The result is always chaos. There’s a lot of rust to be shaken off and the lack of film creates a major unpredictability factor to be reckoned with. There are always some shocking results, and the fun of Week 1 is figuring out which of those are real and which are mirages. Sixteen teams will win, sixteen will lose, but that’s not always indicative of their fortunes the rest of the way. 

Here’s a look at some of the biggest takeaways from around the league with most of Week 1 in the books, as well as how telling they may or may not be for the rest of the way: 

Trouble for last year’s Super Bowl teams? 

Both the Chiefs and Eagles got off to rocky starts in 2025, playing on Friday and Thursday respectively to kick off the 2025 season in standalone games. Philadelphia was pushed to the brink by a motivated Cowboys squad, while the Chiefs never led against the Chargers in Brazil. 

The Eagles got the win which is the most important thing in the end, but the performance raised no shortage of questions for the defending champs. All summer, the defense was the biggest area of concern due to the personnel losses on that side of the ball, even with a large number of returning key players. Cornerback was a weak spot, prompting a trade with the Raiders for Jakorian Bennett mid-August, and there were questions about the pass rush as well. 

Those pain points didn’t go away in Week 1, and ended up being magnified by the ejection of stud DT Jalen Carter before the game’s first snap. Veteran CB Adoree’ Jackson won a starting job during camp, but it might be more accurate to say younger CB Kelee Ringo lost the job despite entering camp as the favorite. Ringo was playing behind Bennett on Thursday despite the latter still trying to catch up in the system. Whether it was Jackson or Bennett, the Cowboys clearly had a plan to go after whichever receiver they were covering. 

Without Carter, the Eagles gave up 5.4 yards per carry against a Dallas ground attack that looked uninspiring entering the night. They also mustered no sacks and just one quarterback hit. Those likely led to the signing of DE Za’Darius Smith after the game to give them another proven pass rusher and a bigger body to set the edge. Carter won’t be spitting on opponents anytime soon — at least you’d hope not — so the Eagles should be better up front in the future. But until proven otherwise, the defense is a concern. The game also raised some questions about the offense, including the health of players like WR A.J. Brown (just one target late in the fourth) and OL Landon Dickerson and the debut of first-time play-caller Kevin Patullo. 

Things were rougher for the Chiefs and not just because they lost. The No. 1 topic around the team this offseason was getting the offense back to being fun and explosive again after getting beat down in the Super Bowl against the Eagles. So the Chiefs revamped the offensive line to try and ensure QB Patrick Mahomes had the time to look down the field, and then…not much else. They re-signed WR Marquise Brown and banked on the plan they had last year to get better on offense with Brown joining WRs Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy. 

That plan was derailed last year by injuries to Brown and Rice. This year, it already took a hit with a six-game suspension for Rice for street-racing last summer, then took another major blow just three plays into the game when TE Travis Kelce collided with Worthy on a mesh route and dislocated his shoulder. Just like that, Kansas City was right back to the plodding attack that fans have become all too familiar with the last couple of years. Brown finished the game with 16 targets and generated just 50 yards on the first 15 before a coverage bust and scramble drill from Mahomes gifted him 49 yards. 

It’s not clear how much time Worthy will miss but it’s clear the Chiefs planned on his speed being a skeleton key for the offense, and without him they’re going to be in a pickle for a while. The Chargers also won the battle up front against Kansas City’s remade offensive line for the most part, and it’s clear it will take time for that group to settle in. Same for the defense, which saw a new-look secondary get shredded by Chargers QB Justin Herbert. 

In all of these cases, there’s reason to be optimistic that the Chiefs can improve. They’re projected to get their full complement of receivers together on the field by midseason. Young linemen like first-round LT Josh Simmons and G Kingsley Suamataia should get better with reps. Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo has a lengthy of history of coaching defenses that play better in November, December and January than in September. 

The question is whether the Chiefs end up digging a hole they can’t get out of. The schedule for the next couple months is tough. Kansas City has a Super Bowl rematch against the Eagles in Week 2, followed by an AFC heavyweight bout against the Ravens in Week 4 (which makes the Week 3 road matchup against the Giants a potential trap game). From there, there’s a Monday night road game against the Jaguars in Week 5, another primetime spotlight game against the Lions in Week 6, then Monday night again versus the Commanders in Week 8 and against the AFC-rival Bills in Week 9. 

Not only are the Chiefs already staring down an 0-2 start which historically has been an awful omen for a team’s playoff chances, they have intense competition in the AFC West with the Broncos and Chargers. The ingredients are there for the Chiefs to be a team that can peak at the right time, but they have to make sure they’re not too far underwater by the bye week. 

Major issues in Miami? 

