Week 1 in a nutshell:

Road teams went 10-5.

Dallas and San Francisco lived up to the hype with crushing road wins.  The Eagles weren’t quite up to that standard in New England.

Cleveland and the Rams with surprisingly dominant wins that cast doubt on the makeup of Cincinnati and Seattle.

The NFC South went 3-1, with only Carolina losing (in a division game).

The AFC South went 1-3, with only Jacksonville winning (in a division game).

This from Peter King:

Rookie QBs. Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson: 0-3.

Coaches with new teams. Shane Steichen, Jonathan Gannon, Sean Payton, DeMeco Ryans, Frank Reich: 0-5.

A rookie QB will get a win next week when Anthony Richardson and the Colts visit C.J. Stroud and the Texans.

– – –

When Pacman Jones found out that the charger at his seat in a plane heading out of a “Kentucky” airport wasn’t working – things went awry.

Former Bengals cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones was arrested Monday morning at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, after allegedly causing a disturbance prior to takeoff.

Jones, 39, was “an unruly passenger” on a scheduled outbound flight, an airport spokesperson told the Enquirer, and airport police were called to assist the flight crew in detaining Jones ahead of takeoff. Jones was then booked into the nearby Boone County Detention Center on unspecified charges, according to jail records obtained by the Enquirer.

Jones was released later Monday and emphatically downplayed any wrongdoing while addressing reporters outside the jail.

“This s— is getting old, brah,” he said, insisting he was neither intoxicated nor making terroristic threats during the incident. “I’m a part of the media, too, but report the motherf—ing facts. Report the facts and stop reporting the bulls—.”

The “facts,” Jones argued, are that he was wrongfully removed from the flight for merely asking to change seats he had purchased.

“I paid for two seats myself,” he said. “I had a conversation with a stewardess — a man — about the charger (not) working. ‘Can you move me somewhere else?’ It went from a whole thing, from moving me to, ‘Oh, if we move you, we gotta stop the whole plane.’ … This is what ya’ll want, though. … I’m not kissing nobody a–. If I’m wrong, I’ma tell you I’m wrong. I’m wrong for telling the flight attendant that the charger is not working for the seat ’cause I need my iPad to work when I get to New York?”

NFC NORTH

CHICAGO

Three writers from The Athletic on Chicago’s woeful first game:

Where do the Bears go from here? It’s only Week 1, but problems that plagued Fields’ team last year arose again in a 38-20 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

Graham: Chicago shouldn’t be too shaken up by this loss. This wasn’t supposed to resemble a championship season. The most disconcerting aspect of Sunday’s trouncing is that Jordan Love was fantastic. Bears fans entered Sunday hoping Love is garbage, that the NFC North landscape is wide open. With the Detroit Lions beating the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night and the Minnesota Vikings losing earlier Sunday, some kind of fancy could be mustered by putting the Packers in their place. Love killed that notion. And that’s just the quarterback aspect. Where was the defense? Big-ticket acquisition Tremaine Edmunds made eight tackles, two for losses, and Yannick Ngakoue notched a sack. But the Packers still scored more points than anybody else Sunday afternoon.

Jones: This was a bad look for Chicago. It made moves designed to surround Fields with quality pieces on both sides of the ball, but the Bears looked like the same old Bears. Fields again displayed great ability with his legs, but his passing remains a work in progress. Chicago converted only three of 13 third downs. To make matters worse, Love, who has less experience, looked pretty dang good while throwing for 245 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Fields and the Bears have a lot of work to do, and this development process could take longer than they had hoped.

Pompei: If there was any doubt — and there was by Bears fans — the Bears aren’t going to be a very good team. What was most disappointing to them is their offseason acquisitions didn’t have much of an impact. Some of those players, especially DJ Moore, should start to show up as the team gets its legs. It’s a long season and the Bears — a young team — should improve with time. But the Bears still have many issues. Justin Fields looked like Justin Fields from 2022, which isn’t good enough. The remade defense gave up 38 points to an offense that was led not by Aaron Rodgers but by Love, and was playing without wide receiver Christian Watson. If there was one positive for the Bears, it’s that fifth-round pick Roschon Johnson looks like he could develop into a starting running back quickly.

DETROIT

Lions-related thoughts from Peter King:

* Jared Goff’s interception-less streak is at 359 (44 away from breaking Aaron Rodgers’ record of 402), and though he didn’t spot a wide-open Amon-Ra St. Brown for what would have been an easy TD, Goff played efficiently on 91- and 80-yard TD drives. His protection was good too.

*. St. Brown’s a marvel—202 catches now in 34 career games. Tough and physical, he’s the perfect leader for that receiver corps.

* David Montgomery’s the tough inside runner Dan Campbell craves, but Detroit will need to feature Jahmyr Gibbs (nine touches in 70 Lions snaps) more.

GREEN BAY

They are breathing easier in Green Bay as QB JORDAN LOVE was just fine in Week 1.  Peter King:

Jordan Love, Green Bay QB. Well now, here’s a big test right out of the chute. Aaron Rodgers owned Chicago and won his last eight Packers starts against the Bears, by an average of 13 points a game. Chicago was reborn, full of vim and vinegar to open a season with Sears Tower-sized hopes. The result: Pack by 18 … Love with the highest passer rating (123.2) of the NFL weekend.

Albert Breer of SI.com with a snapshot from the win:

It’s Week 1, and it was about two and a half quarters in, so Matt LaFleur was at the point most coaches are, still learning about his Packers’ strengths and weaknesses, which buttons to push and which to lay off. Which led to a moment of indecision with 6:34 left in the third quarter and Green Bay up 17–6 in Chicago.

His first-year starting quarterback, Jordan Love, had just scrambled for nine yards to turn a third-and-12 into fourth-and-3 at the Bears’ 35. He could have just send the field goal team out for a 53-yarder to push the lead to 14, though that was another spot where he was breaking in a new starter after moving on from another forever Packer, kicker Mason Crosby. So he went to Love and asked him, “Do you wanna go for it?”

“Yeah,” Love responded, without missing a beat.

Just then, safety Darnell Savage, eavesdropping on the conversation, screamed at LaFleur, “We got you, Coach!”

“I was like, All right, f— it. Let’s go for it,” LaFleur said over his cell a couple hours later, as the Packers’ team bus made its way to the airport for the short trip home Sunday. “We ended up calling a timeout on the play because I didn’t like our play initially. We wanted to take a peek at what I thought was coming. So we called the timeout. And I was like, You know what? F— it. Let’s try to go to our best player.”

And on this Sunday, for the first time in his five seasons as Packers coach, LaFleur wasn’t referencing the quarterback when he said that. And it was more than just O.K. It was actually optimal.

LaFleur was talking about Aaron Jones, who on this snap was set to Love’s left. At the snap, the veteran back ran laterally to the numbers, where T.J. Edwards was waiting, then snapped inside, leaving the Bears linebacker in his dust, and giving Love, sitting in the pocket, an easy target over the middle. Love hit Jones as he was crossing the line for the first down, and Jones did the rest—racing through the defense for a 35-yard score.

The moment pushed the Packers’ lead to 24–6, but did so much more in telling the story of Love’s first game action as an entrenched NFL starter, and one replacing a legend. In so many ways, actually, it allowed Love to follow the advice he got in a text from Rodgers the night before training camp started, telling him to just be himself and not anyone else.

Remember, it was a defensive guy who gave LaFleur the verbal green light to pull the trigger, telling his coach that, if the offense failed, his unit would make up for it. It was Jones whom LaFleur trusted. It was the offensive line that gave Love the time to easily make the throw.

Love didn’t need to be Rodgers on Sunday. Because the Packers are good enough to not need that from him at this point. Which is probably what everyone missed about his taking over as the starting quarterback.

– – –

There’ll come a time, of course, when the Packers need to lean on their quarterback more than they did Sunday. The good news is if the Bears game showed LaFleur something about Love, it’s that when that time comes, the moment won’t be too big for the guy charged with taking over for a legend.

“I can see the growth and maturity that’s occurred over the last three years, sitting and waiting,” LaFleur says. “He’s a lot different dude than when he first got here. And that’s natural. He’s 24 right now and he was 21 when we got him. You’re going to grow. You have to grow up fast in this league. And luckily for him, I know it wasn’t always fun because you’re a competitor and you want to get out there and you want to play and you’ve got to sit there and learn and wait, but I think he really took advantage of the situation.

“Granted, we’re early on, you’ve got to ride the wave, you’ve got to be resilient. You can’t let one game lead you either positively or negatively into the next game. You’ve got to have a short memory. But I think he understands that, and you’ve seen it. It wasn’t perfect today. It was pretty good, but it wasn’t perfect. He’ll be hard on himself and be critical of things he probably could’ve done better.”

LaFleur then paused to choose his words, and added, “I think all in all, for a first showing, it was extremely positive. … He did a really nice job.”

A lot of Packers did.

Which gave Love a heck of a starting point. And now we’ll see what’s next.

NFC EAST

PHILADELPHIA

The Eagles sustained some defensive injuries.  Tim McManus of ESPN.com:

Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean is expected to be sidelined for multiple weeks after suffering a right foot injury in the season opener against the New England Patriots, coach Nick Sirianni confirmed Monday.

Sirianni also said that cornerback James Bradberry is in the concussion protocol, putting his availability for Thursday night’s game against the Minnesota Vikings into question.

