The first NFL Sunday of the season is officially in the books, with Week 1 jam-packed with action.
The Sunday action capped with the new-look New York Giants putting a hurting on their division-rival Dallas Cowboys. Giants quarterback Jackson Dart delivered three touchdown passes and rushed for 54 yards in the 28-20 victory.
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The early window was action-packed (and absolutely filled to the brim with points), headlined by a Buffalo Bills-Houston Texans thriller for the ages where Josh Allen led a tremendous comeback effort in the final 90 seconds with a 96-yard drive ending in a touchdown to win 36-31.
The Chicago Bears also stunned with a 59-point effort against the Carolina Panthers after head coach Ben Johnson expressed hope to finish the year with the “highest-scoring offense ever” in the offseason. Third-year quarterback Caleb Williams was 21-of-29 passing for 269 yards and two touchdowns, adding another 65 yards and two touchdowns on the ground on the way to the win.
On the injury front, there was (unfortunately) plenty of news coming out of Sunday, starting with the Rams announcing star DE Myles Garrett will undergo a knee procedure that will force him to miss time and be placed on injured reserve. He’s set to miss at least the next four games of the season. New Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray also took a scary hit in his debut for the team, exiting Sunday’s win with a concussion, replaced in the lineup by backup Carson Wentz.
Follow along with Yahoo Sports for the latest NFL news, injury updates and more coming out of Week 1.
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Houston Texans linebacker Henry To’oTo’o suffered a shoulder injury during Week 1’s 36-31 loss to the Buffalo Bills and “will be out for some time,” head doach DeMeco Ryans told reporters on Monday.
The team is currently considering whether or not to place To’oTo’o on injured reserve. He suffered the injury with 2:34 remaining in regulation.
To’oTo’o, 25, appeared in all 17 games for the Texans last season, starting 14. He compiled 95 total tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 1 fumble recovery and 4 passes defended. He registered 2 tackles in Sunday’s game.
The fourth-year linebacker was Houston’s 2023 fifth-round pick (No. 167 overall) out of Alabama.
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Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel told reporters that running back TreVeyon Henderson is expected to return to practice on Monday.
The second-year RB has been sidelined for three weeks due to an ankle injury. He missed New England’s Week 1 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
The Patriots played the Seahawks last Wednesday, giving the team more time to heal up before their Week 2 matchup against the Steelers. This extra time may have been just what Henderson needed to get to a point where he can ramp up and be ready for his season debut.
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Dallas Cowboys safety Malik Hooker sustained a fractured left forearm during the third quarter of Sunday night’s 28-20 loss to the New York Giants.
Hooker is seeing a specialist to determine how long the injury could keep him out, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Depending on the kind of break and where it’s located, Hooker could be out for as long as six weeks. But it could be less, which the Cowboys certainly hope.
The 10-year NFL veteran is in his sixth season with the Cowboys. Hooker tallied 58 tackles in 12 games last season, limited by a toe injury. On Sunday, he recorded one tackle before leaving the game.
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Los Angeles Rams defensive end Myles Garrett will miss at least four weeks after being placed on injured reserve following knee surgery.
However, Rams coach Sean McVay told reporters on Monday that he doesn’t know if Garrett will be able to return after those four weeks.
McVay said the team has monitored the situation for weeks and Garrett missed time during training camp because of his knee. However, leaving Garrett in Los Angeles while the team traveled to Australia for its Week 1 opener was never under consideration. Garrett didn’t record a tackle or sack in the 27-7 loss.
“Thought we would take an approach where he’d be feeling good enough to go contribute positive change and be the player that he’s capable of.,” McVay said, via ESPN’s Sarah Barshop. “That wasn’t the case. And so the next right thing for us is to be able to get this thing fixed.”
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Not to yuck anyone’s yum, but a group of Chiefs fans have been camping outside of Arrowhead Stadium ahead of Monday night’s game against the Broncos.
The parking lot isn’t even open yet, so the fans are camping out outside the main gates.
A video showed fans had already set up a camping/tailgating setup at 7:30 p.m. CT Sunday night, just shy of 24 hours before kickoff.
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The offseason hype, as usual, was on the Dallas Cowboys. They had a flashy offense and made moves to fix their defense. They spoke openly about the Super Bowl after going 7-9-1 last season.
