The biggest surprise of the NFL season (so far) for each team

Week 1 of the 2017 NFL season didn’t go exactly as planned. The defending champion New England Patriots gave up 21 fourth-quarter points to lose to the Kansas City Chiefs in last Thursday’s season opener. Three days later, the NFC champion Atlanta Falcons needed to withstand a last-minute drive from a rebuilding Chicago Bears team to avoid a similarly embarrassing fate.

The surprises stretched beyond the two teams who played in Super Bowl 51. AFC South champion Houston lost to AFC South basement-dweller Jacksonville after the Jaguars rung up 10 sacks on two different ineffective Texan quarterbacks. The Rams, one season after scoring a league-low 14 points per game last fall, dropped more points than anyone else in the NFL by scoring 46 against an inept Colts team.

There are plenty of storylines to follow as the 2017 season rounds into shape. Here’s each team’s biggest surprise.

It may be a different time in the NFC West after going from a power with Seattle and San Francisco to a power with Seattle and Arizona; now you have one team too young to compete, one team that may be too old, and the Seahawks may get their franchise quarterback killed.

For more, check out the entire entry at Revenge of the Birds.

What if I had told you, after final cutdowns, that your three highest-rated quarterbacks in Week 1 would be Alex Smith, Sam Bradford, and Jared Goff? You would have thought that unlikely, at best, but here we are.

For more, check out the entire entry at the Falcoholic.

Yes, he has only played one game, but what a performance it was. Pro Football Focus gave Suggs a grade of an 85.3. Many were unsure if T-Sizzle could continue to play at a high level. However, in week one, he answered all of those questions and more.

For more, check out the entire entry at Baltimore Beatdown.

With the Patriots at 0-1 and the Dolphins on a forced bye week sitting at 0-0, the winner of Sunday’s contest is now tops in the AFC East. If you had asked us if this was possible a month ago following Buffalo’s big trades, we would have laughed at you.

For more, check out the entire entry at Buffalo Rumblings.

Only time will tell if Smith will be able to keep up this production, but the fact that he did this against the Patriots on their home turf in the season opener is a huge surprise. The not-so-good part of this surprise, though, is when you have Tom Brady as your starting fantasy QB with Alex Smith on your bench. That’s not fun at all.

For more, check out the entire entry at Cat Scratch Reader.

Have the Bears found a new playmaker?

After racking up 159 total yards — which is a new Bears rookie season-opening record by the way — and leading the team with 66 rushing yards, 47 yards receiving, and 45 punt return yards, I’d say the answer is yes.

For more, check out the entire entry at Windy City Gridiron.

Still, a lot of the blame falls on Dalton. He started staring down receivers allowing the opportunistic defense to take advantage. He also got gun shy on a few throws instead opting to try and get out of the pocket, not to mention he cost the team points in the red zone, which is an absolute killer to morale and momentum.

For more, check out the entire entry at Cincy Jungle.

After Tank Carder’s season-ending injury, Schobert seized the opportunity and had an excellent preseason. The best words I’ve been able to use to describe Schobert is that he’s recognizing and finishing plays all over the field, which is something I never would have projected.

His stunning improvement presumably compelled Williams to ensure that Schobert was not just a rotational player, but a vital cog in the defense. In Week 1, he played every defensive snap against the Steelers.

For more, check out the entire entry at Dawgs by Nature.

The Cowboys suffocating defense was a collective effort on Sunday. They got pressure from their defensive line, great patrolling by their linebackers, and a secondary that clamped down on the receivers.

For more, check out the entire entry at Blogging the Boys.

I spent the first part of the game making fun of the Chiefs on Twitter, which was a win for me personally. But then I spent the second part of the game making fun of the Patriots and that was a much bigger win.

Nothing is funnier than seeing jilted, arrogant Patriots fans on Twitter saying nothing to anyone. It’s like they disappeared for a few hours.

For more, check out the entire entry at Mile High Report.

And the Lions’ sixth-round pick from 2016 went out against the Cardinals and had himself a game. He finished with Detroit’s only sack of the game, added an additional four hurries, and nearly had an interception.

For more, check out the entire entry at Pride of Detroit.

The way Ted Thompson has put together the 2017 Green Bay Packers roster should be truly stunning to anyone familiar with his past tendencies. Thompson signed a big-name free agent in Martellus Bennett, but that is actually not that surprising to me, considering he has landed players like Julius Peppers and Charles Woodson in the past.

Rather, it is Thompson’s sudden willingness to dip into the middle and lower tiers of free agency and the timing with which he did so that should be the biggest shocks.

For more, check out the entire entry at Acme Packing Company.

I’m going with Bill O’Brien’s decision to bench Tom Savage at halftime of the first game of the regular season. Without getting into the merits of the decision, I was shocked O’Brien did it, only because O’Brien expressed regret about having a similarly quick hook in the past with Brian Hoyer. Even if Savage continued to struggle, I did not expect a change at QB midway through the first game of the 2017 season.

For more, check out the entire entry at Battle Red Blog.

If you told me right after it was announced that Andrew Luck had shoulder surgery that he would enter the season without any meaningful timetable for his return, I wouldn’t have believed it. If you told me that Stephen Morris would outplay Scott Tolzien for a second straight preseason only to be cut, I wouldn’t have believed it. If you told me that the Colts would trade former first-round wide receiver Phillip Dorsett to the New England Patriots for a quarterback, I wouldn’t have believed it.

For more, check out the entire entry at Stampede Blue.

But Fowler looked every bit the part of a No. 3 overall draft pick with his performance in the season opener. He had three tackles, two sacks, one fumble recovery, and a touchdown. It was the best box score a defensive end has had in a long, long time.

For more, check out the entire entry at Big Cat Country.

