New York Giants could bench Russell Wilson for Jaxson Dart, Tyreek Hill trade rumours, Miami Dolphins could fire Mike McDaniel

The first week of the 2025-26 NFL season has come and gone, with Baltimore and Buffalo playing an early game of the year contender while Aaron Rodgers got revenge against the Jets.

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Meanwhile, there is a quarterback controversy brewing at the Giants and one coach who already entered the season on the hot seat may not last much longer.

Here are some of the biggest talking points to come out of Week 1!

NEW SUPER BOWL FAVOURITES TO COME OUT OF THE NFC?

It is only early but none of the teams in the NFC South look like genuine contenders, while the NFC West will likely remain in flux right until the final game with little separating the four teams in that division.

As for the NFC East, the Eagles and Commanders once again look a class above. But in what shapes as one of the most competitive divisions in the NFL, it is the Packers who seem likeliest to emerge as kings of the NFC North.

They may well end up kings of the NFC period if their Week 1 win over Detroit is a sign of what is to come.

Sure, the Lions always had a chance of regressing this season after losing starting centre Frank Ragnow along with both coordinators and three assistants in the coaching staff.

But Monday’s 27-13 loss said more about Green Bay than it did Detroit.

That is especially true when you consider the Packers shut down the usually potent Lions offence down with a banged-up Micah Parsons playing just 29 snaps.

But in those 29 snaps, Parsons showed exactly why the Packers traded two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark for him.

In that limited playing time, the four-time Pro Bowler recorded one sack on Jared Goff and had an additional three pressures.

The result of those pressures? A two-yard loss on a completion, an interception and a sack.

That is the gravity of Parsons. He himself doesn’t need to come up with the plays but when the defence has to account for a player of his calibre, it makes life easier for all his teammates.

“One word that stood out to me on tape was contagious,” former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky said on ESPN’s ‘NFL Live’.

“When I watched the defence run to the football yesterday it really felt like I was watching the Eagles’ defence of last year. That was like a calling card for the Eagles. Why do they run to the ball and tackle better than everybody?

“You’d want the end of the play and there would be six, seven, eight jerseys at the football. It felt that way for Green Bay. The impact was bigger than the stat line.

“Look at the amount of people for the Packers defence that is running to the football in comparison to the jerseys of the Detroit Lions. The colour difference is insane.

“… I just believe that defence has a new level now.”

The trade for Parsons did leave some question marks over Green Bay’s run defence, having given up Clark as part of the deal after already losing TJ Slaton in free agency.

But instead Detroit’s run game, which was the engine of its offence in recent years, managed just 44 yards and 2.3 yards per carry while top receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams were held to only 68 yards.

Goff, meanwhile, consistently found himself under pressure and having to try create plays off schedule — something which has never been a strength of his.

It showed too from the opening three-and-out, where Parsons pressured Goff into a dump off pass which saw the Lions lose two yards.

All up, Detroit converted just five of 15 third downs and looked on track for their lowest points total since early 2023 before a magic one-handed grab from Isaac TeSlaa.

It was an impressive catch from the rookie but further evidence of the spectacular plays the Lions and other teams may need to make if this is what Green Bay’s defence will look like all season.

‘WORST FEAR’ AS QB CONTROVERSY COULD FORCE BOLD GIANTS CALL

As much as there was plenty of hype surrounding Jaxson Dart in the summer, if everything went to plan in New York this season the first-round rookie quarterback wouldn’t even see the field.

The hope was that veteran Russell Wilson would be able to keep the Giants afloat long enough to give Dart the time he needed to watch and learn before eventually getting the call-up.

Sure, maybe if the season was already lost by Thanksgiving the Giants front office may have thrown Dart in to give their despondent fan base a reason to believe.

But putting Dart in after just one week? That certainly wasn’t only anyone’s radar.

Giants coach Brian Daboll looked to be seriously considering it though if you listened to his press conference after their Week 1 loss to the Commanders.

Journalists gave Daboll several opportunities to commit to Wilson but instead continued to deflect.