Dean is a candidate for short-term injured reserve, but he is not slated to have surgery and the injury is not considered season-ending, a source told ESPN.

Dean exited the game in the third quarter, with Christian Elliss serving as his replacement. He was spotted in the locker room after the game in a walking boot.

With Dean out, the Eagles are signing linebacker and former Tennessee Titans first-round pick Rashaan Evans to their practice squad, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Elliss and Zach Cunningham are the only other off-ball linebackers on the active roster. Veteran Nicholas Morrow and rookie Ben VanSumeren are on the practice squad.

NFC SOUTH

ATLANTA

Even as the Bengals were going down in flames, Atlanta rose up against Carolina in large part due to the heroics of newcomer S JESSIE BATES III (a Peter King Defensive Player of the Week):

Jessie Bates III, safety, Atlanta. Twice baited the top pick in the draft, Bryce Young. Twice timed his jump ahead of the intended receiver perfectly. Twice picked off Young with throws the Carolina quarterback will be agonizing over when he sees the film. (I’m sure he’s seen both 16 times already.) Superb veteran plays by the former Bengal, who signed the big $16-million-a-year deal to jump to Atlanta in March.

King does not mention the team-high 10 tackles Bates made or the fumble he caused.  17 of Atlanta’s points came of Bates created turnovers.

– – –

This on WR DRAKE LONDON who was not seen much.  Chris Cwik ofYahooSports.com:

Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith doesn’t care how the team gets there, he just wants to win. Smith scoffed at a question about Drake London’s zero-catch performance in Week 1, saying, “let the fantasy guys worry about that.”

London was targeted just once in the team’s 24-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers in Week 1. When asked about London’s production, Smith brushed off the idea, saying the only thing the team cares about is winning the game.

It’s tough to argue against the team’s strategy in this particular instance. They won the game and it wasn’t particularly close.

But Smith’s answer is frustrating for a number of reasons. Yes, the Falcons won, but it’s still fair to ask about London’s usage. London looked like a potential future star after a promising rookie season. He’s the type of player the team should scheme plays around. Even in a game where the Falcons passed just 18 times, London should be a bigger part of the game plan. Even quarterback Desmond Ridder finished with a catch. Sure, it occurred an a tipped ball he threw, but it’s tough to overlook when a quarterback has more catches than a No. 1 wide receiver.

Smith could have explained why that happened. He could have said the team felt good about the running game and felt it didn’t need to air it out. He could have said London will have plenty of opportunities in the future. Instead, he took a totally fair question about why the team didn’t utilize the player they took with the No. 8 overall pick in last year’s draft and turned it into an opportunity to take a dig at fantasy players.

Smith showed last season that he believes the Falcons have the best chance of winning when the team runs the ball well. It’s not a bad strategy. The Falcons’ strength lies in its running backs and offensive line. If games play out the way they did Sunday, the Falcons will likely be content to run with Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier until they are forced to throw.

That’s bound to happen sooner rather than later. The Falcons won’t face a rookie quarterback making his first career start for a bad team every week. Even if the offensive line and running backs are elite, the Falcons will find themselves in plenty of situations where the team has to throw to stay in a game.

TAMPA BAY

So far so good for QB BAKER MAYFIELD.  Adam Slivon of Pewter Report:

Sometimes, you need to preheat the oven before your food can be fully baked.

Case in point: the Bucs’ offense. It needed to be preheated for much of the first half before Baker Mayfield connected with Mike Evans for a 28-yard touchdown during the two-minute drill and they really turned up the temperature in the second half.

After starting the game by completing 3-of-12 passes (25%) for just 12 yards, Mayfield finished the game by completing 18-of-22 passes (81.8%) for 161 yards and two touchdowns. In his postgame press conference, he alluded that it was not the “prettiest start,” but the Bucs got it done as they head out of Minnesota 1-0 to begin the 2023 season after beating the Vikings 20-17.

After the game, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles was impressed with how quarterback Baker Mayfield played through early adversity to keep the team in the game and ultimately walk out of U.S. Bank Stadium victorious.

It wasn’t easy.

“Schematically, they gave us a hard time in the beginning,” Bowles said. “They did some things we had to get used to. I thought the adjustments Dave [Canales] made at halftime were outstanding. We started moving the ball some, we stuck with it. Those guys are gritty, it’s a tough win. Tough place to play.”

More than just the adjustments made by Canales, it was Mayfield making adjustments in the chess match the offense played against Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

“Baker’s gutsy, he’s tough, Bowles added. “The guys stayed behind him. The great thing is when he was having problems, he wasn’t turning it over. He kept [us] in the game, he wasn’t turning the ball over. The [offense] stuck with it, they made some plays, and he made some gutsy runs at the end. The offensive line came through for him, the receivers showed up, and it was a great team win.”

The most important thing to playing quarterback for Bowles and Canales is protecting the football. Mayfield did that and the Bucs won the turnover battle 3:0.

Diving deeper into Baker Mayfield’s performance, it was his demonstration of toughness and poise late in the game during the last two drives that helped secure the victory.

With the Bucs moving down the field tied 17-17 in the fourth quarter, Mayfield showed off his stiff arm to Vikings cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. to pick up five yards. He then connected with Chris Godwin and Mike Evans for 16 and 6 yards respectively, putting kicker Chase McLaughlin in position to attempt a 57-yard field goal, which he did to give Tampa Bay a 20-17 lead.

But to hold onto the win, the Bucs’ offense needed to run out the clock with just under four minutes left. One key play was on a crucial third-and-3. As the pocket collapsed around him, Mayfield scrambled towards the right sideline to pick up four yards and the first down, taking a big hit from undrafted rookie inside linebacker Ivan Pace in the process.

There was one more first down to convert, however, with the Bucs facing a third-and-10 just after the two-minute warning. Mayfield was not deterred, and he connected with wide receiver Chris Godwin for 11 yards to secure the victory.

As Bowles alluded to, that is why guys rally around Mayfield.

“That was huge for us,” Bowles said. “Getting us in the right plays, Baker in the second half adjusting to what they were doing. It was huge for him as well. He played a gutsy, tough, mentally tough ballgame. And to make that throw at the end to Chris right there, without even flinching. He was hit a few times, but he stuck with it. Baker’s a winner, he’s done this before. The guys really love to rally around him.”

NFC WEST

SAN FRANCISCO

Peter King on what the Niners now look for in a receiver – and it isn’t separation:

That’s the style the 49ers have become known for under Shanahan. It’s a physical, unselfish style. You might remember GM John Lynch telling me in training camp that the Niners have changed the style of receiver they’re looking for. They’ve gone away from the 4.35 guys, sacrificing speed for physicality.

As Lynch said: “Every one of our scouts could tell you we wanted separators. That was huge for us. But then, the league evolves and people start holding and playing physical on the separators. The response to that became Deebo Samuel, a guy who’s thick and strong and powerful. We kind of started playing bully ball because what you realize in today’s football, power and oomph kinda translates.”

That’s the way the Steelers have traditionally played. On Sunday, the 49ers beat the Steelers at their own game.

LOS ANGELES RAMS

Over the weekend we learned that the Rams might have traded QB MATTHEW STAFFORD.  They also won in Seattle without WR COOPER KUPP.

First, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com:

Aaron Rodgers being the starting quarterback for the Jets is easily one of the biggest storylines not just of the 2023 season, but also of the last few years. Had the story taken a different turn, however, New York could have had a different signal-caller under center Monday night against the Bills.

Sources say that when the Jets’ pursuit of Rodgers lagged — due to lack of clarity on what Rodgers wanted and pre-darkness retreat concerns about whether he would even play in 2023 — the Jets called the Rams to see if Matthew Stafford would be available in a trade. Talks between New York and Los Angeles were brief, simple and to the point.

As two sources explained, the Rams were adamant Stafford wasn’t going anywhere. The talks between the two teams were more exploratory than anything else with L.A. showing no willingness to do a deal, but the Jets didn’t want to leave a stone unturned in their quest for a franchise QB.

When it was announced that Rams head coach Sean McVay would return for another season, the plan was always for Stafford to return, as well. In fact, Stafford comes back with an increase in arm strength and is now healthier than he was last season.

Gary Klein of the LA Times on what Stafford and the Rams did Sunday in Seattle.

The venue was the same, but the Rams’ feeling as they left Lumen Field was markedly different.

Last January, this is where the Rams disastrous 2022 season mercifully ended; where it was closing time for their historic Super Bowl hangover.

On Sunday, the Rams played their first game since — and they showed that oddsmakers’ and pundits’ low expectations might need to be adjusted.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford passed for more than 300 yards, Kyren Williams rushed for two touchdowns and — with star receiver Cooper Kupp on injured reserve — Tutu Atwell and rookie receiver Puka Nacua broke out with big performances as the Rams defeated the Seattle Seahawks, 30-13, in the season opener before a crowd of 68,683.

It was an impressive start for the Rams, who are short on proven star talent but for one game at least showed they could more than compete.

“There was a grittiness, there was a toughness, there was a resilience on display from this team,” coach Sean McVay said, “And I loved it.”

The Rams have shied from calling their roster construction a rebuild. Or a remodel. They essentially demolished the 2022 roster, trading star cornerback Jalen Ramsey, releasing linebackers Bobby Wagner and Leonard Floyd and declining to re-sign other key players that helped them win Super Bowl LVI at the end of the 2021 season.

