The National Football League’s second week requires both judgement and patience. One week of results can send one on a misguided assumption that some teams are good, because they won big on opening day, and some teams are trash, because they got hammered. First week results are even less telling now that the NFL is limited to three preseason games. Consider this, the New England Patriots opened their Super Bowl season last year at home against the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Raiders won in Foxboro.
After that, the Raiders dropped like an anvil off a roof and the Patriots soared like an eagle.
Last week, in their opener, the Los Angeles Rams got whipped by the San Francisco 49ers … does that mean they are bad? No, it means they were not ready to play that game in Australia that could be tied to a number of factors other than their team talent and direction for 2026.
The Kansas City Chiefs sliced, diced and mutilated the Denver Broncos in their opener. Are the Chiefs now as good as they were during the seasons they advanced to five Super Bowls in six campaigns (2019-2025)? Or did they simply catch the overconfident Broncos, who beat Andy Reid’s team twice last season, flat for their opener?
Some teams look like the real deal from the start. Count me in on the chances of the Buffalo Bills possibly breaking through and winning their first Super Bowl. They took on perhaps the best defense in football in Houston and put up 36 points in a five-point victory. They followed that road win with a short work week and on Thursday night trounced the Detroit Lions. The final score, 41-31, was not indicative of how dominant the Bills were in their new stadium.