16 things we learned: Week One

After the Kansas City Chiefs cruised to victory against Denver on Monday night, we now have a full glimpse of each team in action and there’s plenty to take from all 16 of the weekend’s games.

Preme Football have broken down the major storylines and talking points from each game into 16 simple paragraphs, so here are the main takeaways from the first week of the regular season.

1) The Rams won’t repeat their travel mistakes

In complete contrast to the San Francisco 49ers, who arrived in Melbourne over a week before the kickoff of Australia’s inaugral NFL regular season game, Los Angeles touched down barely 36 hours before the game. With Rams officials citing past international experiences and behind the scenes research as their reasoning for the decision, pundits found it very unusual that they’d leave it so late, especially for an opening week, high stakes, divisional matchup. And they were vindicated by the on-field performance that ensued. The Super Bowl favourites looked flat from start to finish, putting up their lowest points with Matthew Stafford at quarterback and being completely outplayed by the well-rested 49ers, who were absolutely relentless. To make matters worse, star acquisition Myles Garrett, who had a far from ideal team debut, is now headed to injured reserve.

2) The Bengals’ revamped defense is legitimate

For so long, when Cincinnati have won a game, it’s been high-scoring with Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase needing to put up massive numbers to drag the team over the line. While there’s no reason to believe they won’t combine for great individual seasons once again, the reliance on them to be elite week-in, week-out, is no more. The Bengals’ front office finally decided to address the defensive issues that have plagued the team in recent years, and they’d be feeling pretty good about their offseason right now. The defense registered 4 takeaways against Tampa Bay on Sunday (including a scoop and score), to go with 5 tackles for loss, with free agent signings Boye Mafe, Bryan Cook and Jonathan Allen all having a big say in the result of the game. While they won’t be turning the ball over 4 times a week, just a league-average defense could be enough to put the Bengals in contention, given the extreme offensive talent.

3) It’s become popular to have a strong opinion on Drake Maye

After Maye’s breakout season, which had him 2nd in MVP voting, ended in a sub-par individual showing throughout the playoffs (albeit to go with a Super Bowl appearance), Patriots fans were ridiculed left, right and centre for overrating their franchise quarterback, with many critics believing he simply doesn’t have what it takes to get it done against the league’s best defenses. Whilst he didn’t do himself any favours in changing that narrative in the final quarter of Wednesday night’s season opener, it can’t be overlooked just how impressive Maye’s sophomore season as a 23-year-old was, no matter the strength of New England’s 2025 schedule. He was ranked 4th in the entire NFL for passing yards, 3rd for touchdowns and helped to improve his team’s record by 9 wins, which aren’t numbers ever associated with a 2nd year quarterback. He’s quickly become underrated by the common football fan, and don’t be surprised if he bounces back as soon as this week.

4) Derrick Henry looks like he could play forever

Running backs going on 33 years old aren’t supposed to have career-best seasons, are they? Whilst Henry’s bar for that is extremely high, if his 2026 output consists of 17 performances like his first one, there’ll be no doubt about it. The King opened his account for the year with 163 yards from scrimmage and 3 touchdowns in the Ravens’ dominant win in Indianapolis as the Baltimore offense toyed with their opposition all afternoon. The only thing missing from Henry’s trophy cabinet is a Super Bowl ring, and his team will be in the hunt yet again this year if their offense can make it look as easy as they did. The veteran is signed with Baltimore through the 2027 season, but who knows just how long he could play for.

5) Trevor Lawrence will be in the MVP discussion

If the signs weren’t clear enough from Lawrence’s level of play at the back end of 2025, he made it very clear that he and the Jaguars have every intention to carry that momentum into this year, blowing the Browns off the park. Winning the AFC South last season, Lawrence eclipsed 4,000 passing yards for the first time in his career, also accounting for 38 total touchdowns, 9 of which he ran in himself – good for 2nd in the league behind Josh Allen. Liam Coen has been able to unlock the best out of the former 1st overall selection, after genuine questions about his future with the team began to arise at the end of 2024. The Jaguars have every reason internally to believe they can go back-to-back in the division and at least win a playoff game this year, and MVP-level play from their quarterback will go a long way.