Sunday’s performance was far different than last season’s opener, when the Buffalo Bills routed the Rams and sent them spiraling to a 5-12 record. That qualified as the worst season-after performance by a Super Bowl champion in history.

And the Rams needed this confidence boost.

The opener was just the first of a gauntlet that includes a game next Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, a team coming off a rout of the Pittsburgh Steelers with a fanbase that once again will invade SoFi Stadium. The following Monday, the Rams travel to play the Cincinnati Bengals and quarterback Joe Burrow, the highest-paid player in NFL history.

All of that, however, could wait after the Rams beat the Seahawks, an NFC West rival.

“I couldn’t care less what’s said outside,” McVay said. “There might be some change in narratives and that doesn’t affect any way that we’ll go about our business right now.”

Stafford, playing for the first time since suffering a season-ending spinal injury last November against the New Orleans Saints, completed 24 of 38 passes for 334 yards. The 15th-year pro did not commit a turnover, and showed he still can scramble by rushing for 10 yards.

Stafford’s resume appeared to get lost in the shuffle during preseason discussions about top NFL quarterbacks, all of whom are younger than the 35-year-old Stafford.

Stafford said he was “not really” aware of the talk.

“I don’t really need much motivation,” Stafford said. “I’ve got a lot of motivation inside of me at all times, so I’m just excited to be feeling good and going out there and playing.”

The offensive line of left tackle Alaric Jackson, rookie left guard Steve Avila, center Coleman Shelton, right guard Joe Noteboom and right tackle Rob Havenstein did not give up a sack. That was a major reversal from last season, when the Rams gave up seven sacks against the Bills.

“Our main goal is to keep Matthew clean and keep the run game going,” Noteboom said, “and we did that.”

Williams, a second-year pro, backed up starter Cam Akers and rushed for 52 yards in 15 carries, including touchdown runs of one and seven yards. Akers rushed for 29 yards and a touchdown in 20 carries.

Atwell, a third-year pro on a mission to prove the Rams did not make a mistake by taking him in the second round of the 2021 draft, caught six passes for 119 yards. Nacua, a fifth-round draft pick from Brigham Young, started in place of Kupp and caught 10 passes for 119 yards.

“This is football heaven for me,” Nacua said.

Said McVay: “What a grown man he was today.”

Peter King:

The Rams outgained Seattle 426-180. Stunning, too, was the Rams’ five second-half drives: TD, field goal, TD, field goal, field goal. And the 39 minutes of possession time. It all reflected what Sean McVay tried to institute this off-season—a more physical style of play in practice. For the Rams to win, McVay knew he’d have to be able to use multiple styles of play, particularly in the run game. The Rams rushed for a modest 92 yards Sunday, but the 40 rushing attempts chewed the clock and helped limit the Seahawks to 46 offensive snaps, 18 or 20 below the NFL norm. Smart coaches know sometimes you’ve got to play clockball. And McVay’s a smart coach. If week one is any indication, the Rams could be one of the NFL’s most intriguing teams.

The DB noted in the offseason that there were two Super Bowl-winning coaches, each with a Super Bowl-winning QB, that weren’t getting much offseason buzz.  McVay and Stafford came out of the gate better than Sean Payton and QB RUSSELL WILSON in Denver.

SEATTLE

Bill Barnwell looks at the Seahawks in the wake of Sunday’s home debacle.

These Rams were supposed to be pushovers for a team as stacked on paper as the Seahawks. Sure, Seattle ended up playing without rookie first-round corner Devon Witherspoon and leading safety Jamal Adams, but the Rams were also without top playmaker Cooper Kupp. If you had told Seahawks fans heading into the season that Kupp wouldn’t play in Week 1 while L.A. back Cam Akers turned 22 carries into just 29 yards, they might have counted on the defense to produce its first shutout of the season.

Instead, the defense struggled to stop the Rams all day. It didn’t force a turnover and produced just one punt, as every other L.A. drive ended in a touchdown, a field goal or a failed field goal attempt. (Brett Maher had one long attempt blocked and missed a second.) The average Rams drive produced three first downs and more than 47 yards.

Outside of slowing down Akers, it’s difficult to find anything the Seahawks did that worked well Sunday. They failed to harass Matthew Stafford, who was brilliant throughout the game in his return from multiple injuries. He wasn’t sacked and was knocked down twice on 38 dropbacks. The Seahawks pressured him on just 20.5% of his snaps, the third-worst rate for any team in Week 1. After spending last season banged up behind backup linemen, Stafford looked like he was having the time of his life.

The big plays didn’t come from Kupp or Akers or even often from Tyler Higbee, who had a 30-yard reception and otherwise mixed in two catches for 19 yards. One of the most unlikely duos to ever rack up 100-plus receiving yards in a game has to be the Rams’ one-two punch of Tutu Atwell and Puka Nacua, who each had 119 yards on the day. Nacua had the 13th-most receiving yards for a player in his NFL debut and became the first wideout to hit triple digits in his first game since Ja’Marr Chase in 2021.

Rams coach Sean McVay picked on the Seahawks in two ways. One was attacking the weak link at cornerback. With Witherspoon out, Tre Brown got the gig over 2022 starter Michael Jackson, with the two corners splitting the snaps at about a 75-25 rate. Brown played just 21 defensive snaps across six games a year ago, so even a spot start was a major step up.

It didn’t go well. Brown was repeatedly targeted in coverage and struggled to keep up with Nacua. Three early explosive plays for the Rams came at Brown’s expense, including a 16-yard reception in the flat when Nacua broke a Brown tackle. The big play was a 44-yard completion out of motion where L.A. used short motion from Atwell to get the diminutive wideout a running start away from Brown and a natural pick from defenders running into each other to create separation.

In the spirit of friend and former coaching teammate Kyle Shanahan, McVay also manipulated the middle of the field and created big plays against the Seahawks linebackers in the middle of the field. Last season, it was Shanahan confusing Tanner Muse and Cody Barton in a dominant wild-card round victory. Seattle welcomed back legendary linebacker (and recent Rams player) Bobby Wagner on Sunday and got 50 snaps from Jordyn Brooks nine months removed from a torn ACL, but the middle of the field was still prime territory for the L.A. offense.

Every team in the league sees boot concepts every week, which makes it even more disappointing that the Rams brought Brycen Hopkins across the field totally uncovered for a 21-yard gain on one. Seattle safety Julian Love seemed to be transfixed by the backfield and was beaten on a double move later in the game by Higbee for his 30-yard completion. The Rams fit completions of 13 and 21 yards behind Wagner on curl and dig routes. Throwing between the hashes, Stafford was 8-of-9 for 85 yards and a completion percentage over expectation of 22.3%. Wagner allowed six catches on six targets for 62 yards as the nearest defender in coverage.

Getting Witherspoon on the field will allow the Seahawks to feel more confident about their coverage at cornerback, as Riq Woolen was mostly left alone Sunday. The issues over the middle and on throws to running backs and tight ends have been a problem for several seasons, dating back to the first time they cut Wagner after the 2021 campaign. Adams hasn’t been an effective cover safety when used in that role, but his range might allow him to make up space as a zone defender. If the front four doesn’t get going, they might also need Adams to serve as an essential pass-rusher. And all of this assumes Adams, who has played just one of the past 23 games, will be able to stay on the field all season after he returns from his left knee injury.

Last season, the Seattle offense covered for a compromised defense. Based on how it looked early in the contest against the Rams, it felt like it would be able to do the same thing again in Week 1. With Geno Smith barely pressured in the pocket, the Seahawks weren’t forced to punt once during the first half. Four drives produced a touchdown, two field goals and a 39-yarder off the uprights and out from Jason Myers.

After the break, though, the offense shouldn’t have bothered to come out of the locker room. The Seahawks picked up 2 net yards across their five second-half drives, garnering one first down in the process. Even that came on a 5-yard pass interference penalty. They ran 14 plays after halftime, a mark that has been topped only twice over the past decade.

It’s not as easy to find a trend line through what went wrong for the Seahawks after the break. Jaxon Smith-Njigba dropped a third-down conversion that was thrown a little high. A bomb to DK Metcalf on a vertical route fell out of bounds. Derion Kendrick, who was badly beaten for a touchdown by Metcalf in the first half, held his own with a pass breakup later in the game. And a Rams pass rush that had been absent for most of the first half finally appeared in the fourth quarter, forcing one throwaway with a five-man pressure before back-to-back sacks on Seattle’s final drives. That’s the entire second half.

Facing a pass defense that is expected to struggle mightily this season, Smith was 16-of-26 for 112 yards and seven first downs on 29 dropbacks. He lost right tackle Abraham Lucas at halftime and left tackle Charles Cross in the second half, which couldn’t have helped matters. At home, facing what might be the league’s most inexperienced defense, this should have been a moment for Smith to star. Instead, the Seahawks were booed off their home field at the end of their opener. If the offense switches off for a half, the Seahawks don’t have the defense needed to compensate.

AFC WEST

DENVER

Seth Wickersham of ESPN.com has a long, long takeout on Sean Payton.  It’s all good, but we’ll try to keep it within reason:

Coach is good, doing some of his favorite things: golfing, breathing crisp Idaho air, talking about ways to improve the game he loves, and digging at the league office.

