And week one is done! Lots of surprises. The only NFC West team to have a win is Seattle. Somehow no team in the AFC South has a win despite two of them playing each other. (Ties complicate playoff seeding and especially when they're both in the same division.) The Eagles emerged as the highest-scoring NFC team and the second-highest-scoring team overall behind the Chiefs. The bad news is they also gave up the third-most points behind just the Cardinals and Lions. They need to be high scoring until this defense grows some teeth.
That Eagles' defense needs work. In Nick Sirianni's press conference yesterday he talked of holding everyone accountable starting with the coaches. Vic Fangio spent a lot of the summer hanging around the Eagles training camp and even followed them to Miami for their practices there. He's said he won't coach in 2022 after being fired by the Broncos, but he could be the DC in waiting and the wait may not be long if current DC Jonathan Gannon doesn't right the ship.
The Eagles have two roster slots on the 53-man roster to fill with Andre Dillard and Derek Barnett both on IR. Punt returner Britain Covey is likely to earn one slot. I would expect to hear of multiple roster moves around the league later today. Pretty much every team lost a player or two to injury and will need a replacement. Add in the vested vets who would have been paid for the full season if they'd been on a week one roster and you're apt to see quite a bit of player movement over the next day or two.
The Chiefs are still the Chiefs, and the Bucs are still the Bucs, but the rest of the supposed playoff teams all have work to do. Aaron Rodgers does not look like a happy player these days. He's not got a great cast around him. (As per the norm.) He could have rewritten the record books had the Packers ever surrounded him consistently with upper-tier talent. It must drive him a little crazy to see how some teams surround their QB with talent while the Packers count on him elevating whoever they put out there. Even when they have and develop a great player, they either trade the guy or let him leave in free agency. It has not been an ideal situation for Aaron Rodgers. He may be getting more than a little tired of it all.
Dak had successful surgery on his finger. (All surgery is successful immediately after the surgery. What surgeon comes about and says, "Nope. It's all screwed up!") Avoiding infection and healing up is now on the schedule for Dak. Maintaining upper body strength over the six to eight weeks for healing will be his challenge. You have limited upper body exercises available that don't stress the thumb. And it's his throwing arm that's injured. The Cowboy's trainers will have their work cut out for them.
I'll post the week two picks tomorrow. A quick peek at the schedule shows the Chargers/Chiefs on Thursday night headlining some pretty fun matchups.
Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
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