6) Green Bay needed just 3 minutes to regret Matt LaFleur’s extension

The Packers’ 2026 season begun exactly how their 2025 one ended. They were on the road to a division rival, ahead early and in relative control of the game, until they weren’t. In fact, a span of just 159 seconds of game time was all it took for the Minnesota Vikings to score 22 points, reminiscent of the Chicago Bears’ 4th quarter avalanche against Green Bay in last year’s wildcard round matchup. Though he wasn’t helped by a few individual lapses on both sides of the ball, LaFleur was lost for words after the game and copped the majority of the criticism from Packers fans online, especially as the team have found a way to squander leads during his time in charge. Handed a multi-year extension at the conclusion of last season, you can only help what the Packers’ front office were thinking as they watched another collapse.

7) The Jets’ rebuild is starting to pay off

While green shoots are no longer sufficient for a fanbase who has endured 15 seasons without a playoff appearance, there’s every reason to believe these ones are legitimate and that the Jets’ next playoff roster is starting to assemble itself. The team had 3 first-round selections in last year’s draft and all showed glimpses of future stardom, with David Bailey recording his first career sack and Kenyon Sadiq finding the end zone. Will McDonald IV looks poised to continue his upward trajectory and the prime years of Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson are just around the corner. While the veteran Geno Smith is clearly not a long-term solution at quarterback, which they’ll likely look to acquire in the 2027 draft, he could be the perfect bridge to get the best out of the talented skill position players in their first couple of years and fast-track their development, before handing over the reigns and retiring.

8) The Steelers killed Mike Tomlin, but not his ideas

Viewers of NFL Redzone may have forgotten about Pittsburgh’s game against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, given its lack of highlight-reel plays, which is ultimately something that both these teams have become synonymous with over recent years. After yet another season of mediocrity, the team decided to move on from long-term head coach Mike Tomlin this offseason, accepting that although Tomlin got the best out of his roster most years, he wasn’t going to be their next Super Bowl-winning coach. Despite this, it looked like more of the same for Pittsburgh on Sunday. A gritty, unconvincing win against terrible opposition. Atlanta’s 3rd string quarterback Cooper Rush was hard to watch, and yet the Falcons were in the game almost all the way, only going down by 7 points in the end. With the Bengals and Ravens looking very strong, surely the Steelers couldn’t end up on top of the AFC North again.

9) Ben Johnson wasn’t joking about creating a historic offense

The Bears’ second year head coach made it very clear what his intentions for this season were throughout the lead up. Win a Super Bowl, and do so by scoring a lot of points. Well, that plan couldn’t have gotten off to a much better start in Carolina on Sunday, as Chicago outlasted the Panthers in a shootout of 96 total points. Caleb Williams was as good as flawless on the day and it’s hard to find an offensive starter for the Bears who didn’t put up huge numbers, with tight end Colston Loveland the exception, somehow failing to register a reception during the offensive clinic. High scoring teams who all but disregard defense haven’t been in vogue in recent years, but Johnson knows what he’s working with and has made it very clear how he intends to get the best out of it.

10) Tyler Shough is the league’s best 2nd year quarterback

Although the potential of Cam Ward is undeniable and Jaxson Dart’s performance on Sunday night staked a claim, Shough did all he could in New Orleans’ narrow loss in Detroit and seems ready to take another leap after finishing 2nd in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting last season. It took a very slow start from Shough and the Saints, who trailed 21-0 in the 3rd quarter, to get head coach Kellen Moore to open up the playbook and through caution into the wind, which actually brought the best out of the team’s offense. After just 85 in the first half, he ended up as the only quarterback in the league to throw for 400 yards this weekend, leading an inspired comeback to force overtime, only falling in the end due to a failed 2-point conversion. Despite the loss, rightful confidence is starting to shine through from Saints fans that they’ve found their franchise guy.