“I’m cynical when it comes to New York,” he says.

Before the Broncos hired Payton, we had last caught up in early 2022, just after the Saints had commissioned a study of penalties drawn by each NFL team over the previous four seasons. New Orleans ranked 30, 31, 32 and 32. It seemed impossible to believe, with Payton’s high-flying offense and passing-friendly rule changes. The data concluded that the Saints were the only team in the bottom five in penalties drawn for four straight seasons since 2006. That year is symbolic to Payton. It’s when he was hired by the Saints — and when Roger Goodell was elected as NFL commissioner. “The irony of it f—ing all,” he says.

Payton presented the penalties study to the league. There was no response. “I think it starts with Roger,” Payton says.

After 16 years in New Orleans, Payton was burned out on an existential level. The job was hard enough to do under ideal circumstances; to have his legacy subject to blown calls and bureaucracy left deep scars. He decided to walk away. “I got tired,” he says. “There was a feeling, I would say on my part, of losing the jump balls in this game. You know? Success or lack of success with the Saints is a blip on the NFL.”

The chance to win a jump ball was essential when Payton returned to coach Denver after a season in broadcasting. The Walton-Penner family that owns the Broncos is by far the league’s richest ownership group, and Payton believes the league is invested in Denver’s success, an iconic franchise that hasn’t been in the playoffs since winning Super Bowl 50. With a new start has come a promise to himself: no time or energy wasted carrying old grievances or fighting old wars. “You look at utilizing your battery life better,” he says. Before the Broncos hired him, Payton spoke to his mentor, Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells, who knows how professional football encourages and rewards some of a coach’s worst competitive impulses. Parcells had advice for Payton, and it had nothing to do with fixing Russell Wilson or stopping Patrick Mahomes.

“You know exactly where the f—ing land mines are,” he said. “Avoid them.”

– – –

The Broncos invited a shock to the system when they hired Payton. There’s palpable tension in the building. Payton doesn’t care if he comes off like an a–hole, or if he is an a–hole. Training camp practices have been long and physical. Every player has worn a Guardian cap. Denver media, which is New York-like in its volume — more than 50 reporters logged on for Payton’s pre-draft Zoom — have seen access curtailed. Staffers seem cautious around Payton, not wanting to say something that prompts an outburst. Payton is the program, everything flowing out of his fierce ingenuity and ethic. He showed the team a video of a 2022 Ford Bronco driving off a cliff, letting players know last year is over. He told Wilson that to salvage his career he needed to focus less on Russell Inc. “Will you f—ing stop kissing all the babies?” he said. “You’re not running for public office.”

“He can be difficult,” says Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, whom Payton refers to as his best friend. “But he’s two to three steps ahead of everyone.”

When Payton first became a head coach, Parcells told him that each day five problems that had nothing to do with winning or losing would come up. “If you can’t deal with that, get another job,” he said. Parcells was the poster boy for being unable to let things go. He fought everyone from the media to the league office to rivals in his own building. He won a lot of football games, creating a program based on ruthlessness that lives on in his protégés around the league. But he says now that he also destroyed any semblance of happiness in a dream job.

“I was the worst,” he says. “It’s a waste of time.”

In New Orleans, Payton ended up fighting the exact wars Parcells warned him about, seemingly unable to help himself. Battling the league on everything from sideline mics to entrance tunnels at neutral-site games. He got upset one year because the Christmas tree at the Saints’ facility was too small. For a good year and a half, Payton gave a man stationed on the sideline evil looks, convinced he was a league spy. Payton later apologized to the man when he learned that he was the on-site concussion doctor.

Winning Super Bowl XLIV intensified those urges. And Bountygate two years later left Payton fundamentally altered. The league office and Payton agreed that he wasn’t a direct participant in the pay-for-knockout system orchestrated by defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. But the Saints ignored multiple warnings to end the program, and Goodell felt Payton covered up evidence and lied. The league used the central theme in Payton’s autobiography — his obsessive levels of control — as evidence. Payton thought he would get a penalty similar to what Bill Belichick got for Spygate, after seven years of cheating and three ignored warnings: the maximum fine of $500,000. But that scandal didn’t have the specter of player safety hovering over it, and Goodell suspended Payton for a year without pay, the first NFL head-coach suspension since 1978. He appealed to Goodell in person. Both men ended up screaming at one another. “With Roger, you got a red face,” Payton says.

Then-Saints owner Tom Benson faced more criticism from within the league after Bountygate than when he threatened to move the Saints to San Antonio for a year after Hurricane Katrina. Commentators, executives in the league office, and then-owners Dan Rooney of the Steelers and Jerry Richardson of the Panthers urged Benson to fire Payton. The way they lined up against him heightened Payton’s anger. At a dinner shortly after he was reinstated, in 2013, he sought out Richardson and Rooney. “I just want to thank you for your support while I was gone,” he said, making sure they knew that he knew.

YEARS AFTER BOUNTYGATE and the suspension, in the spring of 2019 — after he had become known as much for his grievances as his brilliant offenses — Payton stood to speak during a special meeting with owners and league executives in Arizona. The topic was the quality of NFL officiating. The room got quiet, anticipating Payton might explode.

It was just months after an egregious non-call on pass interference cost the Saints an NFC championship. Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman drilled Saints wideout Tommylee Lewis on a flare route with 1:49 left. The Saints went on to lose in overtime. Nobody — not the league office, which called Payton after the game to apologize, not Rams coach Sean McVay, not even Robey-Coleman — disputed it was a blown call. In the days after the game, Payton ate junk food and stared at the TV until dawn, anything to “numb the pain with distraction,” Skylene says. He downed every kind of chocolate ice cream from Jeni’s in New Orleans, and at one point dressed down a delivery guy who messed up his order.

The Nola No-Call had been especially galling to him because the play itself was Payton at his most tactically savage. He had inserted Lewis as a running back to confuse the defense and operated off a quick count — a cheetah play, in Payton parlance — so the Rams wouldn’t have time to adjust. After studying the play, Payton felt the problem was an all-star officiating crew that mixed a junior official, who reached for his flag, with a senior one, who saw a clean play. If the referees had known one another, he believed, the junior one wouldn’t have deferred. The idea of an all-star crew was a “solution” born out of a labor dispute between the league and the referees’ union, not the competition committee. In Payton’s eyes, it was top-down overthinking — and another example of the world conspiring against him.

All teams occasionally feel screwed by the league, but after Bountygate, Payton’s quick trigger had become his métier. October 2014: Payton said it was “crazy” that the Saints had to travel to play a Thursday night game after a Sunday night game, two years after the league made him the poster boy for disregard of player safety. October 2014, again: accused — but later cleared — by the league of illegally stashing a player on the practice squad. December 2015: seething at the lack of flags thrown after Carolina had 12 men in the huddle twice and seemed to commit pass interference on the game’s final play and suggesting that high school refs are superior to NFL ones. December 2017: dismayed that the league hired Mike Cerullo, an ex-Saints employee-turned-whistleblower. December 2019: unhappy with officiating again. And those are just the fights Payton addressed publicly.

Now that he had the floor at the owners meetings in Arizona, though, Payton was measured rather than unhinged. Payton echoed Belichick’s idea to keep the number of challenges at two per half but make any call reviewable. “We’re not looking to get every call perfect, but certainly the crucial ones,” Payton said. “We’ll know it’s crucial because a coach will throw a flag.”

Al Riveron, then the league’s head of officiating, took questions from the room. It started to resemble fans at a bar. These meetings are always combustible, and even though Payton was calm, others were impassioned. Bills owner Terry Pegula lit into Riveron over accountability. “You need to just fire somebody on the spot,” he said. Giants owner John Mara defended Riveron, saying it was “unacceptable” to go after him for referees who make split-second decisions.

The meeting ended with acrimony rather than resolution. Payton once took pride in being on the competition committee, which NFL executive Troy Vincent presides over. But he came to view it as something the league does for optics rather than solutions, not the only one with that opinion, but one of the most prominent. The committee’s response to the Nola No-Call — making pass interference reviewable — lasted only one year. Nobody cared enough to put it up for a vote again. In 2020, when the league fined Payton for COVID-19 violations and he refused to pay, he told Vincent, “Take me off the f—ing sham committee!”

After Payton interviewed with the Broncos, a Washington Post reporter tweeted that Payton supposedly feared a power struggle with the Walton-Penner group. Payton was furious, not only because the notion of a power struggle between a coach and owner is “the dumbest thing ever,” he says — owners always win — but because it triggered a familiar suspicion of the league possibly planting something with a reporter, even if he lacked proof. Payton asked Penner to call anyone at the Saints about him, warts and all. Vincent called Penner, too, not to warn him about Payton but to recommend him. Still, after the Broncos hired him, Payton was suspicious of everything, and — again — wanted Vincent to know he knew.

He texted Vincent: Thanks for your help.

– – –

WITHOUT FOOTBALL LAST year, Payton examined how his life had changed since the last time he was away from the sport. The timing was perfect. Two days after he stepped down from the Saints, “Home Team,” a scripted movie about Payton coaching his son Connor’s youth football team during his suspension year, debuted on Netflix.