I dubbed Sunday’s tilt between the Colts and the Dolphins the Bad Vibes Bowl because there might not have been two other teams who took more of a beating in the headlines this offseason. The Colts had an uninspiring quarterback battle between Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson, with Jones coming out on top. The Dolphins spent the offseason answering questions about all the player defections, like CB Jalen Ramsey and TE Jonnu Smith, as well as a player in WR Tyreek Hill who said he wanted out before walking it back. 

Both teams also entered the year with coaches on the hot seat. But after a 33-8 Colts win, Indy HC Shane Steichen will have a well-earned reprieve from any job security talk for a while. Meanwhile the temperature on Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel has ratcheted up significantly. Losing in Week 1 is one thing — getting dominated by a team that was supposed to be in a similar tier is far different. 

There just wasn’t a point on Sunday where the Dolphins felt competitive. Indianapolis scored on its opening drive, then Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa turned it over twice in the span of three plays. Miami was down 17-0 before the end of the first quarter, and another pick from Tagovailoa on the first drive of the second half put any hope of a comeback on life support. He finished with a rating of 2.7 in ESPN’s QBR. On the other side of the ball, Jones carved up a Dolphins secondary that was seen as a massive weakness all offseason, going 22-29 passing for 272 yards. 

But the personnel holes aren’t the biggest reason to be concerned about the Dolphins. Last year, everyone involved with the organization from top to bottom spent all offseason talking about needing to improve the culture, becoming a tougher, more resilient football team as opposed to one that could put up gobs of yards and points in September and October, but wilted when the weather got cold or the wrong player got injured. The same story played out. This year, the Dolphins spent the offseason insisting they had fixed the culture — for real this time. 

Then Week 1 happened. 

I don’t think I can overstate how concerning it is that the Dolphins came out that flat after having their backs against the wall all offseason. They may technically have 16 more games to respond but there’s nothing in the last two seasons to suggest this team is capable of reversing the clear and obvious downward trajectory they seem to be spiraling on. 

Rodgers turned back the clock? 

Outside of the 81 points scored in the Sunday night game between the Bills and Ravens — which instantly becomes one of the all-time regular season classics of this decade — the game with the second-highest point total of the Week 1 slate was the 34-32 barn-burner between the Steelers and Jets. Show me someone who expected that result and I’ll show you a liar, as both teams entered the game telling everyone they wanted to pound the rock as much as possible. 

Instead, Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers and Jets QB Justin Fields traded touchdowns all afternoon. Fields linked up with WR Garrett Wilson for a deep shot and ran two more in on the ground, while Rodgers finished the day with four passing touchdowns. Pittsburgh got a crucial fumble recovery on a kickoff that led to a touchdown, then a mega-clutch 60-yard game-winning field goal from K Chris Boswell to escape with a win. 

For the Steelers, it was an encouraging debut after they took their fair share of slings and arrows for hitching their wagon to the Rodgers train and everything that comes with it. Rodgers attempted to downplay the revenge angle against the Jets but he couldn’t resist a little bit of revelry in the performance, noting, “There were probably people in the (Jets) organization that didn’t think I could still play anymore. It was nice to remind them that I still can.” 

Will the good times keep on coming? The four touchdown total was a bit of a misnomer, as one came on a tap pass on a jet sweep to TE Jonnu Smith and the other was a rollout to a wide-open RB Jaylen Warren on a flat route. Rodgers was efficient, going 22 for 30 for 244 yards, but he also took four sacks, some of which exposed his age and decreased mobility. It was a good start but there’s still a lot of season ahead. 

The Packers made a season-defining statement win against the Lions? 

Green Bay’s seismic trade for DE Micah Parsons came with a massive upward adjustment in expectations. There’s no excuses for not competing for a Super Bowl after a deal like that. The Packers delivered on the field Sunday, decisively taking down the reigning NFC North champion Lions by a score of 27-13, with a late Detroit touchdown made the final margin look a little closer than the actual game played out. 

And naturally, Parsons had a major impact. He finished with just one tackle and one sack, but that undersold his impact on the game as he was a disruptive presence even if he wasn’t taking down the ball-carrier. He pressured Lions QB Jared Goff on his interception near the end of the first half and added a run stop later on.

Speaking of run defense, Green Bay was just fine in that department even with all the handwringing about trading DT Kenny Clark. Defensive tackle is one of the deeper spots on a deep roster, and the Packers bowed up to allow just 46 rushing yards on 22 carries, or just over two yards per carry. It looks like Green Bay has a chance to be very good on defense in 2025. 

The offense didn’t light up the stat sheet but QB Jordan Love spread the ball around to a bunch of different receivers and didn’t turn it over. I suspect this performance against this defense will carry a lot more weight as the season plays out, particularly holding star DE Aidan Hutchinson almost completely off the stat sheet. Overall, this is exactly the kind of win that shows the Packers are capable of living up to the substantial hype that accompanied the Parsons trade.