The Chiefs are still the team to beat, but Baltimore is close on their heels after a dominant win over Cleveland. The Packers and Saints showed they’re both still at the top of the NFC heap with convincing wins over division rivals. Tom Brady didn’t look great in his first game with the Bucs but I trust they’ll get it together down the stretch. Seattle is right there as the more Russell Wilson centric offense resulted in a lot of points, but the defense yielded quite a few as well. Buffalo dominated a lesser Jets team but made too many mistakes to be considered an elite team yet and the Patriots showed they aren’t going to give up the AFC East without a fight.
Kyler Murray is the truth. He and the Cardinals showed the 49ers what the Super Bowl hangover is all about with an impressive road win over the NFC champs. The vaunted SF defense from a year ago looked vulnerable as they were sliced up in the air and on the ground. Philly and Detroit are going to have to take long, hard looks in the mirror after blowing three-score-leads in defeat. Philip Rivers’ Colts debut didn’t go well as they were outplayed on both sides of the ball by a ridiculously fun but inexperienced Jaguars team.
The Las Vegas Raiders can still score and they proved to be resilient as well, with a game-winning drive after Carolina took the lead in the 4th quarter. Debuting new uniforms, the Chargers looked and played like a practice squad as they squeaked by rookie QB Joe Burrow and the Bengals. The Rams are a shadow of the team that went to the Super Bowl just two seasons ago, but they played well as they christened SoFi Stadium with a win over the Cowboys.
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Ben Roethlisberger is back and the Steelers will be a tough out for most teams thanks to a stout defense. Merely having a talented back like Saquon Barkley isn’t going to be enough for the Giants to improve if they can’t block for him. The Titans didn’t look like the juggernauts that made a run to the AFC Championship Game, but they got the W and wouldn’t have had to kick a game-winning field goal if it weren’t for a trio of missed field goals prior.
Things went mostly as planned, as I ended up going 12-4 on my picks while Christen did pretty well also at 10-6 (we both took KC before the other picks were official). I didn’t do too bad against the spread either going 8-5-1 with a couple of very close ones in there (Carolina and Tennessee). We’ll continue to do picks every week and keep track throughout the season.
Here are the Sheist Power Rankings after week one:
| Chiefs 1-0 |
| Ravens 1-0 |
| Saints 1-0 |
| Packers 1-0 |
| Seahawks 1-0 |
| Cardinals 1-0 |
| Bills 1-0 |
| Patriots 1-0 |
| Steelers 1-0 |
| Raiders 1-0 |
| Rams 1-0 |
| Washington 1-0 |
| Bears 1-0 |
| Jaguars 1-0 |
| Titans 1-0 |
| Chargers 1-0 |
| 49ers 0-1 |
| Falcons 0-1 |
| Vikings 0-1 |
| Buccaneers 0-1 |
| Panthers 0-1 |
| Eagles 0-1 |
| Texans 0-1 |
| Lions 0-1 |
| Colts 0-1 |
| Cowboys 0-1 |
| Broncos 0-1 |
| Bengals 0-1 |
| Giants 0-1 |
| Jets 0-1 |
| Dolphins 0-1 |
| Browns 0-1 |