“We’re going to get home and look at our game. Collectively, we all have to do better,” Daboll said when the prospect of starting Dart in Week 2 was brought up.

Then when later asked about keeping Wilson as the starter, Daboll once again didn’t exactly give the veteran an emphatic vote of confidence.

“Yeah, sure. I mean, we’re just right here after the game. I have confidence in Russell,” he said.

“We got to do better around overall, coaches, players, everybody. So, we will get focused and ready to go on Dallas.”

The following day Daboll was much more emphatic in confirming “Russ will be the starter”, adding that he would not make any position or schematic before he had a chance to “watch the tape”.

So, when he looks at the tape what will he see? Unfortunately, a continuation of what he saw last season.

Wilson’s arrival was supposed to be the start of a new era at New York. Yes, Dart is the long-term face of the franchise, but Wilson was at least meant to provide serviceable production.

Instead, he looked just as shaky as Daniel Jones and while he was only sacked twice, that doesn’t tell the full story of how many times Wilson was forced to throw the ball away or bailed from clean pockets.

The passing offence struggled to get into any sort of rhythm, with Wilson completing 17-of-37 passes for 168 yards and no touchdowns while finishing 4-of-16 on third downs.

Even on the two occasions the Giants got into the Commanders’ red zone, they were unable to convert either trip into a touchdown and instead only managed only a field goal.

Star second-year receiver Malik Nabers was involved in an animated conversation on the sideline with Daboll and while both played it down after the game, it will likely be just the first of many tense moments if this offence continues to splutter the way it did in Week 1.

So, is Dart the saviour?

Teammates were raving about his aura in the offseason. Fans fell in love with his personality and fearless yet smart play on the field.

He flashed his obvious arm talent while also impressing with his accuracy and making plays with his legs, completing 32-of-47 in the preseason for 372 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

But it is important to remember that was just the pre-season and the general consensus on Dart coming into the draft was that he would need time to adjust to running an NFL offence.

That is particularly true with the state of the Giants offensive line and that won’t improve until left tackle Andrew Thomas is healthy and back in the line-up.

Only making matters worse is the schedule, which rates the toughest in the NFL with six of the Giants’ eight home games coming up against teams that made the playoffs last season.

While Dart may be the future in New York, the Giants risk throwing him in the deep end far too soon and ruining his confidence as a result.

But with Daboll under immense pressure to keep his job, self-preservation may eventually win out.

ARE THE COLTS GOOD…OR ARE THE DOLPHINS JUST THAT BAD?

This was a game pitting two of the coaches with the hottest seats entering this season against each other.

For the loser, that seat was only going to get even hotter and considering the way this one went down, you may as well light it on fire for Mike McDaniel.

It had been almost 4,400 days since the Colts last won a Week 1 game. They didn’t just win though. The Colts absolutely annihilated the Dolphins 33-8.

This was an offence led by a quarterback in Daniel Jones who the Giants were so desperate to cut last season that in doing so they took on more than $22.2 million in dead money.

Now, it is hard to say whether Jones is going to be the next successful reclamation project at quarterback given this Dolphins secondary looks like it will be an abject disaster this season.

But you have to give the former Giants quarterback his flowers, with Jones completing 22 of 29 passes for 272 yards while adding in three touchdowns including two on the ground.

Next week’s game against an elite Denver defence should give us a better idea of whether Jones has actually turned a corner or just took advantage of a dream match-up.

But as for the Dolphins, the only positive is that the schedule at least still gives them a chance to turn this around before it quickly spirals out of control.

Miami faces New England, Buffalo, the Jets, and Carolina in the next four weeks. At least three of those games are very winnable but based on the performance the Dolphins dished up in Week 1, they could very well have a new coach by the time they face the Panthers in October.

The secondary was always a concern going into the season but the defensive front was at least supposed to somewhat make up for it. Instead, they recorded just one sack and allowed the Colts’ running backs to rack up 156 yards.

As for McDaniel, it has been a stunning fall from grace after overseeing the juggernaut that was the Miami offence in the 2023-24 season.

