The 2023-2024 NFL football season had an eventful start. Many fans and critics saw big upsets in Week One and epic comebacks to start the season.
For the first time in NFL history, the Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders, Detroit Lions, and the Jacksonville Jaguars have all won their season openers. There were many different reactions to this crazy stat. Fans were amazed and shocked, and critics were disgusted. Sophomore Gavin Dufour shares his opinion on what occurred on opening day.
“It’s about time. These four teams have been terrible forever, I’m really not surprised that this has not happened yet in the first 100 years of the league,” Gavin said.
Not only have some historic things happened in this year’s first NFL Sunday, but some star players come out of the starting gates going full speed. Calvin Ridley, a wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars, had 11 targets with 8 receptions for 100 plus yards. Ridley scored one touchdown in his game, along with scoring 16.1 points on the nationwide Fantasy Football app. Junior Liam Halterman, has positive feelings as he is also a Fantasy Football owner of Calvin Ridley.
“Watching Calvin out there on Sunday night was awesome. He played a great game and led the Jaguars to a Week One victory, along with getting a ton of points in Fantasy Football,” Liam said.
The hype on Calvin Ridley was pretty high before their first game because he had just recovered from an injury and fans were eager to see how this would affect his game. Fortunately, it is pretty clear that he is living up to the hype due to arguably the best Week One performance by any player in the NFL this season.
While some historically bad teams like the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions have started off this year with a win, some fan favorite dynasties did not turn out so good. The Kansas City Chiefs, led by MVP veteran quarterback Patrick Mahomes, took a devastating loss in a close game to, believe it or not, the Detroit Lions. Another big upset that took place in week one was The Cincinnati Bengals, lead by star quarterback Joe Burrow, losing to another historically bad team the Cleveland Browns.
Unfortunately, Aaron Rodgers’ long and dominant career could be over. Over this offseason, the legend himself was traded from his original team, the Green Bay Packers, to the New York Jets. He was named “first string quarterback”, over Zach Wilson, at his old age of 39 years old. On his opening drive as a New York Jet, he got sacked in the back field and was slow to get up. When he realized something was wrong he sat back down on the turf while the trainers came out to examine him.
When getting tackled he planted his foot into the ground which contorted his calf ultimately tearing his achilles tendon. For a guy at his age with an injury this serious there is a good chance we will never see Aaron Rodgers play on Sunday nights again. Seeing Rodgers getting carted off the field was a sad sight to see for not just New York Jets fans but everyone. Sophomore Logan Rarrick shares his feelings about this terrible injury.
“It is very sad to see a great quarterback like Rodgers get an injury like this. Hopefully he can return next year so we can see him work his magic once again,” Logan said.
Overall, the 2023-2024 NFL season has started off with a bang and fans will continue to watch each Sunday as these teams progress into the season.
