Summer is hardly a rest period for the National Football League. Offseason storylines and preseason predictions drive football chatter through America’s hottest months. Mercifully, September has arrived, giving us meaningful action to analyze instead. With a week of games under our belts, it’s time to take a look at a few major stories to track heading into NFL Week 2.
To draw any meaningful conclusions from the first week of games would be rash, but it’s all we have for the time being. Seeing everyone’s first teams out there for four quarters is a hell of a lot better than sifting through preseason nonsense, so we have to make due with what we have to this point. Rather than determining whether Blaine Gabbert is fit to be a backup for the 49ers, we can see which teams came prepared from the jump, and which newcomers are set to make a major impact this season. Is it too early to start declaring Super Bowl favorites? Definitely, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try!
The 2014 season being in its infancy can’t stop us from talking about some stories to monitor going forward. Let’s take a look at a few prominent talking points, starting with a young quarterback waiting in the wings.