Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels became the eighth quarterback pairing taken with the first two picks of the NFL Draft to start on the opening weekend of their rookie season, but both learned that life in the pro game is vastly different from the college game they graced in 2023.

Along with 12^th overall selection Bo Nix, who got the start for Denver against Seattle, the new boys under center in Chicago and Washington respectively struggled to stamp much authority on their games. Ironically, it was perhaps the weakest performance of the three — Williams’ home debut for the Chicago Bears against Tennessee — that resulted in the only win for the rookies. The USC product became the first newcomer to start and win his NFL debut in Week 1 since Houston’s David Carr defeated Dallas in 2002, but looked ill at ease as the Bears compiled just 148 yards of total offense — with no touchdowns — and relied on a superlative effort from their defense and special teams to overturn a 17-point deficit.

Daniels, meanwhile, rushed for 88 yards, and claimed two touchdowns of his own on the ground, but threw for less than 100 more as the Commanders capitulated to Tampa Bay. His tally may have represented the most rushing yards by a rookie quarterback in a season-opening game in the Super Bowl era, but the reigning Heisman Trophy winner could never keep pace with opposite number Baker Mayfield, who threw for four touchdowns, with no interceptions, and a 146.4 rating as the Buccaneers eased to a 37-20 win. Mayfield now has four career games with at least four touchdown passes and a passer rating of 140+, tied with Aaron Rodgers and trailing only Hall of Famers Peyton Manning (six) and Kurt Warner (five). Where Commanders star receiver Terry McLaurin was starved of long balls, the Bucs’ Chris Godwin and Mike Evans feasted, each finding the endzone, along with rookie Jalen McMillan.

Back in the Pacific northwest after starring at Oregon, Broncos’ HC Sean Payton tried to ease Nix into his professional career with dink and dunk passes and, although the rookie did begin to air it out later, it was with little success as he finished with 26/42 and just 138 yards on his record. Nix did score late on, running the ball in from four yards out to cap a 54-yard drive, but it was too little, too late as the hometown Seahawks ran out 26-20 winners — the sixth team in NFL history to win after conceding two safeties, both of which came in the second quarter to leave Seattle, in HC Mike McDonald’s first regular season game in charge, trailing13-9 at the half.

It wasn’t all bad news for rookies, however, with Brian Thomas Jr and Ladd McConkey snagging touchdowns for Jacksonville and the Los Angeles Chargers respectively. While the Cowboys’ Tyler Guyton had his hands full with Myles Garrett in Cleveland, McConkey’s team-mate, OT Joe Alt, starred by not giving up a single QB pressure — despite lining up opposite the Raiders’ Maxx Crosby — on debut, while new Buccaneers center Graham Barton also enjoyed a solid first game.

For the first time in 45 years, three teams trailed by at least 14 points and came back to win in Week 1, with Buffalo, who fell 14 points behind Arizona, and Miami, who did likewise against Jacksonville, joining Chicago in eventually triumphing. Across the board, Sunday’s slate saw ten games decided by one score or less, including the SNF encounter between Detroit and the Los Angeles Rams, which went to overtime before the Lions reprised their playoff victory from last season.

Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen had himself a game, racking up four touchdowns — two each passing and two rushing — with a 137.7 rating as the Bills rallied to overcome the Cardinals 34-28. Allen now has four career games with at least two passing and rushing touchdowns, and his next would take him past Hall of Famer Steve Young for the most in NFL history. Allen also has 10 career games with at least two rushing touchdowns — joining Jalen Hurts (12) and Cam Newton (10) as the only quarterbacks with at least 10 such career games — and 20 games with at least two touchdown passes and a rushing touchdown, joining Newton (22) and Aaron Rodgers (20) as the only players at that mark. Finally, Allen has 37 career games with both a touchdown pass and a rushing touchdown, tied with Newton for the most in his first seven seasons.

In Florida, Miami wide receiver Tyreek Hill’s Sunday got off to a controversial start when he was pulled over and cuffed for an alleged traffic offense just a block from Hard Rock Stadium. Eventually released, ‘The Cheetah’ was clearly fired up, and exacted his revenge on the Jaguars to the tune of seven receptions for 130 yards, including a career-long 80-yard touchdown reception, as the Dolphins came from behind to win 20-17 on the last kick of the game. Hill — whose celebration naturally aped the situation he found himself in just hours earlier — now has 12 career touchdowns of at least 75 yards, tied with Hall of Famer Bobby Mitchell for the third-most in NFL history, behind only Devin Hester (14) and Ollie Matson (13), while his 22^nd game with at least 125 receiving yards and a touchdown reception ties him with Calvin Johnson and Randy Moss for the third-most overall by a player in his first nine seasons, trailing Lance Alworth and Jerry Rice, both of whom have 25.

It wasn’t only the rookie quarterbacks who struggled on opening weekend, with seasoned veterans Kirk Cousins and Deshaun Watson having poor games, for Atlanta and Cleveland respectively, while the likes of Justin Fields, Will Levis, Bryce Young and Daniel Jones — like Cousins, returning from an injury-curtailed 2023 campaign — all struggled. Even Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow was unusually quiet as his Bengals acquiesced at home to a surprising New England team under first-time head coach Jerod Mayo. While Rhamondre Stevenson logged the biggest score of the afternoon, as well as racking up 120 yards on 25 carries, it was Mayo’s defense that sealed the deal, carrying on their legacy from last year’s  otherwise struggling team.

