The 32 things we learned from Week 2 of the 2026 NFL season:
0. As in winless teams, of which there were seven entering “Sunday Night Football.” While it’s not a total death knell for a season, since the playoff field expanded to 14 teams in 2020, only 16% of teams that lost their first two games over that period have overcome that start to qualify for postseason.
1. One more team, the one most of the NFL universe thought was the league’s premier outfit about 10 days ago, could join the 0-2 ranks if those Los Angeles Rams fall to the resurgent New York Giants on Monday night. How cataclysmic would that be in their case? Maybe not all that much considering the Rams started the 2024 season 1-4 (0-2 start included) and 3-6 the year before.
2. But
the real losers at the start of the 2026 season may be the collective fortunes of the quarterbacks drafted in the first round two years ago – a six-pack that’s alternately seemed destined for stardom and being star-crossed – two of them carted off the field Sunday, two of them in mothballs and two of them yet to look like the players who led their teams to the 2025 AFC championship game.
3. The immediate concern is for Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams, the top pick in 2024, who was carted off Soldier Field on Sunday with a hamstring injury … which is at least seemingly infinitely better than an Achilles tear some feared in what was otherwise an unmitigated disaster of a day for Da Bears. A few hours later, the man drafted immediately after Williams, the Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels, was carted with a dislocation to his left (non-throwing) elbow, which looked very similar to the one that helped nuke the 2024 Offensive Rookie of the Year’s second pro campaign. Total bummers for the players and their teams’ immediate, and perhaps longer-term, fortunes.
4. The New England Patriots' Drake Maye and Denver Broncos' Bo Nix are alive and well ... if not playing − so far anyway − nearly as well as they did as super sophs. Maye was the runner-up for league MVP last year while guiding the Pats to Super Bowl 60, while Nix led the Broncos to the AFC's No. 1 playoff seed before an ankle injury prevented him from playing beyond the team's divisional-round postseason win over Buffalo.
5. Finally, the other two passers from that record-setting draft class – the first to have six QBs come off the board within the first 12 selections – the Atlanta Falcons’ Michael Penix Jr. and Minnesota Vikings’ J.J. McCarthy apparently remain in deep storage, the latter yet to take a snap this season in his current QB3 role. Penix has yet to even be active amid the recovery from his latest knee surgery, though the Falcons could sure use him back ... even if that's unlikely to happen before October.
6. The 2024 draft was only the second with a half-dozen QBs called in Round 1. The other? That occurred in 1983, half of the first-round passers tabbed in that legendary draft (John Elway, Jim Kelly, Dan Marino) eventually landing in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Immortality would be a long way off for anyone in the 2024 sextet, but seems especially distant in this moment.
7. The number of consecutive games the Minnesota Vikings have now won at Soldier Field, Sunday’s victory over the Bears leaving them perched alone atop the NFC North despite basically not having injured QB Kyler Murray for most of their 2-0 start.
8. White is the new black when it comes to NFL uniforms. The New York Jets became the eighth team to introduce an alternate white helmet to their closet in order to effectively incorporate a whiteout element to their wardrobe. The Bengals, Broncos, Browns, Cowboys, Packers, Saints and Vikings all previously created similar alternate options to the one the NYJ debuted, unsuccessfully, Sunday.
hype level 💯 pic.twitter.com/M47syWMhwZ
— New York Jets (@nyjets) September 20, 2026
8a. Dallas? Looked pretty good, literally and figuratively, in all white − evening its record at 1-1 in Sunday's blowout of the Washington Commanders.
8b. Congratulations to Dak Prescott, who threw four TD passes in a 37-20 rout of the Commanders to become the Cowboys’ all-time leader in that department (249), overtaking … did you guess, Tony Romo (248)? Hall of Famer Troy Aikman is way back in third place with 165.
9. Speaking of alternate uniforms, the Rams will debut some glorious throwbacks for Monday night’s meeting with the New York Giants.
