Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season is in the books, and there were a lot of high-scoring games, league-wide. We'll have a lot of movement in this week's Hierarchy, while we figure out which teams are good, and which ones aren't.

16) Falcons (0-1): The least surprising thing about Week 1 was that all four NFC South teams lost. The Falcons are probably the worst of the bunch. QB1 Michael Penix has not yet fully recovered from a 2025 torn ACL, and QB2 Tua Tagovailoa was surprisingly ruled out after popping up on the injury report late in the week with an oblique injury.

So, QB3 Cooper Rush had to start. I wonder when was the last time a QB3 was a Week 1 starter.

Last week: 14

15) Panthers (0-1): The 2024 Panthers allowed 534 points, most in NFL history. In 2025, they were middle of the road defensively, which was a vast improvement.

Well, they might be really bad again, as they got absolutely wrecked on Sunday by the Bears. They allowed 291 yards and 6 TDs on the ground, and another 269 through the air. All told, they allowed 552 yards, 59 points, and four TDs of over 20 yards. Gross.

Last week: 13

14) Cardinals (1-0): The Cardinals destroyed a lot of survivor pools right off the bat, when they beat the L.A. Chargers, on the road, as 9.5-point underdogs. If you trusted Justin Herbert and the Chargers in Week 1 of survivor pool (as I did 🙋‍♂️), you deserve to be eliminated.

Last week: 16

13) Commanders (0-1): There are two new defensive coordinators in the NFC East who are calling plays for the first time in their NFL careers. They would be Daronte Jones (Commanders) and Christian Parker (Cowboys). I thought Jones had a good plan for the Eagles; I thought Parker had a rough debut (more on him shortly).

It felt like Jones got the better of Sean Mannion on Sunday, but Jalen Hurts was able to make a bunch of off-schedule plays while also not turning it over.

The Commanders don't have a lot of talent, but they played better than anticipated, and I thought their defensive gameplan was a big reason for that.

Last week: 15

12) Packers (0-1): The Packers want to run the ball. They're always among the teams with the highest run play percentages in the NFL. And with Josh Jacobs on the Commissioner's Exempt List, that was a potentially major issue for them this season.

In Week 1, they couldn't run it, so they quickly abandoned the run, and they became one-dimensional.

The defining series of the game was a Green Bay possession beginning at their own 30, following a Vikings touchdown. They had three straight negative plays, including two Jordan Love fumbles, the second of which gave the Vikings the ball at the Packers' 1 yard line.

The Packers were the youngest team in the NFL in 2023, 2024, and 2025. It felt like at some point they would mature and make a leap. But it hasn't happened and maybe won't. They feel very fraud'y to me.

Last week: 9

11) Cowboys (0-1): The Cowboys came into the 2026 season being hyped as potential Super Bowl champions as well as favorites in the NFC East on the premise that they have an elite offense and an improved defense. 

In Week 1, their defense was actually worse than last season.

As noted in our Cowboys dumpster fire post in June, the big thing for me was that they have no pass rush at all. I mean, I had a lot of other gripes about their defense, too, but the pass rush was the most glaring. And, well...

Now that we have seen Week 1 play out, a new concern is Christian Parker, who the Cowboys hired away from the Eagles to be their defensive coordinator. Parker was a really good defensive backs coach in Philly, but coordinating a defense is an entirely different animal.

The Giants kept running the same stuff over and over again, like that annoying friend you had back in the day that never diverted from the same three or four plays in Madden. Parker didn't adjust to any of it, and man, there were some wide open Giants receivers.

The Cowboys' offense was good. If you exclude a 14-second possession at the end of the first half, they only had six possessions, but managed to score three touchdowns. That's good.

However, as he often does, Dak Prescott threw a bad INT that gifted the Giants points near the end of the first half.

If you want to call him an "elite" quarterback, that kind of careless play can't happen.

Last week: 8

10) Saints (0-1): The Saints aren't contenders and they likely won't be in the playoffs. We'll see. I suppose they have a puncher's chance in the NFC South. 

But what they are is a fun team to watch with a good offense and a bad defense. They're going to be in a lot of shootouts.

