The NFL season is two weeks old and we have some data to form early impressions of the league's teams. While there is a considerable amount of panic surrounding teams without a win, there have been some surprising storylines, including Daniel Jones' renaissance in Indianapolis and the emergence of a few second-tier contenders from the preseason as actual threats to win it all.
Prior to the start of each new NFL week, this Stock Watch column will take a look at some of the biggest risers and fallers in the league at the current juncture. We'll start with the positive side of the stock watch and check out who is on the rise.
NFL Stock Watch: Risers
Green Bay Packers
While the Packers infamously couldn't beat playoff teams last season, Green Bay has looked like a potential juggernaut after their big Micah Parsons trade right before Week 1. The Packers are off to a 2-0 start with a pair of home victories against 2024 postseason teams in the Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders, looking like the far superior outfit in both contests.
The addition of Parsons has taken Green Bay's defense to an elite level while Jordan Love's improved supporting cast gives the Packers a chance to stake an early claim to the NFC's top seed. With a relatively soft portion of the schedule coming up (at Cleveland, at Dallas, Cincinnati minus Joe Burrow, at Arizona) coming up, Green Bay has a chance to be 6-0 before a matchup with old friend Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh.
Kickers
It feels like kickers are having a moment in the NFL, with long field goals flying through the uprights at historic levels, including Brandon Aubrey's 64-yard boot for the Dallas Cowboys in Week 2 to force overtime in a game they eventually won. The Athletic's Mike Sando notes that the league has changed its rules regarding the specialty kicking balls, giving teams unlimited time to prepare the footballs after sending them 60 to use for the season.
Having unlimited time and access to get the kicking balls into a kicker's preferred format should lead to a tremendous uptick in accuracy, which is why teams have been more aggressive in sending out their place kickers from long distance. While Aubrey is a legitimate weapon for Dallas due to his unique soccer background, other teams are starting to push the envelope as the race to get the most out of kickers is heating up.
Los Angeles Chargers
The AFC West may have a new front-runner after two weeks as the Los Angeles Chargers have taken care of business in impressive fashion. After beating the Kansas City Chiefs in a "home" game in Sao Paulo, Los Angeles went on the road on Monday night and beat the Las Vegas Raiders to improve to 2-0 in division games.
The Chargers have been more aggressive with Justin Herbert's throwing attempts, taking advantage of a more diverse supporting cast to use the pass to set up Jim Harbaugh's preferred run game. With a suddenly inconsistent Bo Nix and Denver coming to town on Sunday, Los Angeles has a chance to take a commanding lead in the division with a win over each of their AFC West rivals.
John Morton
After a sluggish effort in Week 1, Lions fans began to question whether or not the loss of Ben Johnson to Chicago would cause Detroit's offense to regress. The Lions delivered a vintage effort with Johnson in the building on Sunday, rolling up a league-high 52 points in an emphatic blowout of the Bears, with Morton calling an excellent offensive game.
Morton, whose only previous play calling experience came with the New York Jets in 2017, relied on a more balanced attack as the Lions ran the ball 30 times to allow Jared Goff to have a much more efficient 23-of-28 passing day. Seeing Detroit go back to its physical identity offers some relief for Lions fans who worried that Morton would veer too far from the blueprint that made them successful.
Backup Quarterbacks
Injuries around the league set the stage for backups to take center stage in Week 2, and many of them responded with quality efforts. Jake Browning came in relief of Joe Burrow during the game and helped Cincinnati hold on to improve to a 2-0 start while Mac Jones filled in for the injured Brock Purdy to guide San Francisco to an impressive road win in New Orleans.
Two more teams are set to go to their backups in Week 3 as Tyrod Taylor will start for the Jets with Justin Fields in concussion protocol while J.J. McCarthy's injured ankle will allow Carson Wentz to take a go at commanding Minnesota's offense. Having a good backup can be the difference between a season sinking or surviving, so seeing backups do well is encouraging for the state of quarterback play in the NFL.
NFL Stock Watch: Fallers
Joe Burrow
The biggest faller is obviously Burrow, and by extension the Bengals, after he landed on IR with a severe case of turf toe that required surgery. The injury is expected to sideline Burrow for at least three months, but if Browning can't keep Cincinnati afloat in the AFC North there's a good chance that Burrow has played his final snap of the 2025 season.
If that scenario comes to pass, it would mark the third time in six years that Burrow has missed a significant chunk of the season due to injury. While the Bengals have worked hard to stabilize their offensive line in front of Burrow, the physical pounding he has taken as a pro could shorten his career, which would put Cincinnati back into NFL purgatory.
Houston Texans
While the Texans' defense has played well enough to win both of their games, the C.J. Stroud-led offense has let Houston down. The big issue has been a failure to finish drives, with Houston scoring just one touchdown in two games while connecting on six field goals, allowing them to lose games in which the defense yielded a combined 34 points.
Houston's re-worked offensive line has taken time to gel, causing Stroud to run for his life and take six sacks already. While dealing with Los Angeles and Tampa Bay's defenses isn't easy, the Texans need to play better to get back into the race in the suddenly more competitive AFC South, where Indianapolis is off to a 2-0 start while Jacksonville is also ahead of the Texans at 1-1.
The TV Schedule
After two tremendous slates of games to start the year, Week 3 is a bit rougher TV wise. Two of the primetime games have blowout potential as Buffalo could run Miami off the field on Thursday night while Sunday night features a pair of 0-2 teams with the Chiefs likely to get in the win column against the hapless Giants.
The main 4:25 doubleheader slot is also rough as FOX has Cowboys-Bears in that window while a far more competitive Rams-Eagles matchup is sitting in the 1:00 regional window. There aren't a ton of intriguing storylines in the Sunday slate outside of that Rams-Eagles game, so don't be shocked if casual fans try to get one last glimpse of summer rather than tune into this slate.
Kansas City's Playoff Positioning
While it is far too early to write off the Chiefs as a playoff team, the level they have produced over the first two weeks of the season is far from ideal. Injuries have decimated Patrick Mahomes' supporting cast, forcing him to try and rely on an aging Travis Kelce and a bunch of secondary receivers to generate offense with unsuccessful results.
Going 0-2 means the Chiefs are behind the eight-ball in the AFC West, meaning there is a very real possibility that even if Kansas City rebounds they will have to play the entire postseason on the road. The Chiefs' track record suggests you can never rule them out from a deep run as long as they have Mahomes, but their path through the AFC is going to be much harder than usual.
Ben Johnson
After being brought in from Detroit to fix the Bears, Johnson's team has looked almost as messy as it did in the end of the Matt Eberflus era. Caleb Williams has been slow to pick up Johnson's complicated system, making key mistakes in both of Chicago's losses, while the defense delivered its worst performance in years in the Bears' Week 2 loss to Detroit.
It takes time to build a program, but it is fair to wonder if Johnson is cut out to be a head coach. While no one will question Johnson's brilliant offensive mind, it takes a true leader to manage everything involved in becoming a winning NFL team, and some coordinators simply aren't cut out to be head coaches. Johnson will have every chance to turn things around, but early returns have not been promising.