Legacy in every stitch and brushstroke. pic.twitter.com/fDKwxXv4U1
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) September 20, 2026
10. Speaking of Rams throwbacks, they – barring a change in “plan” – will also reintroduce throwback Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald on the “Monday Night Football” stage, one of the greatest D-linemen in league annals set to play his first snaps in nearly three years following his retirement in the spring of 2024.
11. We’ll get to the 0-2 teams momentarily, but panic may be getting a more ominous foothold elsewhere in the league – certainly in Chicago, where the Bears took a 180-degree turn from the swaggering crew that scored 59 points in the opener, most of their ineptitude in effect before Williams' exit. But three points and 297 yards from Ben Johnson’s offense, regardless of circumstances – Williams’ absence, weather or otherwise – is reason for concern for a club that entered the 2026 campaign with the most difficult strength of schedule based on its opponents’ collective winning percentage in 2025 (.550).
12. Aside from the two Lombardi Trophies that have arrived in the past nine years – after a nearly six-decade wait – there’s always some level of panic in Philadelphia. And while the Eagles are 2-0 and atop the NFC East, they could just as easily be 0-2 – and Sunday’s escape act from the Tennessee Titans in hot Nashville (chicken?) is only going to mollify the fan base to a minor degree given this new-look offense’s uneven start.
13. The Green Bay Packers were also fortunate to evade 0-2 after surviving the Jets in overtime in rainy New Jersey on Sunday. Starting the season without RB Josh Jacobs and OLB Micah Parson was always going to make for a challenging September. However, Week 3 brings two gifts for the scuffling Pack: Their home opener at Lambeau Field on Thursday night … and the Falcons.
The Packers are the first team on record (since 1941) to win a game with...
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) September 20, 2026
✅ Less than 200 total yards (199)
✅ 100+ penalty yards (133)
✅ Negative turnover margin (-1)
Entering today, teams in that spot were 0-44 🤯 pic.twitter.com/jRkMHSgpj7
14. The Houston Texans are among the winless, though perhaps they also don’t need to necessarily redline the panic meter like others might be inclined to. Though the circumstances are certainly unideal, Houston reached the playoffs after an 0-3 start last year and also surmounted two consecutive losses to kick off the 2023 season, which ended with an AFC South title in the trophy case.
15. However it’s certainly not the start that fourth-year Houston QB C.J. Stroud, on the heels of a brutal 2025 postseason performance, was looking for as he angles for a new contract. Not having WR1 Nico Collins on Sunday certainly didn’t help his cause or the Texans’ in a 20-6 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
16. The guy drafted No. 1 overall in 2023, one spot ahead of Stroud but currently in the same contractual position, is the Carolina Panthers’ Bryce Young, who may have already put the Falcons in the dirt. Young has now passed for three touchdowns in successive weeks for the first time in his career.
17. Meanwhile, still absent their top quarterbacks (Tua Tagovailoa, Penix) in both of this season’s games, the Falcons, who haven’t reached the playoffs since 2017, are 0-2 for the first time since 2022. And given the likelihood neither Tagovailoa nor Penix will be available Thursday night at Green Bay, 0-3 feels like a distinct possibility.
18. Losers of four straight to the Panthers, Atlanta has surrendered an average of 34.5 points over that stretch to a Carolina team that won’t be confused with the Greatest Show on Turf.
19. It had been a dozen years since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers started 0-2 … but here we are. In a game Bucs QB Baker Mayfield wanted to win more than most – his first matchup against the Cleveland Browns and the man, Deshaun Watson, who necessitated his trade to Carolina in 2022 – the top pick of the 2018 draft came up short (and threw a pick) against his former team in a game that experienced a two-hour lightning delay before the fourth quarter could be completed.
20. At least being 0-2 in the NFC South is a little more forgiving for the Falcons and Bucs, both still just a game out of first place.
21. Though shoutout to the plucky New Orleans Saints (1-1), who staged a successful fourth-quarter comeback Sunday − after nearly doing the same in Motown − and have to be thrilled to emerge .500 after being sent on the road to Detroit and Baltimore to start their season.
