NFL Week 2 knee-jerk reactions: Bryce Young era needs to end, Bucs are for real

Week 2 in the NFL wasn’t short on drama. The Minnesota Vikings and Las Vegas Raiders upset two Super Bowl favorites in the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens, respectively, and there were plenty of disappointing quarterback performances.

Here are some knee-jerk reactions from the second week of the NFL season:

The Bryce Young experiment needs to be over

It’s no longer amusing. The incompletions, sacks and just general hard-to-watch football is no longer entertaining like it was during Young’s rookie season as the Panthers imploded before everyone’s eyes. Head coach Dave Canales was brought in because he was an aggressive offensive-minded coach who could help reinvent Young and build him up into a top-tier passer.

But through two games, Young has actually regressed. In Sunday’s 26-3 loss to the Chargers, he completed nearly 70% of his 26 pass attempts, but he only had 84 yards passing to show for it. Despite Carolina revamping its receiving corps with former Pittsburgh Steeler wideout Diontae Johnson and 2024 first-round pick Xavier Legette, Young hasn’t thrown a touchdown this season and he’s been picked off three times.

His offensive line still struggles to give him a consistently clean pocket, and even when he has one, his receivers struggle to create separation and get open or Young gets happy feet and makes some questionable decisions. It’s only been 18 games, but it may be time to pull the plug on the Young experiment and start over again with what will likely be the No. 1 overall pick next year.

Tua Tagovailoa needs to do some serious soul-searching

The play from Thursday’s 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills in which Tagovailoa suffered his third concussion in the last three years was hard to watch, as were the two plays that took him out during the 2022 season. One has to wonder at this point if Tagovailoa could use a good heart-to-heart from former Indianapolis Colts QB Andrew Luck, who dealt with similar concussion issues before retiring early at the age of 29.

Many were calling for Tagovailoa to retire after Thursday’s game, and rightfully so. At some point, his quality of life after football needs to be put first, and if he can’t clearly prioritize anything other than football right now, someone needs to step in and do it for him. Tagovailoa is a gamer, a competitor, and he’s going to try and play until his body won’t let him anymore.

No one wants to see him take another hit to the head like the one he took on Thursday, and perhaps the best thing for the 26-year-old QB would be to take the rest of the season off, spend time with his family and reevaluate things in the offseason.

The Buccaneers are for real, and the rest of the NFL needs to take notice

After giving the Detroit Lions all they could handle in the playoffs in January (they lost 31-23), Tampa Bay convincingly won the rematch on Sunday. Given how the Bucs have looked in their last four games dating back to the postseason when they rocked the Philadelphia Eagles 32-9 in the wild-card round, it’s time for the rest of the NFL to give them their due.

Winners of eight of their last 10 games dating back to last season, the Bucs have a legit case for being one of the top three or four teams in the NFC, and it’s time that people start putting respect on quarterback Baker Mayfield’s name. Through two games this year, he’s thrown for 571 yards, five touchdowns and just one interception with a 129.1 passer rating. The days of the Bucs being an easy win are over.

The Anthony Richardson hype was a bit premature

There’s no denying, Richardson had a strong season debut (212 yards passing, two touchdowns, 56 yards rushing, one touchdown) last week against the Houston Texans. But in a very winnable Week 2 matchup against the Green Bay Packers, who started inexperienced backup Malik Willis, Richardson was arguably the reason Indianapolis lost.

He threw three interceptions, fumbled twice and played like he was still a rookie (to be fair he played just four games as a rookie in 2023.) With Jonathan Taylor rushing for over 100 yards and the defense limiting Green Bay to just 122 yards passing, the Colts should have come away with a win. Sunday’s game just proved that a lot of people jumped on the Richardson hype train way too early.

The 49ers are paying for Brandon Aiyuk’s offseason temper tantrum

Yes, not having All-Pro running back and reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year Christian McCaffrey likely played into the 49ers’ 23-17 loss to the Vikings on Saturday, but so did the fact that start receiver Brandon Aiyuk was essentially invisible for the second straight week.

After signing his four-year, $120M contract extension a week before the regular season started, Aiyuk has been a non-factor in both of the 49ers’ first two games. He had two receptions for 28 yards in the season opener and four catches for 43 yards against the Vikings.

Had he not thrown a tantrum during the offseason and signed his contract extension when it was offered weeks earlier, he could’ve taken some reps with the 49ers first-team offense and not needed to shake off the rust everyone clearly sees he has.

J.K. Dobbins is the steal of the offseason

It turns out all Dobbins needed was a change of scenery for him to start reaching his potential. OK, that may be a bit facetious, but one can’t help but see the stark difference in what he’s become in Los Angeles compared to his injury-marred tenure in Baltimore.

The 25-year-old running back ran for over 130 yards for the second straight week and scored his second rushing touchdown, matching the second-most of his career back in 2022. Dobbins has thrived in the Chargers’ lead back role, and head coach Jim Harbaugh (a Michigan alum) ironically knows exactly how to get the most out of Dobbins, an Ohio State alum. 

At this rate, a 1,000-yard rushing season isn’t only doable, but it seems like a virtual certainty for Dobbins, who’s one of the NFL’s leading rushers heading into Week 3.

The NFL still has some explaining to do on behalf of its officials

Two games, two controversial last-minute wins for the Kansas City Chiefs. After fans voiced their frustration on social media about the officiating in the Chiefs’ season-opening win over the Baltimore Ravens last week, nothing changed in their Week 2 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Kansas City seemed to be the beneficiary of several questionable calls on Sunday, including a controversial fourth-down defensive pass interference penalty on the Chiefs’ final drive that kept the drive going and allowed them to kick the winning field goal as time expired. The conspiracy theories are going to start running rampant if the same thing happens next week against the Atlanta Falcons.