Sean and Skylene ordered breakfast delivered and watched it in bed, and it was surreal for Payton, staring at Kevin James playing a quasi-true version of himself, knowing that there were aspects of the story the movie mostly missed. Payton and his longtime wife, Beth, got divorced during his suspension. He felt she was an “awesome mother” during a time when he was filled with anger and guilt. He didn’t like the person he saw in the mirror in those days and knew he needed to change, but his usual redemption tools — the NFL world and his place in it — were unavailable. He was locked out of the NFL, per the terms of his suspension, banned from contact with anyone in the league. He was rehabbing a torn-up knee and broken leg from a freak sideline accident, torture for someone hooked on the simplicity and distraction of always being on the move. He considered doing television during his year away, but interest from networks faded fast — a flex from the league office, Payton suspected. His isolation and anger weren’t “sustainable,” he says.

It was around then that he got to know Skylene, a nurse from the Charlotte area. He would send her photos of his rehab progress; she would encourage him to keep going.

Payton reentered football after his suspension, hell-bent to reclaim all that was lost. He didn’t, of course — but he did get something else. He and Skylene dated most of the next decade, unsure of whether to marry. She loved how he had a magic to him, how he captivated a room with his endless jokes and impressions. “A born storyteller,” she says. She learned to handle his moods. “Sometimes he’s Jekyll and Hyde, in a bit of a good way.” She had her own career and was fiercely independent. They would break up and then reunite.

Then in 2019 Sean hurt his back, and the hospital wouldn’t let her visit him because she wasn’t family. It was time. One night in November, Saints owner Gayle Benson asked Skylene out for a night, without telling her there was a secret plan. The girls met the guys at a French Quarter bar. Sean was dressed in black, which Skylene thought was weird. He didn’t like wearing black, despite it being the Saints’ primary color. Country artist Heidi Newfield was there, and soon after Skylene arrived, she started to sing “Johnny and June,” one of Sean and Skylene’s favorite songs, which begins with a line: “There’s something ’bout a man in black.” Sean dropped to a knee.

They held an informal ceremony in Cabo, but officially got married at Gozzer Ranch, sweaty after a round, with Elway and Gretzky and the Breakfast Club as witnesses. Better Than Ezra’s Kevin Griffin was the officiant. “I changed into a white golf outfit,” Skylene says.

“We joke that we fell in love during his suspension,” she says.

“Home Team,” of course, told a different story. As Payton watched it, he mostly pointed out things that were wrong with the script. A bunch of little details. And he disagreed with the film’s premise that he had been an absentee dad. But the final scene, when his character tells his son over tacos that he needed the team more than it needed him, that got him. He had always wanted to win so badly. He had put football first for so long, even when, maybe especially when, it was taken away from him. Had he lost himself along the way?

Sitting in bed with Skylene, he started to cry.

A FEW WEEKS later, Payton joined Fox Sports. During his years with the Saints, he had wondered about doing TV one day, helping Americans understand the game they care about most and know about least. A truth-teller in what he sees as a mostly pliant media. “It’s a propaganda machine right now,” he says. He interviewed with networks at the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, stressed because he knew that, for the first time in more than a decade, showing up and being Sean Payton wasn’t enough.

“It was cute to see him nervous,” Skylene says.

As last season neared, Payton felt healthier than he had in years. He didn’t need Ambien. He didn’t drink all the sugary sodas that became his vice during the season. Jimmy Johnson told him how much he regretted joining the Dolphins after two years out of football, how reentering the NFL rat race wore on him. What if Payton decided to walk away for good? He viewed the fall as a soft launch for retirement. The plan was to stay at Gozzer during the week, meeting the Breakfast Club every morning and playing golf in the afternoon. On weekends, Sean and Skylene would fly to L.A. for the show, renting a townhouse in Manhattan Beach, a life that seemed as if it could fulfill them forever.

Little went as planned. The Breakfast Club noticed that Payton seemed antsy without a team, the entire rhythm of his life since he was a high school quarterback altered. “Discombobulated,” Gretzky says. Then Payton learned that Gozzer wasn’t an endless summer. The circle of friends thinned out as September started: Elway to Denver, where his kids live; Gretzky and Cooper back to hockey season; businessmen back to their offices; everybody back to their lives. Soon it was just Payton, a Breakfast Club of one, eating alone at the table and struggling to cobble together a foursome.

“Lonely,” he says.

At Fox, he would arrive early Sunday mornings and stay until the last down of the night game, sometimes the only one left. Producers would tell him he was free to leave.

“I got nowhere to go,” he’d say.

As last season went on, Payton felt empty, missing the emotional investment in games. “He just watched football all day, and none of it mattered,” Skylene says. There was one play that has always stayed with him, a reminder of why he coached. It was a fake field goal attempt from 2015, against the Colts, a throw from backup quarterback Luke McCown to tight end Ben Watson. They practiced it during the week. During the season, win or lose, Payton in a state of crisis Monday through Thursday, unable to see past imperfections of team and self, terrified that he has had his last good idea. By Friday, the cycle passes, and he sees things clearly again.

Late Friday night, when he was the only one left in the office, Payton watched practice video of the fake and saw all kinds of problems with it. They needed to block it differently and run it from the right hashmark. They fixed the problems and ran it on Sunday. McCown hit Watson for 25 yards, down to the 1-yard line. The Saints scored on the next play — the touchdown that ended up being the difference in a Saints win. He missed that feeling of misery and desperation and, by God, of satisfaction.

“Keeps you up at night,” Payton says.

TRUTH IS, HE’S usually awake anyway. He’s an anomaly among coaches, a night owl in a profession of neurotic morning people. He starts team meetings later than many clubs, around 8 or 9 a.m., because he doesn’t go to bed until 2 or 3 a.m. He usually eats lunch around 4 p.m. Years ago the Saints were playing the Dolphins in London, and Payton was up watching film when Belichick called.

“What’s going on?” Belichick said.

“Just working on red zone,” Payton said.

They chatted for a half-hour, sharing scouting reports of each other’s upcoming opponents. They’d become friendly over the years, both branches of the Parcells tree, both innovative, and of course, both feeling targeted by the league. During joint practices between the Saints and Patriots when Payton was suspended, Belichick played videos of Payton on the big screen, wanting Saints players to feel his presence.

Belichick asked him when the team was going to fly to London.

“What do you mean?” Payton said. “We’re here.”

It hit Belichick that Payton wasn’t in New Orleans. “God damn it, what time is it?” he asked.

“Three in the morning,” Payton said.

Payton’s work habits aren’t for everyone. At least two assistants he wanted to bring to Denver passed, burned out by their early mornings, Payton’s late nights and the unyielding grind in between. “He’s brilliant with the players,” Loomis says, “and hard on the staff.” Payton is trying to change. He hired a sleep expert to work with players and staff, and he has permitted coaches to work when they’re most creative and fresh.

He turns his office into something like a meditation studio. He lights candles, turns on a salt stone, sometimes sprays scents into the air. He has an entire cabinet full of candles. He always makes sure the glass cases for two candles are touching — one of his two superstitions, the other being chewing Juicy Fruit during games. Last year, breaking down tape by candlelight was what he missed most. “Perfect lighting,” he says. “Relaxing.”

He’s not mad scientist drawing up plays in those hours. He’s doing something much harder: creating mechanisms for his quarterback to decode the opposing defense before the snap. Last year only two teams committed more pre-snap penalties than the Broncos. Payton knows that this year, if the play clock is under 10 seconds and Wilson is futzing at the line, the defense will probably win.

One day in his office, Payton stands up and draws a formation on a giant whiteboard. It isn’t one of his plays; it’s from Mike Shanahan, a 1998 game between the Broncos and Cowboys. Shanahan split Shannon Sharpe out wide, beyond the receivers. It forced the defense to declare its coverage. If a cornerback lined up on Sharpe, it was zone. If a safety or linebacker did, it was man coverage. It was simple yet devastating, revolutionizing football and prompting coaches like Belichick to counter by making corners and safeties interchangeable.

“Mike split the atom,” Payton says.

That’s his challenge with Wilson, whom he likes as a person and as a player. He believes Wilson, 15 pounds lighter than last season, had a good camp. Payton doesn’t run a slant any differently than Nathaniel Hackett, whose tenure as Broncos head coach in 2022 lasted 15 games. He just needs to run it at the right time. Wilson looked more than lost last season. His poor play took on new dimensions, an arguable Hall of Famer so universally mocked that it has continued into this year: The Cardinals’ official social media account trolled Wilson after a preseason game. Early in training camp, Payton disclosed his assessment of Hackett’s disastrous season to USA Today, that it “might have been one of the worst coaching jobs” in league history. Those words prompted multiple responses from the Jets, where Hackett is now the offensive coordinator, and has turned the October game between them into a game fans and pundits will circle on the calendar. A few weeks later, after Payton said he didn’t want Broncos players wearing sunglasses or bucket hats and doing in-game interviews during preseason games, Jets receiver Garrett Wilson did an in-game interview in sunglasses and a bucket hat.

“That was good,” Payton says now, laughing.

Payton’s comments earned him a little plastic trophy of a golden microphone, awarded to Broncos staffers who step in it publicly. Some people, many of whom know Payton well, argue that he is so calculated that his words about Hackett were part of a grand strategy, designed to take pressure off the team and put it on himself. He got texts from coaches across sports who considered it a masterstroke. But Payton simply has less of a filter these days, even if it later requires damage control. “I think that happens to all of us,” Loomis says. “As you get older, you say the things that you think without caring about the consequences.”

