By Diamond Dave Davenport Week 1 of the NFL season is officially in the books, and if there is one thing we learned, it is this: We didn’t learn anything. Okay, maybe we learned a few things. But this is Week 1. This is when half the fan bases in America think their team is headed to the Super Bowl and the other half are already looking at mock drafts for 2027. Everybody calm down. The opening weekend was weird, exciting, frustrating and in some cases just flat-out ridiculous—which is exactly why we love the NFL. Chicago put 59 points on the board. The Saints nearly pulled off a comeback nobody saw coming. Kansas City suddenly looked like Kansas City again. The Colts got punched in the mouth at home. And somehow, my Raiders came out looking like an actual functioning football team. What a time to be alive. Wait... Were the Saints About to Beat Detroit? If you had told me before Sunday that the New Orleans Saints were going to take the Lions into overtime in Detroit, I probably would have asked what you were drinking. Then Detroit went up 21-0 and everything looked about how most people expected. Game over, right? Not even close. Tyler Shough and the Saints came storming back. New Orleans tied the game late, forced overtime, gave up a Lions touchdown and then marched right back down the field and scored themselves. Kellen Moore decided he was not interested in playing for another possession. Two-point conversion. Win it right there. The pass fell incomplete, and Detroit escaped 31-30. New Orleans went from being down three touchdowns to being one play away from walking out of Ford Field with one of the biggest surprises of Week 1. Shough finished with 410 passing yards despite turning the ball over three times. Does that mean the Saints are suddenly contenders? Slow down. It means Week 1 is weird. But Saints fans should at least walk away from that game thinking there might be something there. And Lions fans? You won. Take the win and never speak of the first three quarters again. Oh Great, the Chiefs Look Like the Chiefs Again For anyone who enjoyed watching Kansas City struggle last season, I have some bad news. They might be back. Patrick Mahomes returned from his knee injury and the Chiefs went out and handled Denver 31-10 on Monday night. Mahomes threw two touchdowns and ran for another, but maybe the biggest story was Kenneth Walker III absolutely going off in his Chiefs debut. Walker ran for 173 yards on 23 carries, including a 60-yard touchdown, and also caught a touchdown from Mahomes. Because apparently what Patrick Mahomes needed was another weapon. Wonderful. Kansas City did not look like a team barely hanging on or trying to rediscover itself. They looked comfortable. They ran the football. They controlled the game. Mahomes did Mahomes things. One game does not mean the Chiefs are automatically running back to the top of the AFC. But after Week 1? Yeah. They looked annoyingly normal again. Colts Fans, This One Wasn’t on Daniel Jones Now let’s talk about Indianapolis. The Colts got beat 41-23 by Baltimore, and anytime a team loses like that, the quarterback is going to take heat. I don’t put this one on Daniel Jones. Was Jones perfect? No. He finished 19-of-31 for 166 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Those are not numbers anybody is hanging on the refrigerator. But watching that game, my concern was the offensive line. The Colts just looked out of sync up front. Baltimore was constantly disrupting the timing of the offense. Trey Hendrickson alone generated eight pressures, and when he was on the field the Ravens generated pressure on 58.6 percent of Indianapolis passing plays. Jones never seemed to get completely comfortable. And it was not just pass protection. The entire offense felt like it was trying to find its rhythm while Baltimore was already playing at full speed. That is where I actually saw something encouraging toward the end. There were moments when the Colts finally started looking more settled. Jones found Tyler Warren for a fourth-quarter touchdown. Alec Pierce made some plays. The offense started moving the football a little cleaner. Unfortunately, Baltimore had already kicked the door down. And we cannot ignore the other side of the football either. The Ravens put up 506 total yards, including 202 on the ground. Derrick Henry went for 144 yards and three touchdowns. That will get you beat no matter who your quarterback is. Give Jonathan Taylor the Football Here is the part I really want Indianapolis to figure out. You just gave Jonathan Taylor an extension. Use him. Taylor ran the ball 19 times for 98 yards and two touchdowns against Baltimore. He also caught three passes for another 23 yards. That is over five yards per carry. The Colts signed Taylor to an extension in August after he led the NFL last season in rushing attempts and touchdowns. This is one of the best running backs in football, and when the offensive line is struggling with pass protection, leaning on your running back can help settle everybody down. Get creative with