Week 1 wasn't the upset-wreaking chaos I'd envisioned. Betting favorites went 13-3, with those three upsets coming against quarterbacks who'd missed significant chunks of the 2023 season due to injury.
Joe Burrow, Kirk Cousins and Deshaun Watson all looked varying forms of shaky in their 2024 debuts. Burrow couldn't develop a rhythm with a receiving corps lacking Tee Higgins (and getting just OK numbers from Ja'Marr Chase, who was locked down by New England Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez). Cousins clearly wasn't 100 percent, as the diet of play-action snaps that buoyed his career were absent in his Atlanta Falcons debut.