NFL Notebook Week 1: Mahomes Magic Is Back, Lions Need to Re Adjust Expectations

September 14, 2022 Eric Jensen Nfl, Uncategorized 0

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - JANUARY 20: Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs looks to pass in the second half against the New England Patriots during the AFC Championship Game at Arrowhead Stadium on January 20, 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)

Each week Eric Jensen will crack open his game notes from his NFL notebook and share some of his biggest takeaways from the week that was in the National Football League. 

Rams Bills

Josh Allen looks in complete control of the offense. Despite one ill-timed throw the Bills looked incredible in their performance on Thursday night.

Josh Allen is just unfair at this point, he makes throws only one or two other NFL QB’s can make and despite Mahomes’ gaudy touchdown numbers this week I view Allen as the best at the position right now. Gabriel Davis looks as good as advertised and even Zack Moss looks like he could be a potential weapon this year.

Meanwhile, we are unsure whether Matthew Stafford is injured or just playing poorly to start the season. The QB looked toward new target Allen Robinson all of two times on Thursday night.

At this point Allen Robinson is all name and no game, he took plays off last year in Chicago and the offense never looked towards him in week one. I’ll give him three more weeks but it’s getting hard to defend him.

Jalen Ramsey, yikes that’s about four straight games where he’s been worse than league average at corner.

Chiefs Cardinals

Maybe this is the year for Clyde Edwards Helaire? Maybe? It’s just week one (this caveat stands for all takes in this article) but Helaire looks explosive and like a weapon the Chiefs want to keep involved in their prolific attack.

Patrick Mahomes looked like what we expect Patrick Mahomes to look like. I still stand by my take that right now I would rather have Josh Allen but Mahomes was about efficient as they come and you can’t really argue with a five touchdown night.

Isaiah Pacheco looks like a speedy little guy and someone that will be involved in the Chief’s offense moving forward. In my ruthless fantasy football league, I expect him to be picked up as a bench stash moments before TNF kickoff.

Chris Jones is back inside and back dominating, the Chief’s front seven looks absolutely scary man, I do not want to see what happens when they run into an offensive line that looks like say the Broncos do, weakness riddled, things could go very well for the Chiefs in that scenario.

The Cardinals on the other hand, look like a mess, they miss Deandre Hopkins and unlike most years this looks like the Cardinals in November when the NFL figures out the defense. Kliff Kingsbury is on a hotter seat than people think and if they start 1-4 or 0-5 that could spell an early coaching change. This is a must-win year for the Cardinals and they do not look ready for it.

Lions Eagles

This game to me was the best of the weekend. Styles make fights and these are two drastically different styles. The Eagles are, I think, one of the most creative and innovative offenses in the NFL. That was put on full display in week one.

Giving Jalen Hurts a true X passing threat like AJ Brown just adds another dimension to an RPO and option-style offense. Hurts may not be the best passer in the league but I would argue he is one of the five best passers at running the RPO scheme, he just looks extremely comfortable within the system.

Yes, he missed a lot of throws, and yes his completion percentage was not promising but you could see the vision. Hurts as pointed out by friend of the Endzone Podcast Ryan Kearney, has improved each year he’s been in the league. That carried over to week one, I am very excited to see what happens with this offense.

The Lions on the other hand are a case of a team that needs to re adjust expectations. As Dan Campbell said in his press conference after the game Sunday, it is no longer acceptable for this team to lose by three points each week. They have too much talent and are too well coached to have that issue.

A 6-11 season for Detroit should be viewed as a massive failure, especially with Green Bay looking like a team in transition this needs to be a team that’s hanging around in the division hunt in December. That means winning 8-10 games, that is not an unrealistic expectation.

The offensive line looks absolutely dominant. The running game has two elite weapons in D’eandre Swift and Jamaal Williams, Amon-Ra St Brown looks like he’s taken the next step and DJ Chark quietly put up a productive week one. Jared Goff is Jared Goff but we have seen him have success with talented supporting casts before.

Jeff Okudah played arguably the best game of his career limiting Devonta Smith to no catches. The pass rush got good pressure against Hurts and five QB hits.

Niners Bears

Trey Lance, have to wait another week for normal conditions to see what’s up but, not promising to start.

Justin Fields, didn’t throw the ball much, wasn’t super accurate, but man he makes a lot of great plays when things break down. Maybe he can overcome a bad offensive line and a lack of weapons, he deals with adversity extremely well it’s worth giving him the benefit of the doubt as a football fan.

Dolphins Patriots

Call me crazy, but I was just not as impressed with this Dolphins win as most of the football populous was. 23/33 but mostly short over the middle stuff. Stuff that Tua has previously been good with. He only threw five passes that went over twenty yards that according to fantasy pros advanced passing metrics.

It looked like a Kyle Shannahan offense, the other factor here is that the Patriots are just not a good football team.

The offense is a discombobulated mess, the defense is old and slow and missed assignments all day and the coaching staff is anchored by assistants like Joe Judge and Matt Patricia. This is not a team that is fighting for a playoff spot, this is a team that is going to have to claw and fight for seven wins.

Let me see more Tua deep passing, let me see the offense score more than 20 points and then I might be ready to buy in.

Packers Vikings NFL Notebook

The NFL notebook is meant to be short notes, takes from my brain and this has gone about 1,000 words deep so I need to tighten up the ship. Here are my word for word notebook to blog notes from this game.

Packer’s offensive line is a huge issue.

The Viking’s front seven is unreal.

Jordan Hicks has a monster game with nine tackles.

Cousins throwing to wide open receivers.

Justin Jefferson is a monster in this offense.

Aaron Rodgers looks, frustrated, and has no time. He is not having fun right now.

Before we wrap the NFL notebook a look at my top ten QBs for the week.

Week 1 top ten QB

  1. Josh Allen
  2. Patrick Mahomes
  3. Justin Herbert
  4. Lamar Jackson
  5. Tom Brady
  6. Jalen Hurts
  7. Jameis Winston
  8. Kirk Cousins
  9. Joe Burrow
  10. Aaron Rodgers

Oh yeah the NFL Notebook forgot about Eric’s Denver Broncos

Well, I don’t really want to talk about them. They make me sad. Not even angry anymore, just sad. 8-9 here we come. One of the worst head coaches in the league, no discipline instilled, the defense looks absolutely terrible and Russ is still Russ. Meaning he does not throw over the middle of the field to wide-open guys and he puts himself in terrible spots by holding onto the ball too long.

He also was smiling and laughing after getting embarrassed by his old team. Pass, I need a guy who actually cares about winning. He should be pissed and the fact he isn’t is an indictment of his character and who he is as a leader. He really needs to be better.

The offense also has no verticality, going to be a lot of underneath stuff to running backs and tight ends despite having a core full of deep threats. Just not a great start to the season. I give terrible gambling advice but let me tell you this, the Broncos aren’t beating anyone by ten points right now. That number is way too big, take the Texans.

You really opted for a 64 yard field goal instead of putting the ball in the hands of the guy you just paid 270 million dollars for. Unbelievable.