The New York Giants made big changes too. They just weren’t as boisterous about it.
The Giants, in new head coach John Harbaugh’s first game, outplayed the Cowboys in a season-opening 28-20 win on Sunday night. Their offense, with Malik Nabers and Cam Skattebo back from season-ending injuries last year, moved the ball effectively. The defense, which added multiple starters including first-round draft pick Arvell Reese at linebacker, did a good job quieting an offense that Dak Prescott tried to nickname “The Greatest Offense There Is” this offseason. Jaxson Dart threw three touchdowns and played much better than Prescott, who was supposed to be coming in with the better offensive cast.
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If you thought Week 1 in the NFL was explosive, you thought right.
Per multiple metrics, Sunday’s Week 1 slate and the entire set of games leading up to Sunday night were historic in terms of scoring.
Entering “Monday Night Football” between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos, Week 1 was the highest scoring in the NFL since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger by average with 50.0 combined points per game.
So what’s the reason behind the offensive explosion? Mike Tomlin has a theory.
The recently retired Pittsburgh Steelers head coach continues to shine in his new role as an analyst for NBC’s game broadcasts. He offered his reasoning for the offensive fireworks during halftime of Sunday night’s matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants.
“I think how we practice and how we prepare our teams today really kind of lends itself to offenses starting faster than they have historically,” Tomlin told host Maria Taylor. “What I mean by that is there is less violence in team development. There are less padded practices. Even the drills that they do are more geared to skill development — 7 on 7 and things of that nature.
“Defenses spend less time shedding blocks and tackling than they used to 25 years ago when I came into the league.”
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The pick for NFL survival pools seemed so easy for Week 1. The Los Angeles Chargers were the biggest favorite on the board, one of the biggest opening-game favorites over many years.
And now, the Chargers go down in infamy as one of the popular survival picks that got people eliminated before the theme song for the first “Sunday Night Football” of the season hit.
The Chargers, the most popular pick at Yahoo Survival Football for Week 1 as they were picked by 32.5%, are 0-1. The Arizona Cardinals, who closed as a 9.5-point underdog at most sportsbooks, pulled a huge upset by beating the Chargers 26-14.
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Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson believes Sunday will be the norm for his team moving forward. Following a 59-point explosion in a win over the Carolina Panthers in Week 1, Johnson said that’s the type of performance he expects all year, per ESPN.
“That will always be the goal,” he said. “We want to be the highest scoring, we want to have the most wins, we want to win Super Bowls. That’s what we do. We didn’t get into this profession trying to be mediocre or average.”
That should come as welcome news to fantasy managers with Bears players on their team … and to Bears fans.
While the Bears put up numbers, the team’s offense was spread between just a few players. Caleb Williams, D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monagai all turned in excellent performances while the pass catchers had modest games.
That should change in the coming weeks. And if Johnson’s comments are to be believed, there’s going to be plenty of touchdowns to go around the rest of the 2026 season.
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The New York Giants looked strong in their Week 1 win over the Dallas Cowboys. John Harbaugh’s new team was able to run the ball consistently and Jackson Dart looked composed in the 28-20 win.
The team also got a boost from wideout Malik Nabers, who caught six balls for 69 yards in his first game back from a knee injury.
Turns out, Nabers almost didn’t play in the contest due to his recovery. With the wideout worried about the mental toll of taking the field again, Harbaugh apparently tried to tackle Nabers to prove he could take hits.
No, really.
The tactic worked and Nabers looked like himself Sunday night.
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Baltimore Ravens wideout Zay Flowers got a solid prognosis after leaving Week 1 with a hamstring injury. Flowers is considered day-to-day and likely would have returned had it been a playoff game, per NFL Network.
Flowers turned in a career day despite only playing in the first half, going for 150 yards and a score.
It sounds like he could play in Week 2 if he continues to recover well from the issue. That should come as a sigh of relief to the Ravens.
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The Los Angeles Rams will be without star pass rusher Myles Garrett for at least the next four weeks due to knee surgery, according to NFL Network.
Garrett, who the team acquired in a blockbuster deal with the Cleveland Browns in the offseason, will reportedly undergo arthroscopic surgery on his knee and will be placed on injured reserve.
The hope is that Garrett will be able to return in four weeks. Garrett previously missed time in training camp with an injury to his left knee, though he did play in the team’s Week 1 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
