Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season gave the league its first real look at a wave of new faces, and while some of the headliners were quiet or limited, plenty of offseason additions wasted no time making their teams feel vindicated.
That was especially true in Buffalo, where DJ Moore helped spark an offense that had looked stuck in recent meetings with the Texans. The Bills rolled up 36 points and 409 yards against Houston, and Moore was right in the middle of it.
He caught five passes for 100 yards and a touchdown, averaging 20 yards per grab. With Dalton Kincaid healthy and Moore stretching the field, Buffalo finally had the kind of passing-game juice it had been missing.
The price to get him was steep - a second-round pick for Moore and a fifth - but if this is the kind of production he brings, the Bills will live with it.
Kansas City found a different kind of answer in Kenneth Walker III. The Chiefs opened their Monday Night Football matchup against the Broncos by leaning hard into the run, starting with four straight handoffs to the free-agent pickup.
Walker looked like the best skill player on the field from the jump. He carried the ball seven times on the Chiefs’ first touchdown drive and finished with 23 rushes for a career-high 171 yards and two total touchdowns.
That included a 60-yard score on fourth-and-1, the kind of play that instantly changes how a team looks on offense.
The 49ers, meanwhile, got big returns from multiple additions in Melbourne. Mike Evans was the most obvious one.
His stat line - six catches for 49 yards and a touchdown - won’t jump off the page the way some Week 1 receiver lines did, but his value showed up in the moments that mattered. He moved the chains on third down and then capped the day with a fade-route touchdown over Jaylen Watson, a contested catch that fit exactly what San Francisco brought him in to do.
Deebo Samuel Sr. also made his presence felt after returning to San Francisco as a late offseason addition following the 2025 season with the Commanders. Samuel looked sharp in red and gold, posting six receptions for 48 yards and a touchdown while adding a 12-yard run. With Ricky Pearsall out for the season and rookie De’Zhaun Stribling dealing with a deltoid sprain, Samuel gives the 49ers another useful piece in the offense.
New York’s passing game got a lift from Isaiah Likely, one of several former Ravens to follow John Harbaugh to the Giants. Before the season, the big question was who would help Malik Nabers through the air. Likely answered it in his debut, leading the team with eight catches for 78 yards and two touchdowns in a 28-20 win over the Cowboys.
The Eagles also got a strong showing from one of their new pass-catching additions. With A.J.
Brown traded to the Patriots, Dontayvion Wicks stepped into a bigger role and made it count. Jalen Hurts found him twice for 73 yards and a touchdown, including a 64-yard reception.
Outside of DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert, Wicks was Hurts’s most dependable target in the win over Washington.
On the defensive side, Za’Darius Smith made an immediate impact for Atlanta after coming out of retirement in the middle of last season and signing with the Falcons in August. He played just 16 snaps, but that was enough to record two sacks of Aaron Rodgers. With Jalon Walker out for the year with a torn ACL and James Pearce Jr. serving a suspension, Smith’s arrival looks even more important for Atlanta’s pass-rush rotation.
Las Vegas also got a strong return on a defensive addition, as Nakobe Dean stood out in the win over the Dolphins. He tied for the team lead with six tackles and added a sack and a forced fumble, giving the Raiders exactly the kind of disruption they were hoping for when they reworked that side of the ball in free agency.
Cincinnati’s defense had its own new contributor come through in a 33-27 win over the Bengals. Bryan Cook, who spent four seasons in Kansas City before signing with Cincinnati, forced one of the team’s four fumbles and recovered another. The Bengals’ biggest offseason splash on defense was the trade for Dexter Lawrence II, but Cook’s impact was hard to miss in the opener.
Washington’s revamped defense also got useful work from Nick Cross. The standout moment on that side of the ball may have been rookie Sonny Styles dropping Saquon Barkley for his first career sack, but Cross was the steadiest of the Commanders’ additions. He led the team with eight tackles and made several key stops, including against the run and on a tackle for loss on a screen pass.
In Other News...
Kaepernick Just Reopened One Of The 49ers Ugliest Front Office Wounds
Colin Kaepernicks latest interview has put an old 49ers sore spot back in view, revisiting the uneasy dynamic between the quarterback and then-general manager Trent Baalke. Kaepernick said Baalke was never supportive of him and preferred Alex Smith as the starter, a reminder of how fractured the organization looked during that era even before the tension spilled into the public. It is the kind of history San Francisco fans know well, but rarely get fresh details on from one of the central figures.
Kaepernick also said Baalke blocked a 2014 plan for him to attend the NFL Scouting Combine with Jim Harbaugh, another example of how little alignment there was inside the building. Baalkes 49ers tenure remains one of the franchises most controversial modern stretches, and his later stops with other NFL teams have not erased the bad taste left behind in San Francisco. The interview does not just reopen that wound, it underscores how much of the teams past turmoil still lingers whenever Kaepernick speaks. [Read more 🡒]
Robert Salehs New Start Is Already Raising An Ugly Question
Robert Salehs return to the NFL was supposed to mark a fresh start, with the former 49ers defensive coordinator taking over as the Tennessee Titans head coach after his run with the New York Jets. Instead, his first week back put an old NFL truth right in the spotlight: a coachs new job can turn into a rough public audit almost immediately, especially when the opener comes against the franchise that once decided to move on from him.
The Titans 23-10 loss to the Jets did more than start the season on the wrong foot. Tennessees defense had trouble handling key offensive players, and Saleh later acknowledged how difficult the jump can be from calling a defense to running an entire team. For a coach trying to establish himself in a second head-coaching stop, the early concern is less about one bad result than whether the bigger transition will make fixing problems even harder. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Earned Instant Contender Respect But One Debate Isn't Going Away
The 49ers made a loud opening statement in Week 1 with a 27-7 win over the Rams, and the reaction across the league came quickly. Several outlets updated their Week 2 power rankings, and San Francisco landed near the top of the conversation, with The Athletic putting the club No. 1 while FOX Sports slotted it as low as No. 7. For a team that entered the season with championship expectations, that kind of spread says plenty about how seriously the rest of the NFL is taking the Niners.
Still, the early praise has not settled the bigger question around just how high this team should sit in the pecking order. The 49ers now turn to a Week 2 home matchup against the Dolphins, a game that should offer another clean measuring stick for a roster already drawing contender respect. If San Francisco looks as dominant again, the debate over its ranking may get even louder, even if nobody seems ready to agree on exactly where it belongs yet. [Read more 🡒]