Week 1 NFL Takeaways: Tyreek Hill on track for 2,000 thanks to Tua Tagovailoa

Tyreek Hill made the bold off-season proclamation that he’d become the first player in NFL history to record 2,000 receiving yards and suffice it to say the Miami Dolphins star is off to a roaring start in 2023.

A player would need to average 118 receiving yards per game over a 17-game schedule in order to surpass the 2,000-yard milestone and Hill finished Week 1 with a whopping 215 yards, which is a nice head start to say the least.

The only other receivers with games on Sunday that also put them on track for more than 2,000 receiving yards: Vikings’ Justin Jefferson had 150 yards, 49ers’ Brandon Aiyuk had 129 yards and Rams Tutu Atwell and Puka Nacua both had 119 yards.

Sunday marked the third 200-yard game of Hill’s career and his first with the Dolphins. He had two when he played for the Chiefs. His Week 1 league high total puts him currently on pace for an unrealistic 3,655 yards. While hitting the 200 yards in a single game is exceedingly rare, Hill is undoubtedly a unique talent in the NFL with unmatched speed and agility, so records falling is fun to ponder.

Hill wouldn’t’ve had a game like that were it not for the play of his quarterback Tua Tagovailoa who ended up with 466 passing yards, which is the third-highest Week 1 total of the Super Bowl era. Tagovailoa’s passing yards projection after his massive Week 1 performance is a hilarious 7,922. Again, unrealistic yet fun!

The connections from Tagovailoa to Hill were some of the most memorable moments of a Week 1 schedule that began with the Detroit Lions upsetting the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and was capped off with back-to-back prime time games featuring division rivals.

Here are some observations from the first Sunday afternoon slate of the 2023 NFL regular season.

AFC North will be tight as Browns haunt Burrow again

Make that two consecutive Week 1 appearances where Cincinnati Bengals star quarterback Joe Burrow has looked shaky. One year ago he was coming off an off-season appendectomy and threw four interceptions in a loss to the Steelers. In 2023’s opener, Burrow completed only 14 of 31 pass attempts for a career low 82 yards and was benched in the fourth quarter as the Browns rolled over the Bengals 24-3.

Burrow missed most of this year’s training camp and pre-season with a calf injury and you could see training staff frequently working on Burrow’s leg on the sidelines throughout the game. Burrow is now 1-5 in his career versus the Browns and has been sacked 20 times in those six games. He was sacked twice Sunday, once by Ogbo Okoronkwo and once by Myles Garrett.

Not the best outing or start to the season, especially considering it happened mere days after the Bengals awarded Burrow a contract potentially worth more than a quarter billion dollars. Things might not get easier in Week 2 for Burrow and the Bengals as they host another strong AFC North team in the Ravens. The Steelers, meanwhile, were blown out by the 49ers.

Packers fans seemingly can breathe easy in the Love era

Packers fans had to be nervous entering their Week 1 matchup with the Chicago Bears. Jordan Love was drafted in the first round in 2020 but hadn’t been given the opportunity to prove himself as a capable starter in the NFL while Aaron Rodgers was still in town and Sunday he became only the third quarterback to start a season opener for the Packers since 1993 joining Rodgers and Brett Farve.

Pressure was certainly high and Love passed his Week 1 test with flying colours. No team on Sunday afternoon scored more than the 38 points Green Bay posted and Love led the way with 245 passing yards, three touchdowns and no turnovers. He showed nice touch on a pair of touchdown tosses to Romeo Doubs and plenty of poise, finishing the game with a 123.2 QB rating.

Ridley wears zero and plays hero for Jags

Trevor Lawrence has a new No. 1 target and he’s No. 0 in your playbooks. Calvin Ridley, one of 15 players across the league wearing the No. 0 this season after taking advantage of one of the NFL’s off-season rule changes, made quite the impression in his Jaguars debut Sunday in his first game in nearly 700 days.

