the 2026 season was an exciting start to the year, with a nearly record-breaking point total and plenty of early topics to keep an eye on. Let’s dig in:

• Plain and simple, Drake Maye had to be more decisive on Seattle’s game-clinching interception. The problem wasn’t trying to force the throw, though that would have been ill-advised. It was choosing to force the throw halfway through throwing the ball away. When you don’t commit to your decision, you’re likely headed for disaster.
• It’s been talked to death, but the decision by the Rams to travel to Australia so close to the game was clearly ill-advised. I don’t know if circadian rhythm was necessarily the issue as many speculated it would be, but the physical effects of a flight that long don’t go immediately. Certainly not in fewer hours than the duration of the flight itself.
• Something has to be done about this “banana” motion. Credit to Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers for exploiting it, but it’s illegal much of the time. While some instances were debatable, on many there was clear forward motion prior to the snap.
• The Player of the Game on Thursday night ended up being shared between Brock Purdy, Fred Warner, and Nick Bosa. But candidates discussed on the (otherwise very good) Netflix broadcast were all offensive players for the 49ers, even while the defense held last year’s best offense to one score. We’re doing a disservice to the game and to the fans if we don’t highlight elite defensive players as much as offensive stars, especially when two of them are coming off season-ending injuries to turn in excellent performances against a top-shelf unit.
• The hopes of the Chicago Bears to become legitimate contenders all hinge on Caleb Williams building on the highlights of last season to become an undisputed member of the league’s top tier of quarterbacks. If Sunday was any indication, they should be contending for a long time.
• While overshadowed by the 59-point outburst on the other side, Bryce Young and the Carolina offense also looked pretty good in that Bears-Panthers game. These two quarterbacks, fates connected by virtue of being essentially traded for one another, are both showing promise right now when the short-term and long-term prospects of their respective franchises depend on how big of steps they each take, and in what directions they take them. Through one game, both have to be feeling good.
• The Houston defense, expected unanimously to be at least among the league’s best this year, had a rough start as they allowed 36 points in a loss to the Bills and dropped what would have been a game-sealing interception at the goal line. This can easily be chalked up to playing against a future Hall of Fame quarterback in his prime or to defenses across the league struggling on Sunday, but it’s something to monitor.
• CJ Stroud’s performance will be remembered for bad fumbles on the first and last drives of the game, but between those he quietly played his best game since he was a rookie. Will this critical year for him show more of that type of play again, or a continued pattern of crucial mistakes?
• We saw plenty of both the good and the bad from Baker Mayfield as well, fresh off a big contract extension. That’s par for the course oftentimes with Mayfield, but if he limits the bad a little more than he did on Sunday, the division is winnable. And the offenses in their division aren’t quarterbacked by Joe Burrow, which helps.
• A horrible defense has been the only thing to keep Burrow out of the playoffs when healthy. They only allowed 20 offensive points to the Bucs, but just as importantly made the sorts of big plays they’ve been lacking the last two years, getting four takeaways. We’ll see if the offseason prioritization of improving on that side of the ball pays off over a whole season.
• When the Bengals signed Mike Gesicki in March of 2024, I thought he would put up huge numbers in that offense with Burrow. He had a standout game on Sunday, courtesy of offseason adjustments to the offense, and those could pay off in a big way with the embarrassment of riches they have as far as weapons are concerned. If he keeps it up, there’s no way to defend all of that talent at once.
• The consensus, accurately, is that Aaron Rodgers can’t be consistently dominant anymore, but every now and then you still see it. He hurried the Steelers to the line on Sunday to catch the Falcons with 12 men on the field, and it felt just like it did a decade ago when it was a weekly occurrence. I bet he’ll give us an end-of-half Hail Mary at some point this year, too, just for old times’ sake.
• Lamar Jackson. I’d love to give a more sophisticated analysis than that, but my reactions to watching him play are pretty much just awe. I imagine defensive coordinators feel that same awe, mixed with a whole lot of frustration and fury.
• Despite only playing a half, Zay Flowers looked better playing with Jackson than he has yet as a pro on Sunday. His potential emergence as a true #1 receiver will unlock new levels of fear that offense can instill in their opponents.
• Flowers isn’t the only freshly-compensated wideout stepping into the #1 role nicely. Christian Watson looked every bit the part this week, and if he stays healthy he can be all that scouts saw in him when he dominated at the Senior Bowl in 2022. This team has been needing someone from that room to step up, and he’s doing his part early.
• Watson notwithstanding, never doubt Brian Flores. The Minnesota defense is seemingly poised for a step back based on personnel losses, but that won’t stop him from finding a way to create absolute havoc, and making a good quarterback in Jordan Love look pretty bad a few times down the stretch en route to a deceptively lopsided win.
• Love’s former backup, Malik Willis, finally has a shot to be a starter with some modicum of job security, at least for 2026. For Green Bay, he was reigned in heavily to keep the train on the tracks in run-dominant game plans, and didn’t make as many big plays or big mistakes when filling in repeatedly for an injured Love. He made plenty of both on Sunday, something I expect we’ll see from him all season. He had a nice touchdown run and showed off his arm strength a few times, but his interception was bad and he had issues with pocket awareness.
• I’m personally in favor of the refs keeping their flags in their pockets when players celebrate, and I think the goal posts should be fair game. But Stefon Diggs is in his 12th year as an NFL player, and should know better. To jump onto the padding there, taking away a chance to tie the game with a two-point conversion in the 4th quarter, is inexcusable.
• The biggest concern with Jayden Daniels as a prospect was how his play style and size would lend themselves to staying on the field in the NFL, and last year legitimized those concerns. But the way he was scrambling in several instances on Sunday showed he’s not going to change, and that the injuries haven’t dampened his ability, either. Now if he can just stay out of the medical tent while playing like that, he’ll be right back to his rookie self.
• The much-anticipated debut of the improved Dallas defense didn’t exactly show up Sunday night. While growing pains are to be expected, the returning offense disappointed as well. So has the offense taken a step back? Has the defense actually improved? Or was it merely a bad week for both sides of the ball? We may be asking ourselves who the Cowboys are, and even who each of their units are, frequently over the next four months.
• Patrick Mahomes will never stop being compared to Tom Brady, it’s just the way it is. After a torn ACL, it was expected that he would be somewhat like Brady in 2009, who played well, but showed clear trepidation and had a quick trigger to avoid defenders hitting his rebuilt knee. Based on the first quarter touchdown run for Mahomes Monday night, and several plays he had in the open field, we’re not going to see any such thing from him. While I would have never quite called his intentional style of play “reckless abandon,” he’s going to continue being the aggressive player he’s always been.
• Finally, as we all have thoughts about which teams underachieved and overachieved in Week 1 and what to expect from them the rest of the way, please remember that it was, in fact, Week 1. Eventual MVP Matthew Stafford and the Rams only scored 14 points in Week 1 last year. The Raiders beat the Patriots in Week 1; the former went on to earn the #1 pick while the latter went to the Super Bowl. The Seahawks also lost before going on to win the Super Bowl. And JJ McCarthy was the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Week. So let’s not overreact quite yet. Instead, let’s enjoy Week 2!