Alex Smith is the top-rated quarterback in the NFL after Week 1. Yes, that Alex Smith.

Even more surprising — not only is Smith the top QB in the league, but Tom Brady (yes, that Tom Brady) is among the worst (24th out of 30 if you haven’t bothered to click the link).

For more, check out the entire entry at Arrowhead Pride.

For me it’s easy. The fact the Kenny Wiggins not only has taken a step forward in his progression when it looked bleak for years now but also being one of the Chargers best Offensive Linemen.

For more, check out the entire entry at Bolts from the Blue.

But for me, the most surprising thing through one game week of the 2017 regular season is how well everything has gone under the oversight of a first-time head coach with as little experience (both in the NFL and in life) as Sean McVay has.

For more, check out the entire entry at Turf Show Times.

The Dolphins had their opener postponed by Hurricane Irma, so the Phinsider took on a Florida neighbor instead.

Somehow, in a bizarre turn of events, the J.J. Watt-Jadeveon Clowney combo managed just two tackles, the entire Houston defensive line couldn’t come up with a single sack, and Blake Bortles played an entire game without throwing a single interception. In fact, it seemed as though Jacksonville went out of its way to do their best impression of what the Texans should have been, as they piled up a whopping 10 sacks.

For more, check out the entire entry at the Phinsider.

All in all, it was a huge improvement from what we saw from a Vikings offensive line that would have struggled against Big Ten defenses in 2016. If they can get their level of play to just around “average” on a regular basis, the Vikings are a playoff contender. If they can perform the way they did on Monday night, the Vikings are a Super Bowl contender.

For more, check out the entire entry at the Daily Norseman.

In just one game in 2017, the Patriots gave up a pair of 75+ yard scores; a 75-yard touchdown to Tyreek Hill and a 78-yard touchdown to Kareem Hunt. Those were shocking plays by a defense that relies on not making mistakes.

For more, check out the entire entry at Pats Pulpit.

If Sam Bradford’s performance was reminiscent of Joe Montana against the Saints, then Alex Smith was more like a combination of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. He could do no wrong, going 28-of-35 for 368 yards and four touchdowns. Matt Patricia’s defense had no answers for Smith, who was able to connect on some big deep balls — something we aren’t necessarily accustomed to seeing. At his absolute best, Smith’s best yards per game average was last year at 233.5 passing yards/game.

For more, check out the entire entry at Canal Street Chronicles.

From a New York Giants perspective, I’d guess you’re surprised that after eight months the offense looked as bad as it did. Even without Odell Beckham Jr. it should have been more functional than it was in Sunday’s 19-3 loss.

For more, check out the entire entry at Big Blue View.

Many people questioned the Jets signing a kicker coming off a bad year in Arizona. Even more questioned the Jets when Catanzaro made the roster despite being outkicked by Ross Martin in training camp.

Catanzaro may yet prove to be an unsuccessful signing, but he delivered in his Jets debut by nailing field goals from 48 and 52 yards out.

For more, check out the entire entry at Gang Green Nation.

I can’t think of a more promising way to kick off the 2017 season than to see two of the Raiders’ most glaring weak areas step up. They needed to show these things in Tennessee, because it’s highly unlikely they’ll receive any such test this week against the Jets.

For more, check out the entire entry at Silver and Black Pride.

It’s not just that Agholor was merely bad or below average. He was literally one of (if not the) worst wide receivers in the league in both 2015 and 2016.

He sure didn’t look like one of the worst wide receivers in the NFL on Sunday against Washington. The former first-round pick finished the game with a career-high six receptions for a career-high 86 receiving yards.

For more, check out the entire entry at Bleeding Green Nation.

Then came the regular season opener in Cleveland.

Two sacks. One interception. Seven tackles.

Watt was all over the place in this game, and kept James Harrison on the sideline in the process. It may have just been one game, but if I were to bet on a player to be more than ready for the next step in his NFL progression, it would be Watt.

For more, check out the entire entry at Behind the Steel Curtain.

In looking through the San Francisco 49ers first week of the season, there are a few potential surprises to consider. The decision to sit Aaron Lynch as a coaches’ decision is a little surprising, and Jaquiski Tartt’s tackling problems on Sunday were a surprise. However, the real surprise might be the lack of more significant rushing opportunities for Carlos Hyde.

For more, check out the entire entry at Niners Nation.

If, and this is a big if, Goff makes major strides in 2017, then the Rams have to be considered the only team in the NFC West that can challenge the Seahawks for the division title. The 49ers are rebuilding and the now David Johnson-less Cardinals are teetering on the verge of total collapse. Wade Phillips is surely going to have the Rams defense looking stellar, even more so when Aaron Donald returns (shudders), so a better Jared Goff means a better Rams offense, and a better Rams offense means they might even be in the hunt for a playoff spot in December.

For more, check out the entire entry at Field Gulls.

That’s surprising because the Saints, while mediocre for years on end, always at least kept a potent offense on the field — and always invested in their team, even if the results were terrible on defense. That last part hasn’t changed, at least, but if this one game is something to go off of, the Bucs don’t need to worry about the Saints walking off with the division crown.

For more, check out the entire entry at Bucs Nation.

There is still a lot of football to played, but people are really high on the Jaguars after their Week 1 performance. That is the biggest NFL surprise after Week 1. Hopefully the Titans can go down there and bring the Jags expectations back to where they probably should be -- as a team that has a really good offense but is going to struggle to score points.

For more, check out the entire entry at Music City Miracles.

I think for me, watching week one offered this potentially surprising thought: what the hell (was Washington) working on in the preseason to come out so flat against a divisional opponent out of the gates? I was surprised that Kirk had trouble with his accuracy, given he is one of the most accurate quarterbacks in NFL history (still #3 overall ... ALL-TIME).

For more, check out the entire entry at Hogs Haven.