Proper Reaction Monday: Level-Headed Takeaways From Wild NFL Week 1

The first Monday of the NFL season. There's arguably no bigger "overreaction day" on the entire sports calendar. After months of zero information (essentially), we finally saw teams on the field playing games that matter.

However, teams played just one game each. Every NFL team plays a 17-game schedule. That means that Week 1 accounts for less than 6% of the entire season.

People in the sports media are going to arrive at wild conclusions based on that small amount of information. What if you walked into a used car dealership and the salesperson said, "Hey, here's 5.9% of the total information about this car. You ready to buy?"

Or if you meet a future spouse and get to know 5.9% of his or her personality? Ready to slap on -- or accept -- a ring? Of course not. That would be incredibly irresponsible.

But here we are, every season, making decisions based on 5.9% of the information. Nonsense.

Let's take a look at some of the vast overreactions seen across the landscape and break them down. 

The Cincinnati Bengals stink. 

This is going to be one of the biggest talking points of the week after Cincinnati laid an egg at home and lost to the New England Patriots, 16-10. 

However, this is a massive overreaction for a few reasons. First, Joe Burrow is still working his way back from injury. Second, the team had little time to practice together with all the contract disputes and injury issues. Plus, Tee Higgins didn't play. 

And the team committed two fluky turnovers that led to the loss, including one near the Patriots' goal line and a second on a punt return. 

Marcus Jones of the New England Patriots recovers a fumble in the second quarter of the Week 1 NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals. 

(Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

The Bengals have established themselves as a second-half team over the past few years, so there's no need to overreact to one game in early September. 

Cincinnati started 0-2 in 2022 before rattling off 10-straight wins and finally losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship. In 2021, they were 5-4 prior to their bye week before winning eight of the next 11 games en route to a Super Bowl loss against the Los Angeles Rams. 

The Cincinnati Bengals are fine. My level of concern is 0. Relax, everyone. It's one game. 

Oh, and while I have you: no, I don't think this means the Patriots are going to be good. They passed for 120 yards and won a game. They benefited from winning the turnover battle by two and still won by only six points.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are actually good. 

I know, this might be the AFC North Edition of PRM (Proper-Reaction Monday, trying to get enough traction, so I can just abbreviate, but we'll see). 

But the AFC North lends itself to the most overreactions based on what we saw this week. 

Truth be told, I'm legitimately worried about Cleveland because Deshaun Watson looks unbelievably bad. And this isn't the first time, either. He's two years removed from not playing an entire NFL season, and it looks like the 2020 version was more the exception than the norm. 

So, I don't think people are overreacting to the Browns being demolished. They might actually stink. 

But I do think there's some overreaction happening in Pittsburgh. There was a lot of hype about this Falcons team coming into the season, but remember that Kirk Cousins is a 36-year-old quarterback coming off a devastating injury that was suffered less than a year ago. 

No, the Pittsburgh Steelers are not a threat in the AFC, particularly because neither Justin Fields (pictured) nor Russell Wilson is good enough to lead them beyond, maybe, a Wild Card berth. 

(Lon Horwedel/USA Today Sports)

Cousins looked a hell of a lot less than 100% healthy and the Steelers took advantage. In addition, like New England, Pittsburgh benefited from winning the turnover battle (3-0) and still only won by one score. 

Justin Fields looked like Justin Fields and I don't have a lot of confidence Russell Wilson would be any better. This Pittsburgh offense isn't going to be very good, but the defense is still the defense. They're going to play in a lot of slugfest games and probably win a few. 

But the Steelers are not a legitimate threat to make a run in the AFC. 

Insert rookie quarterback name and rookie quarterback take. 

Caleb Williams looked BAD. Jayden Daniels showed flashes, but mostly as a runner, and struggled in the passing game. Bo Nix generally stunk. 

But guess what? It was the first start in the NFL for all three players. There's no real take to have about any of them right now. The proper reaction is simple: let's give it some time. 

Starting in the NFL is hard and the first career start for any quarterback is always a struggle. It's impossible to simulate in the preseason, so none of these guys can ever truly be prepared for that first game. 

I don't want to hear hot takes about any of them this week. Just stop. 

The new kickoff sucks. 

Yeah, I'm going to defend the new kickoff rule in the NFL. I know I'm on an island here, but I just don't hate it as much as everyone else. 

Plus, what are we comparing it to? Over the last two seasons, there have been hardly any kickoff returns. At least we're seeing a few more per game (and this is true, as of Sunday Night Football, kickoff returns were up over Week 1 last year). 

We even had a kickoff return touchdown in Week 1, and it came at a pivotal point in the match between the Bills and Cardinals. 

Yes, there are still a lot of touchbacks as teams try to navigate the new rules and figure out what makes the most sense. There's going to be a feeling-out period and that was always to be expected. 

Again, I'm just asking that we reserve judgment for at least a few weeks. Is that too much to ask? 

Quick hitters and NFL Monday reactions that are probably right…

The Carolina Panthers are still very bad. 

Yeah, the Panthers are probably still really bad. Are they as bad as they looked on Sunday, giving up almost 50 points while struggling to crack double digits on offense? No, they're probably not quite that bad. 

But trading all the assets that they did to get QB Bryce Young came at a massive cost. If you're going to make that deal, you have to be certain that Young is a Top 5 NFL quarterback. He's not. 

It's going to be a long NFL season for Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers.

(Stephen Lew/Imagn Images)

I still think he can be a starter in the league, but Carolina needed him to be a superstar. Now they lack playmakers on both sides of the ball, and it's going to be a very long season. 

The New York Giants should not have paid Daniel Jones. 

Well, it seems like even the New York Giants know this is true, so it's pretty hard to argue against that. 

Jones looks completely lost, and the Giants are a mess. As bad as the offense looked, the defense made Sam Darnold look quite competent. SAM DARNOLD! 

It wouldn't be the least bit surprising to see the Giants and Panthers battling it out for the #1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. 

NFL referees aren't getting better. 

There are still too many problems in the NFL surrounding officiating. Calls were all over the place on Sunday, with some refs flagging everything and some refs flagging nothing.

There are still far too many blown calls for a league that rakes in billions of dollars per year. There's no excuse not to have the best of the best referees and top-of-the-line training for all of them. 

Nothing is worse in officiating than inconsistency, and the league is full of inconsistency every single year. 

Coaches are complaining, players are complaining and fans are complaining. Literally, no one is happy with the NFL referees. Yet, the league continues to do nothing about it. 

When will it end!? 

That's it for this week … check back next week for another edition of Proper-Reaction Monday, and feel free to send me your proper reactions (or overreactions, honestly) via email at dan.zaksheske@outkick.com.