– – –

“I think Sean’s a Hall of Fame coach,” Loomis says. “It’s unquestioned if we have two Super Bowls. It’ll be forgotten that we had one taken from us.”

Payton hasn’t forgotten, of course. That leads down a familiar path, of what could have been. I ask him what it’s like to live and coach with the consequences that have come down from the league office over the years.

“I don’t think it’s gonna rob my legacy,” he says.

He says he doesn’t consider himself a victim, despite it all. He knows the Saints deserved a penalty for Bountygate — “I was prepared for it” — even if he disagrees with its severity and how it was publicly framed. He knows the Saints had chances to win the NFC Championship Game after the Nola No-Call. “There were a lot of plays in that game,” he says. But of course, I’m not asking the question to hear his answer. I’m asking to see whether he can live up to his answer, which both of us know will not be determined by wins and losses, or whether he spots all kinds of problems with a fake field goal by candlelight, or whether Wilson makes the Pro Bowl. It’ll be determined by whether he can resist urges to fight wars, obvious and unseen, by whether he will let himself be changed in some fundamental way by that season he spent with Connor or those nine days he spent by Skylene’s side in West Virginia, by whether those moments will become part of what fuels him rather than interruptions in the famous Payton overdrive.

Time away has given Payton many things, but one of them is the gift of rekindled belief, he says, even if it’s fragile and subject to the dispute with the league. As he drives the golf cart past his Gozzer home, to the side of the 13th hole — it has a tap open to all golfers with screwdriver slushies, the recipe imported from the New Orleans Country Club — Payton says he’s learning to find joy in life’s essentials. Every night he prays for the happiness and health of those he loves. He never prays for himself.

Payton and wife Skylene Montgomery before Loyola University’s 2022 commencement ceremony. Payton delivered the commencement address and Montgomery received her Master of Science in Nursing degree. @JeffDuncan_ /Twitter

“I feel like I’m good,” he says a little later.

He doesn’t mean it in a religious sense. He means it in relation to his scars. He has lived life. He has screwed up and has been screwed. He has won and lost football games. And his kids are happy and healthy. He is going to do everything in his power to be on stage with Goodell, not to slay his enemies but so that this time he can give the speech he delivered to us randoms at the Intercontinental the right way, the way it should be.

KANSAS CITY

Peter King on how the Chiefs got away with criminality on Thursday:

The NFL is lucky that the continued ignored infractions of Kansas City right tackle Jawaan Taylor didn’t cost Detroit the game Thursday. The 27 million people who watched Detroit-Kansas City in the opener saw Taylor consistently break the NFL rule of how deep he can line up behind the line of scrimmage, and at least occasionally break the rule for false starts; he began his pass- or run-sets a split second before the snap of the ball more than a few times.

The way officiating works in the NFL, when either of these things happens, an official is supposed to warn the player and his coach about the violations. An official might say to Taylor, You’re lined up at least a half-yard behind what’s legal, and if you do it again, I’m throwing a flag for it. NFL rules say the helmets of guards and tackles “must break a vertical plane that passes through the beltline of the snapper.” As one NFL rules analyst told me over the weekend, “I’d be surprised if Taylor was legal on one snap all night. He was a good yard-and-a-half behind the snap of the ball.”

The down judge and line judge are responsible for policing these calls. What’s amazing to me is that one of these officials Thursday night was line judge Carl Johnson, a 21-year veteran official and the NFL’s former VP of officiating. How he and down judge Frank LeBlanc let those things slide most of the night is something the NFL can’t be happy with. No way it continues.

– – –

Jonathan Jones of CBSSports.com looks at the holdout of EDGE CHRIS JONES:

Chris Jones’ holdout from Kansas City is unique in a number of ways.

Heading into Week 1 he’s the only veteran player on the “Did Not Report” list in the league for reasons related to his contract in an era where the collective bargaining agreement makes it difficult for players to sit. Jones is also the first contract holdout of Andy Reid’s 12-year tenure in Kansas City. And during Thursday night’s loss to the Lions, Jones watched from an Arrowhead suite bracketed by his agents.

And, with each passing week of the holdout, the financial benefit to not accepting the offer on the table diminishes.

“At some point the math stops making sense,” said one NFL team executive well-versed in the salary cap.

Jones in the final year of a four-year, $80 million contract he signed in 2020. He was due to make $19.5 million in 2023, though each missed game represents a lost game check. Missing Thursday night’s game against the Lions cost Jones nearly $1.1 million.

On top of that, Jones was fined $50,000 each day he didn’t report to training camp. In total he was fined nearly $2 million. Another NFL team executive pointed out that while the game checks are gross earnings that Jones is missing, the fines were all post-tax money and argued the true total of missed money was closer to $4 million plus each game check.

Sources have told CBS Sports since the start of training camp the Chiefs were poised to make Jones the second-highest-paid interior defensive lineman in NFL history. Several defensive tackles got new deals this summer, and Quinnen Williams earned a contract averaging $24 million from the New York Jets.

All of these obviously fall short of Aaron Donald, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year who will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer five years after he retires. Donald signed a three-year contract worth $31.67 million per year in 2022, making him the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history up until Wednesday when Nick Bosa surpassed him at $34 million per year.

Jones seeks an average annual value closer to Donald than simply above Williams. The Chiefs view Donald’s contract more as an outlier rather than what’s setting the market for interior defensive linemen, hence the impasse. 

It’s unclear how long Jones is willing to let this play out. He posted last month to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that he’d be willing to take this holdout until Week 8.

“How have I let them down?” Jones asked Kansas City reporters Wednesday. “It’s just like when you’re at your job, and you ask for an extension — you ask for a raise. You’re not letting anyone down. Who are you letting down for asking your boss for a raise?

“So when you take the personal feelings out of it, you kind of get it. All I’m doing is asking for a raise.”

AFC NORTH

BALTIMORE

The biggest injury of Week 1 seems to be the torn Achilles of Ravens RB J.K. DOBBINS.  Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com:

Running back J.K. Dobbins tore his Achilles in the Baltimore Ravens’ season-opening 25-9 win on Sunday, which ended his 2023 season and devastated the entire locker room.

Dobbins went down five minutes after halftime when he took a short pass in the right flat and was wrestled to the ground by Houston Texans safety M.J. Stewart just 2 yards shy of the end zone. He limped to the sideline before heading to the locker room with his arms draped around trainers to assist him.

Afterward, Baltimore wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. said Dobbins’ injury made his stomach hurt, and inside linebacker Patrick Queen fought off tears when talking about Dobbins.

“You can’t replace a J.K.,” Ravens guard Kevin Zeitler said. “[He’s a] special guy, both football-wise and personality-wise. He helps keep his team moving and all that. So, an absolute gut punch and heartbreaking.”

The Ravens will now split their running back carries between Gus Edwards and Justice Hill, who scored two touchdowns on Sunday. Baltimore could also promote former Pro Bowl running back Melvin Gordon to the active roster.

But none has the explosiveness of Dobbins, who delivered the Ravens’ first score of the season with a leaping, 4-yard touchdown in the first quarter.

“That’s very unfortunate,” Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson said. “I feel like J.K. been busting his behind to get back on that field and just show … what he’s capable of and to help us out along the way. I spoke highly of him this offseason, just letting everybody know we really need him. For him to go down with a [season-ending] injury, that’s just very unfortunate, not just him — for all of us.”

This marks the second time in three years that Dobbins will essentially miss an entire season. He was sidelined for all of the 2021 season when he suffered a significant left knee injury in the preseason finale. Last season, Dobbins wasn’t at full strength and missed nine games while trying to recover from that knee injury.

Heading into the opener, Dobbins declared himself 100% healthy for the first time in three years.

“Just kind of crestfallen for him,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “We will put our arms around him, and he’ll get into rehab, and he will be back [next season]. But yeah, it’s really hard for him.”

Dobbins, 24, had expressed frustration over his contract this offseason. He was entering the final year of his rookie deal making $1.391 million, which is slightly more than Edwards and Hill, both of whom will earn $1 million.

In March, Dobbins will become an unrestricted free agent having missed 43 of 67 career games (64%).

“It hurts to see that type of stuff happen to somebody so good,” an emotional Queen said. “I just asked everybody, just pray for him, pray for his mental [health]. It’s just tough. It hurts, honestly. It hurts.”

Injuries took a toll on the Ravens in Week 1. In addition to Dobbins, Baltimore had three other starters leave the game and not return: safety Marcus Williams (shoulder), left tackle Ronnie Stanley (knee) and center Tyler Linderbaum (calf).

Harbaugh said their statuses will be evaluated after they undergo MRIs. A source told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler that the Ravens are looking to determine whether Williams, who has full range of motion and limited pain but a lot of swelling, suffered a torn pec.

“It’s football. It just is,” Harbaugh said of the high number of injuries. “Everyone just does the best they can, and we certainly did and certainly will continue to — I’m sure there’s injuries around the league. I’m sure we will continue to go to work and do the science and try to figure out wherever they can do offseason program-wise and things like that to keep improving in that area big-picture-wise.”

