Reflections on the 2024 NFL Season: Week One in Review

We are now one week into the start of the 2024 NFL football season.

Each team has high hopes of winning the Super Bowl this year, but only one can claim the prize.

 

For the Dallas Cowboys, this could be a make or break year. Quarterback Dak Prescott and Head Coach Mike McCarthy were both entering the last year of their contracts, while wide receiver CeeDee Lamb was entering the last year of his rookie contract.

 

Both McCarthy and Prescott have made good records during the regular season, but that hasn’t helped the team in the playoffs, especially given the fact they got embarrassed at home last season in the playoffs by McCarthy’s kryptonite, the Green Bay Packers. Funny how he always loses to them.

 

It also doesn’t help that McCarthy is bad at time management in must-win situations when the game is close in the 4th quarter. How many times has he let the clock run down without spiking the ball or calling a timeout? As of this writing, McCarthy hasn’t signed a new contract or an extension with the team.

 

If McCarthy doesn’t return as the Cowboys head coach, it remains to be seen who the Cowboys will hire to take his place. Do they go with one of their other coaches, or go after someone from outside the Cowboys organization?

 

From a disappointing free agency from a marketing standpoint given the Cowboys “going all in” in 2024, it remains to be seen what the future holds beyond the season with the team potentially going for a new quarterback-head coach duo going into 2025. Will McCarthy get another chance to prove himself, or will the Cowboys select a new man to take over the head coaching spot?

 

Time will tell.

 

The fact that the Cowboys managed to sign both wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and quarterback Dak Prescott to multi-year deals are a step in the right direction, solidifying their future with the team within a week of the regular season after a long uncertainty during the preseason. The Cowboys now need to take action on star defensive end Micah Parsons or else they could lose him to free agency.

 

Even with Prescott’s future with the Cowboys secured, there’s a good chance that the Cowboys could draft a new quarterback next year in the draft with the hopes that he would be the new face of the franchise, potentially even Texas Quarterback Quinn Evers as a local pick. A new rookie quarterback could spend the next three or four years learning from Prescott until he eventually takes over as the starting quarterback, like how Jordan Love served as Aaron Rodgers’ backup before taking over as the Green Bay Packers quarterback.

 

The Cowboys defense under new Defensive Coordinator Mike Zimmer showed great promise after a dominant performance against the Cleveland Browns in Week One. Their hard work helped lead the Cowboys to a 33-17 victory (including a punt return for a touchdown), managing to stop the Browns offense and allow Prescott and the Cowboys offense plenty of opportunities to put the game out of reach.

 

And for all of the Cowboys haters out there, when was the last time a lot of teams won the Super Bowl, or even made it to the Super Bowl? Teams like the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings, or the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals have never one a single Super Bowl, and other teams like the Miami Dolphins, the Chicago Bears, and San Francisco 49ers have longer Super Bowl win droughts than the Cowboys do.

 

The Cowboys are America’s Team for a reason, and as a Cowboys fan I can say that nothing will make us abandon our team. Haters are going to hate.

 

For the Kansas City Chiefs, they will seek to become the first team to win three super bowls in a row in NFL history. Having established themselves as a dynasty by winning back-to-back super bowls and three super bowls over a five-year span under star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, a lot of pressure will be on the Chiefs to win another Super Bowl this season, while facing fierce competition from AFC teams looking to beat them.

 

An early test for the Chiefs came in the season opener against Lamar Jackson the Baltimore Ravens, winning 27-20 after the Ravens tried to mount a comeback against the two time-defending champions.

 

The only question is if the rest of the league will beat the Chiefs during the playoffs and prevent the first three-peat in NFL history.

 

The New York Giants got off to a bad start after losing to the Sam Darnold-led Minnesota Vikings. And if the Giants new jerseys represent how their season will play out, they are going to be really bad.

 

Other teams, such as the Carolina Panthers, appear to suffer the same struggle they had last season after getting embarrassed by the New Orleans Saints in Week One, losing 47-10.

 

The Vikings, meanwhile, had their season shaken up after star rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy got injured for the entire season during the preseason. This comes after the team had quarterback struggles after Kirk Cousins suffered a season-ending injury last season and they never recovered from that. They now look to rebound under Sam Darnold, with a 28-6 victory against the Giants as a hopeful step in the right direction.

 

The New England Patriots, on the other hand, surprised the football world after an upset victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, winning 16-10 under first-year Head Coach Jerod Mayo.

 

Like the Patriots, several teams hope for a better season than they had last year.

 

The Chicago Bears are hoping they found their first franchise quarterback in Caleb Williams, who experienced a lot of growing pains in their season-opener against the Tennessee Titans. Williams struggled on offense, and without the Bears defense leading the team to a 24-17 come-from-behind victory, we could be telling a different story for the Bears.

 

Hopefully Williams and the Bears offense can prepare before they face off against the Houston Texans in Week Two, a team looking to build on their success from last year under star quarterback C.J. Stroud. It will take the Bears offense to do their part, especially after the Texans had a good start besting the Indianapolis Colts 29-27.

 

The Los Angeles Chargers, with new Head Coach Jim Harbaugh, hope that Harbaugh’s success with Michigan in college football rubs off on them. (Harbaugh’s Michigan won the 2023-24 CFP Championship before he returned to the NFL this year.)

 

Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets hope to be serious contenders after their season got derailed when Rodgers suffered a season-ending leg injury last year after only four plays as a Jet. They hope he stays healthy for the entire season. A Week One matchup against the defending NFC Champions San Francisco 49ers will be a big test for the Jets, as the 49ers look to return to the Super Bowl after losing Super Bowl LVIII to the Chiefs, 25-22.

 

With Week One completed, we’ll see whether the teams can build off of their early success, keep the momentum going, overcome their struggles, or fall further in the rankings.

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