Ridley, traded from Atlanta to Jacksonville last November while he served a season-long suspension for gambling on games, finished Sunday’s game with eight receptions on 11 targets for 101 yards (all team highs) and opened the scoring with a first quarter touchdown. The 2018 first-round pick only had five such games (minimum eight catches, 100 yards and a TD) during his Falcons tenure. Ridley’s best season to date was in 2020 when he had 90 receptions on 143 targets, 1,374 receiving yards and 10 total touchdowns.

A third of Lawrence’s completions were to Ridley with Travis Etienne Jr., Evan Engram and Zay Jones each hauling in five catches.

Rookie QBs go 0-3 but show some promise in first starts

No. 1 pick Bryce Young extended the trend of first-overall selections who start in Week 1 not winning their debut. Young completed 20 of 38 pass attempts for 146 yards with one touchdown to tight end Hayden Hurst but also had two interceptions as his Panthers fell 24-10 to the Falcons. The past nine quarterbacks to go first overall and start in Week 1 as a rookie have failed to emerge victorious. Young joins Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray, Jameis Winston, Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, Sam Bradford and Matthew Stafford on this list with Murray the only one to tie and not lose.

No. 2 overall pick C.J. Stroud of the Texans threw for 242 yards, completed 63 per cent of his pass attempts and didn’t throw any interceptions, although his Texans failed to score a touchdown in a loss to the Ravens and Stroud had one turnover on a sack-fumble in the third quarter.

No. 4 overall pick and the third QB off the board this past spring Anthony Richardson of the Colts had the best day of this trio. Richardson ended up going 24 of 37 for 223 yards, one touchdown to Michael Pittman Jr., one interception, adding 40 rushing yards and a touchdown on 10 carries to become the youngest player of the Super Bowl era (21 years, 111 days) to score a passing and rushing touchdown in the same game.

Next week, Richardson’s Colts visit Stroud’s Texans, while Young and the Panthers host the Saints on Monday in prime time.

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Bijan shows glimpses of brilliance

While the trio of first-year pivots would’ve liked better results in their debuts, there were several rookies around the league who made positive impressions at different positions.

One of them was Bijan Robinson. The Falcons running back, taken eighth overall in April’s draft, gave fans a taste of his tremendous talent on his first career NFL touchdown. Robinson averaged 5.6 rushing yards on 10 carries and led Atlanta with six receptions, including his highlight-reel jaunt to the end zone.

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Injuries are no fun…

We’re unfortunately reminded every year, typically before the conclusion of opening week, of the extreme physical toll the game of football can take on its athletes.

Ravens starting running back J.K. Dobbins opened the scoring for his team with a rushing touchdown in the first quarter but headed to the locker room early in the third quarter after being tackled near the Texans goal line. Baltimore coach John Harbaugh confirmed following his team’s 25-9 victory over Houston that Dobbins tore his Achilles tendon and his 2023 campaign is over. Also in this game, Houston safety Jalen Pitre was taken to the hospital after blitzing Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson in the second quarter. ESPN reported Pitre suffered a bruised lung but luckily that indications are his injury isn’t serious.

Browns starting right tackle Jack Conklin was carted off the field and was later ruled out against the Bengals, is feared to have with a suspected significant knee injury in Cleveland’s 24-3 win over Cincinnati. Conklin will undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the injury. Fourth-round rookie Dawand Jones came in for Conklin.

Aaron Jones was carving up the Bears defence but Packers fans didn’t like the look of him grabbing at his hamstring and limping into the end zone on his second touchdown in a four-minute span in the third quarter. Jones had

Raiders receiver Jakobi Meyers was knocked unconscious on a helmet to helmet hit from Denver’s Kareem Jackson late in Las Vegas’s 17-16 victory over the Broncos. Meyers was in the midst of his first two-TD game of his career and had scored the go-ahead touchdown just a few minutes earlier on his team’s previous possession.

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