Orlovsky called the tape from the Colts game “a mess”.

“You could blame the coaching, you could blame the players,” Orlovsky said on ‘First Take’.

“There are blown assignments by everybody on offence, Tua is floating the ball for an interception, there is a blown assignment by the right tackle on the protection, there is a blown assignment by the back.

“This is a lack of preparation, a lack of understanding, a lack of commitment… this was a bad tape to watch.”

Offensive line injuries and recurring concussions for Tua Tagovailoa gave him some excuses last season, but after a full offseason the expectation was that he would at least have some answers to rediscover the explosive passing attack that made Miami a nightmare to match up against.

Unfortunately for McDaniel, he didn’t get much of a chance to prove whether that was the case after a turnover-prone game from Tagovailoa.

When combined with their defensive deficiencies, McDaniel didn’t have much hope to turn it around and fair or unfair, it only put even more of a spotlight on his immediate coaching future.

Yahoo Sports writer Charles McDonald called it “truly abysmal” on ‘Football 301’ and had the numbers to back it up, starting with Tagovailoa’s QBR of 2.7 out of 100 — which was his career-worst mark with a minimum of 10 passing attempts.

Essentially, what that means is that if you had Tagovailoa as your quarterback on Monday you would have had won 2.7 per cent of the time.

By halftime, when the Dolphins trailed 20-0, they had just 15 plays for 43 yards averaging -.263 expected points added (EPA) per play and -.84 EPA per dropback.

“Usually when the Dolphins are having struggles like this they try to call some play action and try to get themselves out of it and generate some big plays but in this game Tua on play action had five dropbacks for 16 yards and a strip sack and in general had a 42.9 per cent pressure to sack rate and was sacked on 11 per cent of his drop backs,” McDonald added.

“It’s just hard to say this is anything but a disaster.”

AND HOW LONG UNTIL THE TYREEK HILL TO CHIEFS RUMOURS HEAT UP?

The Chiefs are in desperate need for an explosive element to their passing attack after losing speedster Xavier Worthy to a shoulder injury in their Week 1 loss to the Chargers.

Kansas City is already without its most reliable receiver in Rashee Rice for the first six weeks of the season due to suspension and given he is coming off a serious leg injury, he may well need a few weeks to really find his groove again.

Sure, the Patrick Mahomes-Travis Kelce connection is still there but the veteran tight end isn’t the same threat after the catch that he once was and while Hollywood Brown filled in as the top option against L.A., he wasn’t much of a big-play threat either before catching a late bomb.

Former second-round pick Tyquan Thornton had been a star of training camp, but he was waived by the Patriots at the end of last year which says a lot considering the state of their wide receiver room.

Which brings us back to Hill.

The Dolphins are seemingly on the verge of blowing it all up if the Week 1 loss to the Colts is anything to go by.

If McDaniel goes they look a candidate for a rebuild of sorts and at 31 years old, it is hard to see Hill being a part of that.

After all, things didn’t exactly end well between Hill and the Dolphins last season after he removed himself from their Week 18 game and then publicly suggested in the summer that he wanted to be traded.

It prompted quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to open training camp by telling reporters Hill needed to rebuild the trust of his teammates.

A fresh start could be the right move for both parties, with the Chiefs still very much looking like a Super Bowl contender despite the loss to the Chargers.

The addition of rookie tackle Josh Simmons could finally open up this offence and allow Mahomes to really let it rip — but only if he has a vertical threat in the receiving room.

Hill could be just that for the Chiefs and while the Dolphins won’t get anything near the package they gave up to trade for him in 2022 (a first-round pick, a second-round pick, two fourth-round picks and a sixth-round pick), they could save $15.9 million.

Monday’s loss, where Hill had four catches for 40 yards, had Orlovsky wondering “when the phone calls will start coming in” for the Dolphins speedster.

“One of the notes watching this game I kept coming up with was where is Tyreek?” he said.

“It was wild to see how many plays Tyreek Hill wasn’t on the field. I accounted for him on the field I think four times on third down.”