After seven months without football, Week 1 of the NFL season tends to bring some of the biggest overreactions of the year.
At this time last season, the Chiefs and Bills were reeling after losses littered with unforced errors while C.J. Stroud looked like an overmatched rookie.
While several players and teams will course correct over the season, some Week 1 showings were too alarming to ignore. Below is a look at the offenses in the worst shape through the first week of the 2024 season.
Stats in this article are courtesy of TruMedia unless otherwise stated.
Which NFL Offenses Struggled the Most in Week 1?
1) Carolina Panthers
The NFL’s worst team in 2023 also suffered the largest defeat in Week 1, an inauspicious 37-point loss in New Orleans.
Bryce Young had the lowest completion percentage (43%) of any starter in Week 1 and failed to lead the Panthers across midfield until they were already trailing 30-0. Most problematically, the red flags that arose from Young’s rookie season showed little signs of improvement on Sunday.
Against the Saints, Young averaged 4.7 yards per attempt on passes between the numbers, the second-worst of any QB to attempt at least 10 of those passes. Only Bo Nix was worse in that category. That included his interception on Young’s first throw of the season.
In addition, Young completed just two of 10 passes when pressured, second-worst ahead of only Caleb Williams (1-7) in Week 1.
Dealing with pressure and passing between the numbers are both areas where Young faced skepticism as a prospect due to his stature and lack of exceptional athleticism.
After struggling in both those categories as a rookie, Young gave the Panthers little reason to believe in an imminent turnaround through the first week of his sophomore campaign.
2) New York Giants
The Giants joined the Steelers as the only teams that failed to score a touchdown in Week 1. Unlike Pittsburgh, New York was not fortunate enough to employ the services of T.J. Watt and Chris Boswell, leading to further questions about Daniel Jones and the general state of the Giants’ offense.
Jones posted the third-worst EPA per dropback of the week (-0.39), behind only Will Levis and Nix. For context, that was the sixth-worst EPA per dropback figure in Jones’ 61 career games.
On actual passes (excluding sacks and scrambles), Jones produced a total of -15.8 EPA per play, the fourth-worst mark of his career.
The ugly truth is that the 2023 Giants offense received plenty of help despite its abysmal output.
New York tied for the league lead in producing 31 takeaways on defense and scored the fourth-most points off turnovers as a result. Even that could only produce the 30th-ranked scoring offense in 2023, a rank that could dip even lower with less support from the other units this season.
3) Cleveland Browns
In recent years, the Browns have largely leaned on a superb run game headlined by Nick Chubb and a ruthless offensive line. With Chubb on the PUP list and starting offensive tackles Jedrick Wills Jr. and Jack Conklin both injured, Cleveland’s foundation came crumbling down in its Week 1 loss to the Cowboys.
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Since Kevin Stefanski took over in 2020, the Browns have been a run-first unit, ranking sixth-highest in run percentage over that span (46%). But the patchwork unit on Sunday could only muster 3.9 yards per rush on running back carries, placing too heavy a burden on Deshaun Watson to carry the offense.
Watson was pressured a league-high 24 times in Week 1 and averaged -0.62 EPA per play when pressured. For context, that would have ranked second-worst last season, sandwiched between Zach Wilson and Young.
At this point, it’s painfully obvious that Watson has lost the traits that made him special in Houston. While the Browns will receive a talent infusion when Chubb and the OTs return to the lineup, the specter of Watson’s fully guaranteed $72.9M cap hit for each of the next two seasons is a dismaying layer of additional context that drives Cleveland a little lower in these rankings.
4) Denver Broncos
One game does not make a career, which is fortunate for Nix.
The 12th overall pick lived up to the worst caricatures of his play style, averaging 3.3 yards per attempt on 42 passes.
Per Stathead, only six players since 1950 have averaged fewer yards per attempt on 40+ passes in a game, with the most recent to do so being an ancient Ben Roethlisberger in his final home game against the Browns at the end of the 2021 season.
Nix was a remarkable 7-22 (32%) on passes of at least 5 air yards on Sunday. For context, the league average completion rate on those throws in Week 1 was 53%, and the average in the 2023 season was 57%.
With a lack of explosive plays coupled with significant volume, Nix produced a total of -21.6 EPA on passes. For context on that figure:
- Only one game produced more total negative EPA on passes in 2023 (Sam Howell in Week 16 vs the Jets).
- Only one rookie QB has produced more total negative EPA on passes in a game in the last 15 seasons (Daniel Jones in 2019 vs the Patriots).
5) Las Vegas Raiders
A unit with Davante Adams, Jakobi Meyers, and a pair of highly drafted tight ends should not rank near the bottom of the league. But after another languid performance, the Raiders’ lack of offensive upside pushes them to the bottom five of these rankings through Week 1.
Las Vegas went three-and-out six times on Sunday, continuing an alarming trend after it had the fifth-highest three-and-out rate in the league in 2023.
New starting QB Gardner Minshew performed at a roughly similar level to last year’s hodgepodge of signal-callers, producing -0.10 EPA per dropback, which ranked 22nd in Week 1. The 2023 Raiders averaged -0.06 EPA per dropback, ranking 23rd.
The additional X-factor of Antonio Pierce’s extremely conservative fourth-down decision-making further caps the Raiders’ offensive upside. Pierce’s decision to punt on fourth-and-1 in Chargers’ territory while trailing by 6 with 7:15 remaining in regulation was widely panned.
On the heels of a season where he was already among the more conservative game-management coaches, Pierce’s philosophy appears likely to represent a limiting factor in the offense.