CLEVELAND

Peter King on Cleveland’s big day (even without QB DESHAUN WATSON playing well):

No very good team got embarrassed the way the Bengals did this weekend. Imagine if Deshaun Watson played well instead of playing a C-minus game, bouncing balls in front of receivers the way he often did in his forgettable six-week run late last season. If he was peak Deshaun, this would have been 40-3, not 24-3. There will be time to dissect Watson. This is the week to praise a marauding defense and its new coordinator, Jim Schwartz, for making Joe Burrow and a great offense look so bad.

Per NFL Next Gen Stats, the Browns preferred to emphasize coverage against Joe Burrow in his previous five meetings against Cleveland. In those five games, Cleveland blitzed Burrow 18 percent of his pass-drops. Seeing that the Browns were 4-1 against Burrow, why change? And considering that last season Burrow was the second-best quarterback in the league against the blitz—with a 114.7 passer rating—it seemed logical that the Browns would rush with four, try to get pressure with Myles Garrett winning his battles, and let a fortified back end cover Cincinnati’s strong receiver group.

But Schwartz didn’t do that. Obviously wanting to see whether Burrow—who’d been sidelined six weeks with a strained calf—could move normally in the pocket, the Browns sent more rushers. Per Next Gen Stats, Schwartz sent extra rushers on 13 of Burrow’s 33 pass-drops, or 39 percent. Smart move. Burrow wasn’t immobile, but as he said afterward when asked about his calf: “It was good enough.” Code phrase for “still not great.” And this was Next Gen’s most revealing number about Burrow: His average speed when on the move out of the pocket is between 16 and 18 mph. On Sunday, his average speed was 15.85 mph. Not terrible, but the fourth-lowest in his 50 NFL games … and a possible sign that this calf could nag him for a while.

“Our main focus,” said linebacker and defensive captain Anthony Walker, “was to change up looks on him. We wanted to make it as cloudy as possible for him, and then obviously get some hits on him and get him off his spot. I think that’s what this blitz was able to do. Our plan wasn’t really, you know, pressure, pressure, pressure—but just change up the picture.”

The clinching play of the game saw Cleveland rushing just four, up 16-3 with 10 minutes left, and the Bengals with a last gasp. On fourth-and-four from their 31-yard line, the Bengals slid extra protection to the right in running back Trayveon Williams to help tackle Jonah Williams against Garrett. Good concept. But this play is why Garrett is a prime Defensive Player of the Year candidate. He swam past Jonah Williams, then swatted away Trayveon Williams and went on the hunt to the right of the pocket for Burrow. The QB had zero chance. Down went Burrow. Loss of 13.

“You can’t coach that,” Walker said. “You can’t coach that energy. That took whatever life they had away.” One more series, and Bengals coach Zac Taylor raised the white flag. He took out Burrow.

This slap in the face might be a one-off, or it might be a sign that Burrow’s not near whole; the Bengals may have to make him purely a pocket player. But with a line that’s been leaky at times, that may present its own problems. Not the best time to see a team that knows the Bengals so well, Baltimore, come to Ohio for the home opener Sunday. That game’s going to answer a lot of questions about how effective Burrow’s going to be able to be this year.

AFC SOUTH

TENNESSEE

QB RYAN TANNEHILL is the goat of Sunday’s loss, not the GOAT.  Gentry Estes in The Tennessean:

They’re already looking to replace him.

He knows it. Everyone knows it.

It’s no secret as quarterback Ryan Tannehill begins the final year of his Tennessee Titans contract. Not when a team trades up to take a quarterback on Day 2 of the 2022 NFL Draft — and then does the same thing the next year. Those are transparent moves and motivations.

Had the Titans parted ways with Tannehill this past offseason, as was rumored for months, it wouldn’t have surprised many around the NFL who were waiting and watching for the 35-year-old to become available.

It’s obvious why it never happened, though. Tannehill is too good.

The Titans can’t win without him in 2023. And maybe not after that.

Malik Willis and Will Levis each has potential, and potential is worth a look. But performance wins the argument. Always does in this league.

For all that has been used to discredit Tannehill with the Titans — be it his age or overpriced salary or lack of playoff success — he has been able to boast the one thing that ultimately matters. He produces. He wins. He has won a lot in Tennessee. If you’ve admired little else about him as a quarterback, he has given you no choice but to respect that.

And then, like the scratch of a record needle, came Sunday’s frustrating 16-15 loss in New Orleans.

The Titans should have won. They didn’t because of Tannehill’s interceptions (he had three, and it could have been more). He was 16 of 34 for 198 yards, and worst of all, a couple of open throws he missed could have gone for touchdowns. Sure would have helped on an afternoon in which the Titans failed to score a touchdown.

Sunday was only the second time in Tannehill’s four-plus years as a Titans starter that I walked away believing he cost them the game. The other was the playoff loss to the Cincinnati Bengals to end the 2021 season. He threw three picks that game, too, but his passer rating was 66.7.

On Saints Sunday? 28.8.

It wasn’t just his lowest mark in a Titans game. It was statistically the worst start of Tannehill’s NFL career going back to 2012.

With the backdrop of this past offseason, that was a startling surprise.

After the Titans drafted Levis, Tannehill’s outward response was exactly what the team would have wanted. He didn’t pout or complain publicly. He did the opposite, in fact. He was enthused. He was at offseason workouts. He was at OTAs. He was all-in on learning a new offense. Above all, he continued to be the same leader this franchise has come to expect him to be — if not a little bit more.

“I felt really good coming into the game,” Tannehill said. “I feel healthy. I felt really good mentally, ready to roll. I just didn’t come out and play well. Obviously, I’m not happy with the way I performed. . . . Couple of missed opportunities, and those hurt. You’ve got to be able to hit those.”

Maybe he was shaking off the rust after getting hurt last season. Maybe it’s the new offense. Maybe it was the pass protection, or as Titans guard Daniel Brunskill said: “Some of those (throws) were on us. Some of those, we’re in his face when he’s trying to make that throw.”

Maybe it was something else. But whatever it was, Tannehill didn’t look like the same quarterback. He was tentative and reluctant. He’d flee the pocket too early, and too often threw too late. The protection wasn’t great, sure, but Tannehill has done more with less — both on the O-line and at wide receiver. DeAndre Hopkins was targeted 13 times Sunday. Pretty good, that new guy.

As for any rust? Or the protection? Consider that in his first game with the Saints, quarterback Derek Carr was sacked four times, once more than Tannehill. Carr fired a bad interception, too, but he ended up passing for 305 yards and making the throws necessary to win a tight game.

It’s easy to go overboard after Week 1. Opening games can be weird. Days after reportedly becoming the highest-paid player in NFL history, Joe Burrow went out Sunday and threw for 82 yards on 14-of-31 passing. His Cincinnati Bengals didn’t score a touchdown and lost to the Cleveland Browns 24-3.

AFC EAST

MIAMI

QB TUA TAGOVIALOA clicked on all cylinders Sunday in LA.  A giddy Ben Solak in The Ringer:

The emergence of Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins offense was one of the coolest things that happened last season. Tua entered the year a banged-up, undersized, weak-armed RPO merchant. He finished the season as the league’s most prolific deep passer, Tua the Accurate, Tua the Fearless, the perfect quarterback for Mike McDaniel’s whizbang of an offense.

The whole thing was uproarious fun. Tua was doing things no other quarterback in the league was doing—not even Patrick Mahomes. In Week 2, he dropped 469 yards and six touchdowns on the Ravens, four of which came in the fourth quarter to execute a 21-point comeback. In Weeks 8 through 10, Tua completed 76.5 percent of his passes for 969 yards and nine touchdowns with no interceptions. These were the flashes, the stretches, in which it looked like Tua and the Dolphins would simply never be stopped.

But they were stopped. First by Tua’s injuries. He almost surely suffered a concussion in Week 3 against the Bills that the team called a back injury; another concussion in Week 4 against the Bengals brought the cart out to the field. A third concussion suffered in Week 16 kept Tua out of the playoffs.

But they were also stopped by a couple of shrewd defenses. First the 49ers, who held Tua to 18 completions on 33 attempts and picked him off twice, then the Chargers, who held him to just 10 of 28. The latter was the worst game of Tua’s season under McDaniel—a defensive performance so remarkable that Steven Ruiz wrote about it for us in-season. It felt, at the time, like the cops busting up the party. The end to which all good things must come.

So the first game of the 2023 season was going to be an important one for Tua and the Dolphins, no matter who they played. Tua had spent the offseason gaining weight and learning how to fall, to stave off another injury-riddled campaign. McDaniel’s offseason was spent in the film room, considering counterpunches. This was their chance to reintroduce themselves to the league, not just as the shiny new thing, the sensation, the leap-takers. To show they could be sustainers. That they could do this all day.

It was just our good fortune that they drew the Chargers defense in Week 1. And they ran them around the yard.

The final score was 36-34. Tua threw for 466 yards, making him the 26th quarterback to throw for over 450 yards in multiple games. (At about 25 and a half years old, he is the third-youngest quarterback to do so, behind only Mahomes and Jared Goff.) He threw for three touchdowns, including the game-winner to Tyreek Hill, who had his best day as a Dolphin: 11 catches, 215 yards, and two scores.

While the counting stats are simply bananas, I don’t actually care too much about them. They’re incredible, don’t get me wrong—but they are indicative not of Tua in a vacuum, but Tua as part of a whole. He plays in an offense catered better to his skill set than any other in the league is to its respective passer, with receivers in Hill and Jaylen Waddle who can do things no other receivers can do. Plays like this one are as much about the receiver as they are about the quarterback.

