Week 1 has a funny way of making everyone forget everything that happened before it. One great performance can suddenly revive a quarterback’s reputation, while one terrible afternoon can start conversations about a player’s decline.
Give it a few weeks. These three performances aren’t going to age well.
Jacoby Brissett couldn’t have asked for a much better start.
The Arizona Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Chargers 26-14, and Brissett completed 27 of 37 passes for 277 yards and a touchdown without turning the ball over. Arizona walked away 1-0, and its 33-year-old quarterback looked completely comfortable running the offense.
We’ve seen this movie before.
Brissett has been in the NFL since 2016 and has bounced from New England to Indianapolis, Miami, Cleveland, Washington and Arizona. There have been good stretches along the way. There have also been plenty of reminders why no organization has ever settled on him as its long-term answer.
Even last season tells the story. Brissett threw for 3,366 yards with 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions for Arizona. Those aren’t bad numbers. The Cardinals still lost their final nine games. He has also had a QBR score less than 42 over the past two seasons.
That’s Brissett. He can give a team afternoons like the one Arizona got in Week 1. The consistency has never followed.
Maybe he keeps it rolling for another week or two. His decade-long NFL career says the other version eventually shows up.
Matthew Stafford gets the opposite treatment.
Stafford looked awful in the opener against the San Francisco 49ers, completing 15 of 25 passes for only 155 yards without a touchdown. He threw an interception and finished with a 61.3 passer rating.
One game isn’t enough to suddenly bury him.
Stafford spent 2025 playing at a level that made performances like this rare. He remains one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in football, and nothing about one September afternoon is enough to outweigh what he showed over an entire season.
The age conversation isn’t going away. Stafford is 38, so every bad game is going to bring another round of questions about whether this is finally the beginning of the end.
Eventually, somebody will be right.
Week 1 isn’t enough evidence to say that time has arrived.
Drake Maye picked a strange time to forget how to protect the football.
Maye threw three interceptions in New England’s 13-10 loss to Seattle. He finished with 178 passing yards, one touchdown and a 54.9 passer rating.
Now compare that with 2025.
Maye completed 72% of his passes for 4,394 yards, 31 touchdowns and eight interceptions last season. He didn’t throw three interceptions in a single game all year.
Then he did it immediately in 2026.
Defenses will adjust to Maye after his breakout season. That’s part of becoming one of the league’s better quarterbacks. New England will have to adjust right back.
What doesn’t make much sense is expecting a quarterback who threw eight interceptions across an entire season to suddenly make three-pick performances a regular occurrence.
Don’t buy the Week 1 hype
Brissett isn’t suddenly Mr. Reliable. He needs a lot more than one game to be called that. Stafford didn’t suddenly forget how to play and will only get better. Maye didn’t suddenly become a turnover machine. He’s proven before that he’s not.
One Sunday does not define any quarterback’s season.
Week 1 gave us plenty to talk about. It didn’t necessarily tell us the truth.