Last week: 11

9) Buccaneers (0-1): Baker Mayfield lost three fumbles in the Bucs' loss to the Bengals.

Fumble No. 1: This is a Wentzian fumble where guys are flying by him, he ignores it, keeps trying to make a play, and loads up to throw even though there's a good chance there will be a defender bearing down on him from behind.

Fumble No. 2: Baker is a fun player to watch, and an underrated runner with the football, but here he's probably trying to do too much, especially on 1st and 5, and with a first down already picked up.

Fumble No. 3: No internal clock: 

He lost this game for the Bucs.

Last week: 6

8) Giants (1-0): Jaxson Dart had one of the best performances of Week 1.

And the Giants' win over the Cowboys was probably their biggest since their playoff win following the 2022 regular season.

That said, this dude just continues to take big hits. Like here, you already got the first down, bro. Get out of bounds!

(Yes, I'm aware that there was a late hit tacked on, so they got an extra 15 yards, but over the long haul it's just not a very good idea.)

Or here, which isn't his fault, but, oof:

Dart looks like a legit QB1, but will he make it to Week 18?

Last week: 12

7) Vikings (1-0): The Vikings had a great Week 1 win over the Packers, but that doesn't change the fact that their top two quarterbacks are Kyler Murray, who did not play well before leaving with a concussion, and Carson Wentz, who did play well, but whose poor body of work since 2018 far outweighs one good game.

Last week: 10

6) Lions (1-0): There are too many plays in the NFL where like 90+ percent of fans agree that something was a bad call, but then one of these rules guys pops up on the screen and they're like, "Well actually this was the right call because (fill in some utter nonsense.)"

Well, we had our first one of those this season, and man it was a doozy lol:

Last week: 4

5) Eagles (1-0): The Eagles' defense kept the Commanders from doing much of anything until the fourth quarter, and Jalen Hurts made enough plays to win the Eagles the game, but 10 first downs was the second-fewest in the NFL Week 1, behind only the Broncos. The Titans had 11. The Dolphins had 13. Even the Browns had 15. 

And the Eagles played against one of the worst defenses in the NFL. Not good enough.

Last week: 3

4) Rams (0-1): Freezing Cold Takes Hall of Famer tweet (and column) here: 

Anyway, the Rams' Dream Team season is not off to a great start. Aaron Donald didn't play, Myles Garrett may as well not have even shown up, and the Rams got wrecked by the Niners in Australia. In the aftermath, Garrett had arthroscopic surgery on his knee and was placed on injured reserve.

The Rams' plan was to arrive barely a full day before kickoff, while the Niners arrived in Australia a week ahead of time. The Niners' plan felt fairly obvious, and the Rams' plan felt stupid. And certainly, the 49ers looked like the fresher team on the field.

Last week: 2

3) Bears (1-0): Caleb Williams is really freaking good. The arm:

And he can make big plays with his legs.

And as noted above, they can run the ball.

Their defense still has a ways to go, but they are going to score a buttload of points this season.

Last week: 7

2) 49ers (1-0): I'll be honest. I was kind of shocked how well some of the old players on the Niners' roster played Week 1. Mike Evans looked like his old self, as did Deebo Samuel. Trent Williams neutralized Myles Garrett all day. Dre Greenlaw had a forced fumble. Those guys were all labeled as washed, or in the case of Williams, potentially in decline.

We'll see how they hold up over the course of a long season, but there were all very good Week 1.

Last week: 5

1) Seahawks (1-0): The Seahawks' win over the Patriots Week 1 reminded me a little of the Eagles' Week 1 win over the Falcons in 2018, when they were coming off their first Super Bowl win. It was an ugly game, with neither team able to get much going offensively, but the Eagles were able to make enough plays to get it done, and with a backup quarterback. A championship team kind of win, just figuring out a way.

The Seahawks played great, opportunistic defense, and their superstar player made a huge play.

The other parallel I'll make from that game to the 2018 Week 1 Eagles is that you can already tell they're not going to be as good as they were a year ago, which was predictable, since (a) topping 2025 is quite a high bar, and (b) they lost a bunch of good players. It's going to be a year-long grind, and they're going to get everyone's best.

But they're still the top team in the Hierarchy until someone beats them.

Last week: 1

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