But Tua also deserves plenty of credit. On third-and-10, down by four, with less than four minutes on the clock, Tua did this.

This is the sickest throw I’ve seen Tua make. Pressure behind him from Khalil Mack, his platform not set, 47 yards down the field, into the breadbasket. Tua often underthrows his speedy receivers on deep throws like these—he had no room for such an error on this play, and he nailed it. This is not the play of a pure system quarterback—it’s the play of a quarterback who can bring more.

Tua also impressed when pressured. On such plays he went 5-for-8, with a 62.5 percent success rate (i.e., 62.5 percent of his plays generated positive expected points added). That would have been his best mark against pressure last season. The Chargers logged just two QB hits in this game—that’s not just a testament to the Dolphins offensive line, but also to the changes that Tua and McDaniel made during their respective offseasons. It’s not just about this game for the Dolphins—it’s about the game that follows. It’s one thing to dominate on the score sheet; it’s doubly impressive when Tua escapes mostly unscathed, healthy, and ready for the next game on the schedule.

It’s even sweeter that this performance came against a defense that flat-out embarrassed them last season. The first act last season was incredible, but this season’s opening performance was as impressive of a game as I’ve seen from Tua, McDaniel, and this Dolphins offense.

I have to remind myself that I felt this way last year after that Week 2 explosion against the Ravens—that the Dolphins offense was unstoppable; that they’d score 40 every game. They ran into speed bumps then, and they probably will this season, too.

But man, are they a sight to see when they’re grooving. All I want is 17 healthy games of Tua, so we can see what records they can erase from the books.

THIS AND THAT

TOM WAS TERRIFIC

Now retired TE Kyle Rudolph sings the praises of Tom Brady for Peter King:

The Patriots honored Tom Brady at their season-opener Sunday against Philadelphia, an emotional ceremony on the first September Sunday Brady, 45, hasn’t been under contract to an NFL team since 1999. There were lots of memories about Brady’s immense contributions to the Patriots’ six Super Bowl wins in his career there.

He had an impact elsewhere. Just a few months ago, on Jan. 8, Brady threw his 649th and last regular-season touchdown pass to tight end Kyle Rudolph. It was the only TD catch by Rudolph in his final season of play—and the 50th of Rudolph’s career.

Though Rudolph was personally disappointed in his 12th and final season in the NFL, he took a lot from it. What Rudolph learned from Brady:

“I went to the Bucs to try to win a championship with the best QB ever, who wanted me in Tampa. I came in with expectations, and then never even played. (Figuratively. Rudolph played 79 snaps in nine games as a Buc.) I was a healthy scratch most of the year, and, honestly, it was really disappointing.

“But my experience with Tom was incredible. First, the way he treated people. The way he treated the Glazer family [Bucs owners] is exactly the way he treated the janitor at 6:30 at night when he and maybe one or two other guys were the last players in the building. Second, the way he treated his teammates. Tom had an empty locker next to him. I would look over there and every day, guys would put helmets, jerseys, pictures, footballs, all the stuff they wanted Tom to sign for them. There’d be notes on the stuff, a post-it note on a football—‘Sign this for Jimmy, it’s his birthday.’ At the end of the day, almost every day, he’d sit there and sign everything.

“If anyone had the right to sometimes be an a—hole, it was Tom. He never was. Think of how tough a year it was for him off the field. (Brady was in the throes of a divorce.)

“For me, he was such a great teammate. I went to Tampa to play with him and to win a Super Bowl. It just didn’t go the way I wanted it. But all season, he’d put his arm around me and keep me positive. He made me a better football player, not because of the games, but because of the practices Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. When you’re a 33-year-old former Pro Bowler playing scout team, you’ve got two ways to go. You can be bitter and a distraction, or be a hard worker and try to get better every day. He said to me, ‘Keep working, keep working, I’m gonna give you a chance, I’m gonna get you the ball.’ I think he was appreciative of how I went to work. And when I look back on it now, I can’t tell you how much I loved Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

“So we’re in Atlanta, last regular-season game of Tom’s career. And on the first drive of the game, I’m on the field, and he throws me the last TD pass of his career, his regular-season career. It was a big catch for me—my 50th touchdown in the NFL. That ball’s painted and in my office here in Tampa right now. It means so much to me.

“The most amazing thing to me was, with all the negativity swirling around his life outside of football, he never carried it into the building. Always positive. I didn’t think it’d be possible when I walked into the team to be more impressed with Tom. But I was.”

Rudolph was the 96^th different receiver that Brady threw a TD pass to in his career, among 649 career TD passes.  Ron Gronkowski leads the way with 90.  Rudolph was among 28 different players who caught exactly one.

BROADCAST NEWS

We’ve seen quite a few positive reviews of YouTube’s version of Sunday Ticket.  Peter King:

In the first Sunday of Sunday Ticket not on DirecTV, YouTube aced the test. The streaming quality was great, the quadbox feature was pristine (though you can’t choose your own games—you’ve got to take what YouTube provides), and overall the sound and picture were consistently strong. Quibble: Quadbox not available on desktop or mobile. I don’t think people should be beefing about the choice of games on Quadbox. You don’t get to choose what game/games are shown on RedZone either, and that’s a great product.

And this note on Buck-Aikman:

Joe Buck/Troy Aikman, ESPN announcers. They start their 22nd season together tonight, beating the Madden-Summerall team (21 years) for longest-tenured booth in league history. The longtime Fox number one team begins a second ESPN season on “Monday Night Football” with the Aaron Rodgers Bowl at MetLife Stadium. Neither guy seems close to the end either. Buck is 54, Aikman 56, and they could put the record pretty far out there if they choose.

Intentional or not, from CBS announcer Andrew Catalon?

“This game feels like it should be 28-3, Minnesota”

–CBS play-by-play man Andrew Catalon, at halftime of Bucs-Vikings, with telecast partners Matt Ryan and Tiki Barber alongside.

Matt Ryan, first game in the booth after a decorated 15-year NFL career, and the score “28-3” is mentioned.

Get it?

Catalon couldn’t have chosen 27-7, maybe?

– – –

ESPN and Charter have a deal.  Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo.com:

The standoff between Disney and Charter Communications ended hours before the first Monday Night Football broadcast of the new NFL season.

The companies announced a multi-year agreement on Monday that will restore ESPN and 18 other Disney-owned channels to Charter’s nearly 15 million subscribers just in time for them to watch Aaron Rodgers make his New York Jets debut against the Buffalo Bills.

As part of the deal, Charter gained the ability to provide streaming services Disney+ and ESPN+ to select Spectrum customers. ESPN’s yet-to-be-unveiled direct-to-consumer service will also be part of the Spectrum service. In exchange, CNBC reported that Charter agreed to pay Disney higher annual subscriber fees.

“Our collective goal has always been to build an innovative model for the future,” Disney CEO Robert Iger and Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said in a joint statement. “This deal recognizes both the continued value of linear television and the growing popularity of streaming services, while addressing the evolving needs of our consumers.”

While it’s common for carriage renewal disputes to drag on for weeks and to result in blackouts for unhappy customers, the Disney-Charter feud had higher-than-usual stakes. Charter billed the negotiations as a pivotal moment for the pay-TV model that the cable giant claimed must be fixed or abandoned.

In an 11-page presentation to investors titled “The Future of Multichannel Video: Moving Forward, Or Moving On,” Charter claimed to have “reached the point of economic indifference” with the cable TV business model. As if to prove it wasn’t bluffing, Charter actively encouraged its Spectrum cable subscribers to take advantage of a “special offer” to sign up for FuboTV or to stream with another cable provider.

In other words, Charter was willing to invite its own subscribers to get their cable service from a competitor to minimize any impact on its broadband internet business.

In response, Disney launched a social media campaign urging Charter customers to consider switching to Disney-owned Hulu + Live TV or another streaming service. Stephen A. Smith, ESPN’s most recognizable face and loudest voice, even tweeted Wednesday, “Bottom Line: YOU HAVE CHOICES!!! DIRECTV Stream, Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, Sling, Fubo, are all available. Just download the app and sign up with no service call.”

In many ways, the TV industry has been building to this moment for years as a result of a harmful cycle that content creators and cable carriers can’t seem to escape.

The cable-quitting phenomenon started over a decade ago after Netflix and others launched successful streaming services. TV networks responded by pushing for rate increases to make up for lost revenue while simultaneously launching their own direct-to-consumer streaming services and putting some of their best content behind a paywall. Of course, that only further strip-mined the cable bundle, giving customers more incentive to cut the cord.

In its presentation to investors last Friday, Charter admitted that its “video profitability has been declining for years.” Video now “just doesn’t matter all that much” to Charter compared to other facets of its business, according to a research report from the respected financial advisory firm, MoffettNathanson.

“Yes, they probably do still make some money on video,” the MoffettNathanson report said. “But not much and they recognize that linear video is going to be a rapidly declining line of service under even the most optimistic scenarios.”

Those circumstances emboldened Charter to initially refuse to pay more than the $2.2 billion in programming costs it already shells out annually to Disney, which resulted in the blackout. Charter insisted it would accept Disney’s proposed rate increase in exchange for a package that would include both Disney’s traditional TV channels and streaming apps.

On Monday morning, just in time for Monday Night Football, a compromise was reached.