Final NFL 2024 Week 1 Observations ... With Dolphins Angles

The most notable injuries of the weekend all involved future Miami Dolphins opponents

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) is pressured by Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter (98) during the second half at Neo Quimica Arena in Brazil. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

It was not a good Week 1 for upcoming 2024 Miami Dolphins opponents, particularly so for the Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Rams and Green Bay Packers.

In addition to losing their opener, all three of those teams saw one of their important offensive players go down with an injury, the most notable obviously being Packers quarterback Jordan Love.

For the Rams, wide receiver Puka Nacua aggravated a knee injury and wound up being placed on IR on Monday, and Browns tight end David Njoku is expected to miss some time because of an ankle injury.

But the good news for those teams, news that will impact the Dolphins as well, is that while all the injuries will sideline the players for a few weeks at least, none are season-ending.

The Dolphins games against the Rams, Packers and Browns all are scheduled for November and later, meaning they will have to face Nacua, Love and Njoku barring setbacks or further injury.

Cleveland, though, has even bigger problems than Njoku's injury because the Browns looked dreadful in their home loss against the Dallas Cowboys and Deshaun Watson continues to look nothing like the star quarterback he once was in Houston. And now there's word of another lawsuit against him, this one alleging sexual assault.

The lawsuit potentially could trigger another NFL suspension and may have some repercussions the contract the Browns gave him when they acquired him in a trade and gave him $230 million fully guaranteed. At this point, too, it's tough to argue that backup Jameis Winston isn't a better quarterback than Watson.

ABORTED TAKEOFF FOR THE JETS

It's easy to overreact after Week 1, but the Jets sure didn't look anything like Super Bowl contenders in their humbling loss at San Francisco on Monday night.

Those who evaluate boxscores will see Aaron Rodgers' pedestrian numbers (167 yards, one touchdown, one pick) and suggest they're evidence he can't come close to the old Aaron Rodgers, but the Jets' problems and concerns are much more significant and broader in scope.

The Jets didn't get humbled because of Rodgers, but rather because they were dominated up front on both sides. And the vaunted Jets defense had no answer for the 49ers offense, allowing a score on every single drive after the first one ended in a three-and-out.

FEARSOME 49ERS

The flip side to the Monday night game was how scary the 49ers, who come to Hard Rock Stadium in Week 16, looked.

They toyed with the Jets defense despite Christian McCaffrey missing the game with a leg injury, and with Trent Williams and Brandon Aiyuk playing after missing all of training camp because of holdouts.

The 49ers offense was surgical and another nod to the brilliance of Kyle Shanahan, Mike McDaniel's mentor, as evidenced by this awesome nugget from @OptaSTATS: The 49ers are the only NFL team in the Super Bowl era to get a 200-yard passing game (Brock Purdy), a 125-yard rushing game (Jordan Mason), a 50-yard receiving game (Jauan Jennings) and an interception (Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles) from 4 players who were drafted 200th or later or weren't drafted at all.

Mason and Flannigan-Fowles were UDFAs, while Jennings and Purdy were seventh-round selections. Purdy, of course, was the last pick of the 2021 NFL draft and he and the Dolphins' Skylar Thompson are the only two of the nine QBs taken that year still with the team that drafted them.

FORMER DOLPHINS NEWS

It was a big debut with their new teams for former Dolphins linebackers Andrew Van Ginkel and Jerome Baker.

Van Ginkel had a pick-six and a sack in the Minnesota Vikings' 28-6 victory against the New York Giants, while Baker had a fumble recovery and a tackle for loss in the Seattle Seahawks' 26-20 victory against the Denver Broncos.

Connor Williams, as expected, started at center for Seattle in that game.

Defensive tackle Christian Wilkins had five tackles in the Las Vegas Raiders' 22-10 loss against the Los Angeles Chargers and played an astounding 54 of his team's 57 defensive snaps.

Guard Robert Hunt's debut with the Carolina Panthers didn't go particularly well, with the offense managing only 193 total yards in an embarrassing 47-10 loss against the New Orleans Saints.

Speaking of the Panthers, former Dolphins first-round pick Charles Harris is expected to sign with them, according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.

QUICK HITTERS

-- While we questioned the idea of McDaniel going for the first down on fourth-and-8 from the Jacksonville 42 on the first drive of the season, we'll take that kind of aggressiveness over what Raiders coach Antonio Pierce did in punting on fourth-and-1 from the Chargers 42 with his team trailing 16-10 midway through the fourth quarter. This apparently was the first time since 2016 a team had punted in opponent territory in the fourth quarter while trailing.

-- We're still expecting it to be a tough year for New England, but maybe the Patriots won't be the pushovers everyone expected. And, yes, this could be Week 1 overreaction, but the Patriots look like they'll be able to run the ball a little bit and the defense does look good. Where New England will have problems is if they fall behind and have to play catch-up.

-- We close with two young AFC South quarterbacks the Dolphins will see in the first half of the season, Will Levis and Anthony Richardson. With Levis, this is a guy who showed intriguing potential as a rookie, most specifically in the Tennessee Titans' upset win at Hard Rock Stadium last December. But he's also erratic and he was sloppy in the opener against the Chicago Bears, a game the Titans lost 24-17 after leading 17-0 and despite allowing only 148 total yards. With Richardson, he completed only 9 of 19 passes, but they went for 212 yards and he had an absolutely ridiculous 60-yard touchdown pass under duress. We should remember this when the Dolphins play at Indianapolis after their bye week.