The second week of the NFL season has just about come and gone and it appears that upsets are on the menu!
We saw the Minnesota Vikings take out the San Francisco 49ers, the New Orleans Saints demolish the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers stun the Detroit Lions. All three of those winners are now 2-0 on the season... maybe there is a new status quo in the NFC.
The week that was provided a lot of information and data for us to comb through so that we could generate the latest batch of our wonderful opinions as a collective football society. We like to sift through those on the biggest and brightest things around here which is exactly what we are about to do.
Entering Year 2 of the Sean Payton era in Denver, the former Saints Super Bowl-winning coach chose to gamble the future of his Broncos tenure on the back of quarterback Bo Nix whom they drafted 12th overall in this year's draft. As the headline states above, Nix is having a very rough go of it to begin his career.
Nix is the second-oldest quarterback ever drafted in the first round (24.5), behind only Brandon Weeden who was 28. He's played a ton of football and while many believe it's a negative for a prospect, you can't deny that he has much more experience than most rookies. Payton likely bet on that as a positive.
But here we are. The Broncos are 0-2, Nix is struggling to throw the ball farther than 5 yards down the field, and the team looks to be in trouble once again with every other team in the AFC West looking like very competitive clubs.
Is Sean Payton already in hot water barely two games into his second year at the helm in Denver? It sure seems like we're getting there, but it's also only Year 2 of his five-year, $90-million contract. There's time, but we'll see how impatient ownership gets if things don't start looking better sooner rather than later.
RJ:
As our resident Dallas Cowboys person around here (shout out Blogging The Boys) I spent a lot of time way back when preparing for Sean Payton to be the team's next head coach.
That obviously did not happen and you know what? Good for Sean that it didn't. Had Payton, whose Saints tenure was less impressive than Mike McCarthy's in Green Bay... something nobody likes to discuss or admit... done all of the things he does for a team at the center of everything like Dallas then questions like Michael's would have been happening much earlier, way more often and with a ton more intensity.
For the record, I agree with the doubt surrounding Nix specifically, but I cannot believe that I am getting ready to eat lunch on Monday (at the time of this writing) and that I have not seen a single national show or headline about the botching of the end of game Payton had against the Steelers.
The Broncos narrowed their deficit against Pittsburgh to 7 points with just under two minutes left in the game. With only a single timeout in their pocket, many assumed (including Scott Hanson on RedZone) that an onside kick was coming. It did not.
Sean Payton chose to kick it off and play defense to get the ball back. In his defense (I guess?) his plan "worked" and the Broncos stopped the Steelers and forced a punt. The problem with this whole "strategy" was that it left Denver with only nine seconds to work from their own 19-yard line. Obviously it was a rock and a hard place situation for Payton, but as the person who executed the most iconic onside kick of all time... not going for it was such a cowardly move.
The Broncos are one of the worst-coached teams in the league, Bo Nix or not. It is amazing how more people are not talking about it.
RJ:
When Marvin Harrison Jr. did not take the league by storm during the Cardinals' Week 1 loss to the Buffalo Bills many people wondered whether or not he was the worst draft pick in the history of the world. This is a slight exaggeration, but it sort of happened.
What's more is that as the week unfolded a Kyler Murray quote was taken out of context that implied that it was not Kyler's "job" to get MHJ the ball. Drama! Intrigue! Suspense!
Kyler went to work on Sunday and targeted MHJ a total of eight times. The duo connected on four of them for 130 yards and two touchdowns. I think that MHJ is a certifiable baller, just like literally everyone predicted him to be.
As someone who used the No. 1 pick in one of his two dynasty leagues on Marvin Harrison Jr., I am extremely happy to see him have the breakout performance we've all been expecting.
The negative Nancies came out of the woodwork in droves following his underwhelming Week 1 stat line. People started pointing to his on-field speed numbers and other advanced analytics to pile on Harrison and I personally thought it was all in poor taste just ONE game into his ROOKIE season. Say what you want about him not going through any of the normal athletic testing prior to the draft; Harrison showed on Sunday that he can get behind the defense and outrun defensive backs just enough to find the end zone.
And if he doesn't outrun them, he sure can be taller than them (see first touchdown catch).
Again, super stoked to see Harrison breakout and here's many more games where he scores multiple touchdowns and torches NFL defenses.
RJ:
In case you missed our SB Nation expert picks from Week 2... I was the only person who took the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to beat the Detroit Lions. No big deal.
My logic was that the Lions looked rather meek (relatively speaking) in the season opener. I know that everybody loves the Lions and therefore it isn't cool to point out that they may not be the greatest team of all time, but they can be a bit reckless sometimes which is part of their charm/greatness. It just has another side of its proverbial coin.
Frauds is definitely a heavy word and said in jest, but I do think it is fair and time to say that maybe they are not the darling that everybody continually acts like they are. Last season was amazing for Detroit, but success brings expectations. We cannot lump continual Dan Campbell coaching gaffes into him being cool and aggressive. If we are going to treat them like a proper person at the adult's table then we have to be willing to call them out when he puts his team in bad spots like he did on Sunday.
Michael:
I think it's completely fair to start giving Dan Campbell realistic criticism about how some of his in-game decisions have cost the Lions here or there in this game or that one. As the resident Chargers fan, I know how this goes as I watched Brandon Staley do something similar for two-plus seasons.
Do I think the Lions are actually frauds though? Absolutely not. I don't think the Lions are frauds for the same reason I don't think the 0-2 Ravens are frauds or the 0-2 Bengals or any other notable team who's had a rough start through the first two weeks. It's early! These things happen!
The Chargers are 2-0 for the first time since 2012. People are now thinking they're for real and real contenders. Well, I'd like to remind everyone that the Chargers went 7-9 in 2012 when it was all said and done. The records for NFL teams right now mean nothing and we should treat them as such, no matter how badly I want to hold it over the head of every fan of every team who isn't undefeated.
Michael:
The Ravens lost by seven points against the Chiefs in the first game of the season before dropping a 26-23 decision to the Raiders this Sunday on a last-second field goal by Daniel Carlson. Baltimore is now 0-2 with games against your Cowboys (1-1), Bills (2-0), and Bengals (0-2) coming up over the next three weeks before things lighten up with a game against the Commanders in Week 6.
There's an actual and real chance that the Ravens begin this season with a 1-4 or even 0-5 record. Something like that could ultimately sink their season before they even hit the halfway mark of the schedule.
Looking past the obvious win-loss record, this Ravens team does look a bit less intimidating than it has in recent years. Baltimore's defense was humming last season under then-defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald (now Seattle's head coach) but have now given up 27 and 26 points, respectively, in each of their first two games. The offense added Derrick Henry to the team but are currently averaging a whole touchdown less than they did a year ago (28.4 in 2023 vs. 21.5 in 2024).
Is this mainly a defensive issue? Is Todd Monken struggling to continue his success from a season ago? All I know is, if something doesn't change fast, this might get ugly before we know it in Baltimore.
RJ:
I'll say that the only reason I am really nervous about the Ravens facing the Cowboys as you mentioned is that Baltimore is winless. That is a different kind of desperation.
It is hard to see how they could have fallen off this hard and this quickly, especially with such a special season from Lamar a year ago. Derrick Henry does not look like some sort of monster in the way we anticipated, but most shocking to me is the mistakes that we are seeing from a John Harbaugh-coached team.
As you noted we are extremely early on, but this team has the makings of one we look back on and note the very small ifs that they let slip through the cracks. I'm not in any way willing to bury them, but they are making this a lot harder on themselves than it needs to be.