22. The Tennessee Titans are 0-2, for the third season in a row and fourth time in five overall – a futile stretch that extends to their last postseason appearance in 2021. However they played much better in Sunday’s loss to the Eagles, surrendering the game-winning touchdown with 9 seconds to go, than they did in Week 1, when the Jets easily dispatched them.
23. Not much has gone right for the Commanders since Daniels sparked their Cinderella run to the 2024 NFC title game. Assuming he won’t be back in Week 3, it's hard to see them avoiding an 0-3 start with the Seahawks headed to the nation’s capital.
24. The biggest question about the 0-2 Miami Dolphins? When will they pop champagne corks that signify they’ll avoid becoming the first 0-17 team of all time?
25. Being winless after two weeks is an entirely foreign feeling to the Los Angeles Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh, whether in his NFL coaching career or at the college level. And, to think, many projected a smooth takeoff for the Bolts given they opened at home against the Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders. But now it’s the Chargers who are in crisis as they prepare for trips to Buffalo and Seattle the next two weeks.
26-14. The final score of both Chargers losses. And, to think, they were favored by a touchdown to win both games.
27. The total number of penalties (for 289 yards) committed by the Jets and Packers in Green Bay’s 20-17 overtime squeaker. Considering the teams only combined for 37 points and 484 net positive yards in the rain – bonus time included – it was a pretty tough watch.
28. Congratulations to Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase, whose two TDs proved decisive in Cincy’s 20-16 win at Houston. Chase had two forgettable catches in Week 1.
29. Congratulations to Watson – via head coach Todd Monken, anyway – after notching his first win for the Browns in nearly two years following multiple Achilles surgeries. Credit to him for playing a cleaner game − nary a turnover − than Mayfield.
29a. Condolences to Cleveland fans who fully expected to see Shedeur Sanders in the QB1 role going into Week 3’s home opener against the Panthers.
30. Congratulations to Patriots RB TreVeyon Henderson, who scored New England’s only offensive touchdown Sunday in his 2026 debut after he missed the opener in Seattle with an ankle injury. The Gillette Stadium crowd thoroughly approved as the reigning AFC champs notched their first win of the season over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
30a. Congratulations to Ed Sheeeran, who will get to perform in Foxborough later this week after Patriots owner Robert Kraft had opening act Macklemore booted from Sheeran’s tour lineup. Whether the Gillette Stadium crowd will thoroughly approve of Sheeran’s de-politicized show … remains to be seen.
31.0. Suddenly the Bears’ scoring average following Sunday’s multi-faced disaster at home, which included all of three points by the offense which Johnson had hoped would challenge the 2013 Broncos’ single-season record for points. Denver’s weekly average over that 16-game season (37.9), now a TD better than the Bears, suddenly looks quite unattainable in light of recent events.
32. Finally, RIP, Ernie Accorsi. Sharp as a tack over the course of a highly distinguished 37-year career as an NFL executive, he was nevertheless something of a Forrest Gump given the seismic league events he was closely associated with. Those included the drafting of John Elway in Baltimore; Accorsi’s resignation as Colts GM shortly before they decamped to Indianapolis under cover of night; his mentorship of ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. in the 1970s; the construction of powerhouse Cleveland Browns teams in the 1980s only to fall short of the Super Bowl, courtesy of Elway’s Broncos, amid “The Drive” and “The Fumble”; and his inspired decision to bring Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning to the New York Giants – Accorsi laying the groundwork for Big Blue’s two most recent Lombardi Trophies. Definitely a football life well lived.
Giants mourn loss of former GM and Ring of Honor inductee Ernie Accorsi
— New York Giants (@Giants) September 20, 2026
Details: https://t.co/h6OefQuYRO pic.twitter.com/lLO9UdBNAX
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 32 things we learned in NFL Week 2: Struggle bus has best seats for 2024 Round 1 QBs