11) New York’s youngsters are fun and dangerous

The Giants entered Sunday Night Football as considerable underdogs against an experienced Dallas Cowboys outfit, but they certainly did not play like them. Leading the game from start to finish, both the offense and defense of New York looked composed all night, getting stops when they needed them most and putting 28 points on the board. The most impressive statistic out of the game was that the Giants held possession of the ball for over 60% of game time, showing a high degree of maturity to prolong drives and wind down the clock, never really giving Dallas a chance to truly get back in the game. While the playoffs remain unlikely in John Harbaugh’s first year as head coach, don’t be surprised if they take a few contenders down to the wire throughout 2026.

12) Patrick Mahomes hasn’t skipped a beat

While the limelight of his return to action following a torn ACL was stolen by free-agent signing Kenneth Walker III’s magnificent debut with the team, the 2-time MVP showed no signs of slowing down in a confident showing as Kansas City had their way with Denver on Monday night. While MVP-level performances each week might be a level above what we can expect this year from Mahomes, he knows when to time his best football. Walker III shapes as the most high-profile running back that Mahomes has gotten to work without throughout his time in the NFL, and with Steve Spagnuolo’s defense looking typically dominant, albeit against a hopeless Broncos offense on the night, the Chiefs might be back in contention much quicker than rival fans would like to believe.

13) AJ Brown was Philadelphia’s problem, not Jalen Hurts

Optimistic Eagles fans will claim that neither was a problem and that 2025 was simply a down year for the team and in particular, the offense. After all, they did win a Super Bowl together. Well, it can certainly be ruled out that Hurts was ever an issue for the team, as he looked like the quarterback that led the team to glory 2 seasons ago. While it wasn’t a dominant win by any stretch for Philadelphia, Hurts did what he had to do and remained in control all the way. Though not a direct replacement for Brown, Dontayvion Wicks will grow into a bigger role than he had in Green Bay, while Makai Lemon will get better as his rookie season goes on. There was a distasteful reaction from Eagles fans online to the injury Brown sustained in his debut with New England. Those fans are kidding themselves if they claim not to have a soft spot for their former All-Pro, Super Bowl-winning wide receiver.

14) The game script of Texans-Bills was flipped upside down

While it was the close contest that most predicted, very few would’ve foreseen the teams combining for 67 points in a shootout. After Josh Allen had a nightmare in Houston last season, which the Texans only just won despite a heroic team defensive performance, all eyes were on whether he could put on an MVP-level performance this time around, and he certainly did. It’ll be revealed over the coming weeks as to why exactly this game panned out in the surprising manner it did. Has Buffalo’s offense gotten even better or is Houston’s defense not quite as good as we all thought? Despite his fumble being the Texans’ last offensive play of the game as they had a chance to take the lead in the dying seconds, CJ Stroud put up a strong showing to rival Allen’s. Many are rooting for Stroud to have a bounce back year and this is a step in the right direction.

15) 2026 may not see a bigger upset than the Cardinals pulled off in LA

While Arizona have begun filling out their core with high-end draft talent, almost nobody had them pulling off a win over the Chargers on opening weekend. 99% of Preme Pick ‘Em users selected LA, if any further context is required. Jeremiyah Love, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Will Johnson all shape as future stars for the franchise but are nowhere near reaching their full potential, but the entire team came into the contest with nothing but victory on their mind, and it showed. They were hungrier than the Chargers, who looked as if they just expected things to happen for them, but ultimately turned in by far the league’s most disappointing effort of the weekend. Cardinals fans won’t get ahead of themselves but this is a sign of a bright future in Arizona, with Mike LaFleur already winning over the fanbase.

16) The Miami Dolphins are terrible

There’s not a whole lot to write here. The Las Vegas Raiders weren’t great in this game, in all honesty, but they had Ashton Jeanty on their side, who ultimately separated the 2 sides with a few big plays that no one for the Dolphins was capable of. As for the Dolphins, fans can only hope that they’ll return to the playoffs sooner rather than later and look back at their 2026 roster to see just how far they’ve come. Painfully long season ahead.

What was your biggest takeaway from the first week of regular season play?