him. Run him. Throw screens to him. Move him around. Make defenses think about where No. 28 is on every snap. I understand game script matters. Baltimore got ahead, and eventually you have to throw the football. But the Colts offense is at its best when Jonathan Taylor is making a defense worry about stopping the run. They paid the man. Now build around what he does best. Now About My Raiders... I know exactly what some of you are waiting for. “Dave, the Raiders are 1-0! Are we going to the Super Bowl?” Everybody settle down. The Raiders beat Miami 27-13 and, yes, they looked pretty damn good doing it. But Miami is in the beginning stages of a complete rebuild. New coach. New general manager. Malik Willis at quarterback. Young players all over the place. So what does beating Miami prove? Honestly? Not much yet. It proves the Raiders handled a team they should be able to beat. And considering some of the Raiders teams we have watched over the last few years, I will gladly take that. Kirk Cousins Was Good... And Then There Were Those Two Picks Kirk Cousins’ Raiders debut was interesting. He completed 21 of 30 passes and threw three touchdowns. Good. He also threw two interceptions. Not as good. Especially because both interceptions came when he was trying to attack farther downfield. Cousins went just 1-of-7 with two interceptions on throws of 10 or more air yards. Am I panicking? No. New team. New offense. First real game in Allegiant Stadium with Raider Nation going crazy. Maybe Kirk got a little too excited. Maybe the Black Hole got the old man’s heart rate up a little bit. Whatever it was, he needs to clean those throws up because against better teams, two interceptions will get you beat. But I also saw enough good things that I am not worried after one game. He moved the offense. He threw three touchdowns. Most importantly, the Raiders won. We can work with that. Kubiak Finally Let Ashton Jeanty Be Ashton Jeanty THIS is what I wanted to see. Ashton Jeanty had 23 carries for 102 yards and added six catches for 45 yards and two touchdowns. That is 29 touches and 147 total yards. Thank you, Klint Kubiak. Last season was frustrating because you had this extremely talented young running back and the Raiders offense could never consistently get him going. Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly wanted a running game, but between game situations, offensive-line problems and the way the offense was being handled, Jeanty never consistently got the opportunity to take over games. Kubiak came in and apparently decided on a much simpler philosophy: We drafted the guy. Let’s use the guy. Exactly. Stop worrying about saving a running back for December when you need to win games in September. You have Ashton Jeanty. Feed him. Let him run the ball 20-plus times. Get him involved in the passing game. Make the defense tackle him for four quarters. Sunday looked like the beginning of the player Raider Nation thought it was getting when Jeanty was drafted. And This Raiders Offense Is Still Missing Brock Bowers This is the other part that has me interested. The Raiders scored 27 points without Brock Bowers. Bowers underwent a meniscus trim before Week 1 and was originally expected to miss a game or two. Klint Kubiak has since called him day-to-day, so we will see how quickly he gets back. Michael Mayer stepped up with six catches. Jack Bech caught the Raiders’ first touchdown of the season. Jalen Nailor and Tre Tucker give them some speed on the outside. Then you add Bowers back into the mix with Jeanty coming out of the backfield? Okay. Now you have my attention. I am not saying this is suddenly one of the best offenses in football. I am saying there are some pieces here. Jeanty. Bowers. Mayer. Bech. Nailor. Tucker. And if Cousins can take care of the football and get comfortable in Kubiak’s system, the Raiders could at least make Sundays fun again. After last year? I’ll take fun. Everybody Take a Breath—It’s Week 1 This is the best and dumbest part of the NFL season. If your team is 1-0 right now, congratulations. You are definitely winning the Super Bowl. Start planning the parade. If your team is 0-1, apparently the season is over, everybody should be fired and your quarterback needs to be benched immediately. That is how Week 1 works. The truth is that some of the teams that looked terrible this weekend will be completely different by November. Some teams everybody is falling in love with right now will come crashing back to earth. The Saints almost shocked Detroit. The Chiefs reminded everybody who they are. The Colts have things to fix, especially up front, but I am not putting that loss on Daniel Jones. The Raiders actually looked competent—and Ashton Jeanty finally looked like the centerpiece of the offense he should be. There will be overreactions. There will be hot takes. There will be fans ready to fire everybody by Tuesday morning. And by next Sunday, half of what we think we know right now could be completely wrong. But there is one thing I know for certain. The NFL is back.