The post NFL Week 1 winners: Aaron Rodgers turns back the clock, Packers make a statement appeared first on ClutchPoints.
It’s time to overreact to Week 1 of the NFL season, and a select few fanbases should be planning parades after their teams’ great performances in their season openers.
Advertisement
There were also plenty of losers in Week 1, including poor showings by the Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans and another collapse in the fourth quarter from the Baltimore Ravens.
However, there were plenty of winners in the opening week as well, including two teams responsible for some of those losers as well as a Friday night quarterback performance that set the tone for the season. Here are the five biggest winners from Week 1.
Packers announce themselves as Super Bowl contenders
© Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The NFC felt wide open after the Philadelphia Eagles coming into the preseason, but the Green Bay Packers cemented themselves as the preseason No. 2 when they traded for Micah Parsons in a massive deal with the Dallas Cowboys.
Advertisement
The Packers had a chance to show off exactly why they should be taken seriously in Week 1 against the Detroit Lions, who finished with the best record in the NFC in the regular season in 2024. They did exactly that, running Detroit out of Lambeau Field in a 27-13 rout that was even more of a blowout than the final score suggests.
Offensively, the Packers looked like the same balanced machine that they were last season. Matt LaFleur came in with a masterful gameplan, and new Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard was overwhelmed by the creativity and experience that LaFleur brought to the game.
10 different Packers caught a pass, and nobody in green caught more than two balls. Green Bay also pounded the rock, controlled the clock with Josh Jacobs and didn’t turn the football over to give the Lions any momentum.
On defense, the Packers were absolutely flying around against a Lions offense that was struggling to find its footing without Ben Johnson. Jared Goff was pressured 16 times on 43 dropbacks, a middle-of-the-pack rate in Week 1, but he never got comfortable on Sunday. Parsons was especially impactful despite playing limited reps in his Packers debut, notching two pressures and a sack.
Advertisement
Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
Every now and then in sports, we get to watch a great player morph into an unstoppable superhero that puts their foot down and decides that they are not losing that day. Josh Allen did just that on Sunday night with the whole country watching and got the Bills to 1-0 on the season.
Make no mistake, Allen was still playing an excellent game even while trailing by 15 points with less than five minutes to go. His throw to set up a Matt Prater field goal at the end of the first half is a play that only a handful of players can make, and he still orchestrated a very productive day against a Ravens defense that should end up being very good, no matter how Sunday night looked.
Advertisement
In the final five minutes, however, Allen ascended to a place that very few are capable of getting to. Every dropback felt like it was going to be a success and the Ravens defense felt helpless as he led the Bills down the field again and again. After a touchdown pass to Keon Coleman, aided by a little luck, found its mark, Allen capitalized on a Derrick Henry fumble with one of the throws of the weekend to set up a rushing touchdown to cut the lead to two.
When John Harbaugh elected to punt the ball back to Allen and company on fourth down with less than two minutes remaining, there was only one way the game was going to end. Four completions and a scramble later, it was time to send Prater out and celebrate one of the comebacks of the decade in the NFL.
Justin Herbert puts the discourse to bed (or not)
Amanda Perobelli/Reuters via Imagn Images
People who watch the Chargers religiously have been trying to explain this to people who don’t watch the Chargers for more than five years now: Justin Herbert is an incredible football player.
Advertisement
Admittedly, the Oregon product’s two playoff starts haven’t been pretty. A blown 27-3 lead in Jacksonville and a four-interception game in Houston, both of which he shares some of the blame for, have lowered the Herbert discourse to incredibly irresponsible levels.
On Friday night in the season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs, Herbert took all of that personally in prime time. He shredded Steve Spagnuolo and the Chiefs defense to the tune of 25-of-34 for 318 yards and three touchdowns. He also converted some key third downs and stayed ahead of the sticks with his legs, including a massive third-and-14 conversion that essentially ended the game.
Herbert was masterful all night, not putting the ball in harm’s way even one time while still pushing the ball down the field throughout the night. He was the best player on the field during a game that featured Patrick Mahomes playing very well, showing off what he is capable of when he is at his best.
The Herbert discourse will descend outside of watching football and into writing narratives when playoff time comes around again, but until then, just enjoy one of the best in the world doing his thing each and every week.
Advertisement
Steelers-Jets: The good vibes game nobody saw coming
Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Heading into the Sunday slate, Steelers Jets was the fifth game you throw on a laptop outside of your multiview and check in on the score here and there. However, it quickly became the must-see game of the morning, as Aaron Rodgers and Justin Fields traded punches to open the 2025 season (it still sounds weird to say).
Rodgers turned back the clock and the Steelers got some explosive plays after the catch from DK Metcalf in his debut with the team. The veteran quarterback finished the game with four touchdown passes and marched the Pittsburgh offense up and down the field all day.
Advertisement
Rodgers’ athleticism has dwindled, but he can still get the ball just about anywhere on the field and got the ball out quicker than almost every other quarterback in the NFL in Week 1. It remains to be seen whether that keeps up when he is a little less fresh, but this was a great start either way.
On the other side, the Jets offense with Fields at the helm was one of the surprises of the weekend. The offensive line looked great even after losing Alijah Vera-Tucker and Fields was an asset in the running game. He wasn’t asked to do a ton as a passer, but he made some nice throws downfield, played on time and didn’t put the ball in harm’s way.
Overall, this was a nice blueprint for how this Jets offense can have success this season, and it showed in a week where they finished fifth in EPA per play. Fields actually finished at the top of the league in EPA per dropback despite facing a 50% pressure rate, according to Next Gen Stats.
There’s still a world where both of these teams crash and burn over the next 17 weeks. For now, however, let’s enjoy that they gave us one of the most surprisingly entertaining games of the weekend.
Advertisement
Daniel Jones, Colts destroy the Dolphins
Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
The Colts’ decision to start Daniel Jones over Anthony Richardson got a lot of heat in the preseason, but all of the haters shut their mouths quickly on Sunday. In Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins, Daniel Jones stayed at home and Danny Dimes showed up to get the Colts to 1-0.
Jones finished with the fifth-best EPA per dropback in the NFL in Week 1, completing 22-of-29 passes for 272 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked just once as the Colts ran away with a dominant 33-8 win over a helpless Dolphins squad.
Jonathan Taylor and rookie DJ Giddens shared the rushing load in the run-heavy attack under Shane Steichen, and that helped suffocate a Miami defense that had no answers all night long. Defensively, the Colts forced three turnovers and held an offense that has a lot of weapons down all day long.
Advertisement
This type of performance, if Indianapolis can replicate it over the course of the season, gives them a roadmap to competitiveness in an AFC South that doesn’t look overly challenging with the Texans struggling to protect C.J. Stroud once again. Whether Jones and company continue to do that is another story, but the vibes are high in Indy after one game.
Related: Fantasy Football Kicker Rankings: Week 2 2025
Related: NFL Week 1 losers: Ravens look like the same old Ravens, for better or worse