Cousins could not follow up his high-price move to Atlanta with an opening weekend victory for the Falcons, who went down 18-10 to the boot of Pittsburgh kicker Chris Boswell as Fields failed to find the endzone on his debut — in place of expected, but injured, starter Russell Wilson — for the Steelers. All-Pro DE T.J. Watt was a persistent menace in the Atlanta backfield, contributing to Cousins oft-reckless performance, which resulted in two interceptions, a fumble and just 155 passing yards to complement the touchdown he threw to TE Kyle Pitts. Fields, meanwhile, threw for just one more yard than his counterpart, but added 57 more on the ground, as Pittsburgh joined Chicago in earning victory without scoring an offensive touchdown, the first such occurrence since Week 7 of 2011.

Fortunately, Boswell — who also had to punt during the game — was on point, converting all six of his field goal attempts, with a long of 57 yards, as, with just the Monday night encounter between the Jets and 49ers to play, Week 1 set a new mark for the number of 50-yard+ field goals, with 19 converted. Boswell and Houston’s Ka’imi Fairbairn each made three kicks of 50+, marking the first time in NFL history that multiple kickers had converted three 50-yard field goals in the same week. Five of Boswell’s six conversions came from at least 40 yards, making him the first kicker in NFL history to record multiple career games with five field goals of 40-or-more yards after doing so back in 2016. It should be noted, perhaps, that Dallas kicker Brandon Aubrey lined up for what would have been a new league record attempt from 71 yards before HC Mike McCarthy appeared to have second thoughts. Having made a subsequently-penalised kick from 66 yards look easy, could the former MLS player be poised to rewrite the record books?

Aubrey contributed 15 of the Cowboys’ 33 points against Cleveland, as the league’s most-vaunted defense was overshadowed by a remade unit under returning Dallas DC Mike Zimmer. Yes, the Browns were missing both starting tackles, but Zimmer’s assault yielded 25 QB pressures, six sacks, two interceptions, and limited Watson and the Browns offense to just 3.3 yards per play as they struggled to build any momentum. By contrast, Cowboys QB Dak Prescott, fresh from signing a league-record $240m deal at literally the 11^th hour, went 19/32 for 179 yards and a Brandin Cooks touchdown, adding to Zeke Elliott’s first score back in a Cowboys uniform and an electrifying 60-yard punt return from KaVontae Turpin.

Elsewhere around the league, Stefon Diggs grabbed two touchdowns on his Houston Texans debut, as C.J. Stroud and co held off a feisty, if somewhat limited, Indianapolis Colts team. Although RB Jonathan Taylor’s perseverance was rewarded with a third quarter touchdown, the Colts relied heavily on the passing game — and returning QB Anthony Richardson showed just what he was capable of by launching TD passes of 60 and 54 yards, to Alec Pierce and Ashton Dulin respectively. Richardson’s first quarter heave to Pierce travelled 65.3 yards in the air, the third-longest completion in the Next Gen Stats era. Houston’s new RB, Joe Mixon, enjoyed a debut to remember, clocking up 178 scrimmage yards to match Lamar Miller’s total, coincidentally also against Indianapolis, in Week 6 of the 2016 season. Mixon’s 150 rushing yards were also the most by any Texan making his debut.

The biggest margin of victory came in New Orleans, where the hometown Saints blew out the hapless Carolina Panthers 47-10. Under new OC Klint Kubiak, QB Derek Carr went 19-of-23 for exactly 200 yards and three touchdowns — to WR Rashid Shaheed and tight ends Foster Moreau and Juwan Johnson, while running backs Alvin Kamara and Taysom Hill combined for 149 total yards and a rushing score for the former, while Jamaal Williams also got in on the scoring. On the other side of the ball, the Saints D was not to be outdone, making it another miserable afternoon for Panthers QB Bryce Young. Will Harris and Jordan Howden each claimed an interception, while Tyrann Mathieu forced and recovered a fumble. Alontae Taylor, however, outdid them all by logging three sacks from cornerback.

While opposite number Daniel Jones struggled to get the Giants offense humming, Sam Darnold enjoyed himself as the Vikings new starter, putting 208 yards — on 19 completions from 24 attempts — and two touchdowns on the board. Yes, there was an interception, but Minnesota may not have to to worry too much about rookie J.J. McCarthy sitting out the rest of the year. Former Packer Aaron Jones also made an immediate impact for the Vikings, racking up 94 yards on 14 carries and opening the scoring with a three-yard touchdown run. For what it’s worth, former Vikings RB Alexander Mattison scored on a 31-yard catch and run from new Raiders QB Gardner Minshew as Vegas went down to the Chargers.

Finally, while the Jags-Dolphins game came close to needing an extra period, the Sunday Night Football clash in Detroit did indeed require a fifth quarter as Matt Stafford dragged the Los Angeles Rams back into battle with his former team. Cooper Kupp (Rams) and Jameson Williams (Lions) both had 100-yard receiving nights with a score, but Detroit needed a game-tying FG to force overtime, whereupon David Montgomery bludgeoned his way to the endzone to confirm back-to-back wins for Lions QB over his former employer.

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There was also drama with the introduction of the new ‘dynamic kickoff’ rules — an introduction almost as heavily-hyped as three rookie QBs starting in Week 1 — as Arizona running back DeeJay Dallas recorded a 96-yard return for the first such score in a season-opening game since 2018. Ahead of the Sunday night game teams had registered an average of 26.9 yards per kick return, just shy of joining the three weeks, since 1970, with a league-wide kickoff return average of 27+ yards. The 1,451 kick return yards with two games to play, were already more than in any week last season.