10. CJ Stroud, Houston Texans
CJ Stroud did play quite well for the Houston Texans. Scoring 31 points should have been plenty in Week 1 given how good their defense is, but that simply wasn’t the case. Stroud being strip-sacked on the Texans final play of the game was brutal, but he still finished with 274 passing yards and two touchdowns.
Stroud has been rather average the past two seasons after an insanely successful rookie season back in 2023. The Texans and Stroud did not get a long-term contract extension done this offseason, as it seems like Stroud is genuinely betting on himself to have a huge year.
And if he can stack these types of performances throughout the year, he will get paid. No QB is perfect, so there will be mistakes littered in here and there, but I am not sure you can penalize Stroud for his play in Week 1. It was and should have been plenty good enough for Houston to get the win.
This team did start 0-3 last year, though, before going 12-2 the rest of the way, so I’d not be a ton of stock into an early 0-1 hole.
9. Jared Goff, Detroit Lions
This was an interesting game for the Lions. They saw the Saints take them into overtime, but New Orleans failed to convert what would have been a game-winning two-point attempt. In the Week 1 victory, Jared Goff had a Goff-type of game. He was efficient through the air and gave his team enough to win.
While he only threw for 206 passing yards, he didn’t necessarily need to throw for a ton, as Jahmyr Gibbs had 156 yards on the ground. Goff had two passing scores and completed 26 of 39 attempts. This was also the first regular season game with Drew Petzing running the offense, so the Lions, perhaps more than other teams that have returning play-callers, could take some time to get going on offense.
With that said, Goff is marvelous from the pocket - he’s one of the best pure pocket passers the game has had in recent years. He’s thrown no fewer than 29 touchdown passes in each of the last four seasons. While the Lions have fallen short in the playoffs in during the Goff era, his extremely high floor will always make them competitive.
Comfortably one of the better QBs in the NFL, Week 1 continued to confirm that, and I would absolutely expect some laser shows from the Lions’ offense in the coming weeks.
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