Week 1 is a fascinating place in the NFL.
The teams you thought were great look extremely flawed (See: the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals). The teams you thought were awful pulled off shocking upsets (See: Baker Mayfield’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams). And the squads you thought would live up to the hype (see: San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions) are already making their fanbases swell with overzealous pride at what the season could hold in store.
And the best part is because it’s Week 1: A majority of these sentiments could be irrelevant by October. Isn’t it the best when the season opener is a de facto preseason game?
But let’s center on two of those hyped teams: The 49ers and Cowboys. We knew both San Francisco and Dallas would likely pick up where they left off as powerhouse contenders. After their respective road shellackings, both NFC contenders might be even better than we believed. A lot can change in the coming weeks and months, but it’s hard to imagine these two NFC powers losing their mantle — at least in the regular season.
Let’s take stock of the 49ers, Cowboys, and the rest of the league after a predictably unpredictable Week 1 in the first edition of For The Win‘s 2023 NFL season power rankings.
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