When Week 1 of the NFL season rolls around, you can expect that players will need to shake off rust. The one position where teams definitely don't want that to be the case, however, is quarterback. If the quarterback takes the field for the first game of the regular season and isn't delivering, that runs the risk of an always-sickening 0-1 start.
Obviously, half of the teams in the NFL are going to start the season 1-0 (assuming we don't see any funky ties to begin the year). However, there are always select cases in which the quarterback play was a direct cause of the loss. And in some cases, they played badly enough that, at least in a vacuum, the quarterback deserves to be benched for their poor performance.
In Week 1 of the 2023 campaign, we definitely saw quite a bit of that. Four quarterbacks, in particular, deserve to be benched for how badly they played in Week 1. In most cases, there's no actual danger of that happening -- but it doesn't erase the poor start to the regular season.
NFL: 4 QBs who deserve to be benched after awful Week 1 showings
5. Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee Titans
The Tennessee Titans have quite clearly been taking a Ryan Tannehill succession plan into consideration over the past few years. In the 2022 draft, they were the franchise that took the swing on the raw but uber-talented Malik Willis, especially when he fell to the third round. Then in this year's draft, they benefitted from Will Levis' draft-night fall to get him at the beginning of the second round.
With neither Willis nor Levis appearing ready to take on the QB1 job in Nashville, though, it was Tannehill who got the nod in a runaway coming into the season. Based on his performance against the Saints in Week 1, though, it might not be as easy of a decision for who to start moving forward.
Tannehill played one of his worst games in recent memory for the Titans. Often considered a steady, cool-minded hand, he was anything but on Sunday in New Orleans. The veteran finished the game completing fewer than 50% of his passes (16-of-34) for just 198 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions.
Granted, Tannehill was under an inordinate amount of pressure in this game, consistently feeling the heat from the Saints defense. Having said that, you expect the veteran option in the QB room to show more composure in that situation than Tannehill did. And with Tennessee in a potential transition year, you have to wonder if his leash might be shorter than it has been in the past before Mike Vrabel wants a look at Willis and Levis.
4. Joshua Dobbs, Arizona Cardinals
Let's turn to our friend Michael Bluth for his thoughts on Joshua Dobbs being the Week 1 starter for the Arizona Cardinals.
That pretty much sums it up when it comes to the Cards. This team cut their most experienced and perhaps surehanded option in Colt McCoy to go into the season with Dobbs, who they had signed within a week of cutdown day, and Day 3 rookie Clayton Tune. With more experience, Dobbs got the nod and it worked out exactly like you'd imagine.
To be fair, Arizona was competitive against the Washington Commanders on Sunday. But the offense as a whole had almost no juice as the close game was more a product of Washington's offense's own shortcomings. In fact, the Cardinals had just two drives for the entire game that went for more than 25 yards.
Dobbs was a key factor in that. The former Steeler and Titan completed a solid 21-of-30 passes, but did so for only 132 yards at only 4.4 yards per attempt. That's not going to cut it in the modern NFL and it was clear that Dobbs was only comfortable with short throws and dump-offs as there were virtually no big plays that didn't involve a catch-and-run opportunity.
Arizona is quite blatantly tanking right now with hopes of getting Caleb Williams next year. Having said that, you have to wonder if giving the rookie Tune a look isn't a better option going forward.
3. Kenny Pickett, Pittsburgh Steelers
Let's get this out of the way. The Pittsburgh Steelers aren't going to bench Kenny Pickett in any world in which we live. He's the franchise in his second season after the team drafted him in the first round a year ago.
Against the 49ers on Sunday, though, it was hard to justify the performance from the second-year signal-caller.
Pickett certainly wasn't done any favors by a Steelers offensive line that many had thought to be fixed coming into the 2023 season. Even still, the 31-of-46 performance resulting in just 232 yards (5.0 yards per attempt) with one touchdown while giving up two interceptions and being sacked five times is tough to swallow.
After a pristine preseason and all reports indicating that Mike Tomlin and Matt Canada were going to take the training wheels off of the offense for Pickett, we simply didn't see that in Week 1. Perhaps that's due to the 49ers' front having their way in the trenches. But perhaps we were lied to by preseason results.
What's abundantly clear with Pickett after Week 1, though, is that whatever the plan was against San Francisco isn't going to work moving forward. He has to be given the opportunity to take more chances because what we saw in the season opener isn't going to cut it, especially for a team hoping to contend in a tough AFC North.
2. Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals
There were some doubts early in training camp when Joe Burrow went down with a calf injury that he might not be able to suit up for the Cincinnati Bengals' opener on the road against the rival Browns. After the way he played in that game, some fans might be wishing he hadn't actually been cleared to play.
Burrow put forth arguably one of the worst outings of his career. The new highest-paid player in NFL history completed just 14 of his 31 passing attempts on the day for only 82 yards. Thankfully, he didn't make the day any worse by committing any turnovers, but given that was the case, it's hard to imagine him having a worse day than the one he did.
No one is looking at this game and immediately thinking that the Bengals made some historic blunder paying their quarterback with the lucrative new contract. We've seen how high Burrow can get Cincinnati to fly and he's well worth every penny in the current QB market. Even so, that's not the start that anyone wanted to see from him. More importantly, it's unfortunately timed after signing that contract extension this week.
With that being said, Burrow has not been fully healthy in Week 1 in pretty much any season since he came into the league and his numbers reflect that. What he did on Sunday against the Browns, though, is by far the worst that we've seen in his career, and something the Bengals need to get cleared up quickly.
1. Kirk Cousins, Minnesota Vikings
Congratulations, Kirk Cousins -- you just led the Minnesota Vikings to a Week 1 loss to Baker Mayfield and the zombie Buccaneers.
Even with everyone expecting regression from the Vikings after their Charmin-soft 13-win regular season a year ago that led to a blowout playoff loss to the Giants, they still expected Minnesota to pretty easily dispatch a Tampa Bay team that has a bleak outlook for 2023. Instead, Cousins looked to be the worst version of himself.
The counting stats showed up for Cousins, as they often do. He finished the day going 33-of-44 for 344 yards and two touchdowns. The issue was the costly mistakes, highlighted by his three turnovers on the day, two fumbles and an interception. Two of those turnovers killed would-be scoring drives deep in Tampa Bay territory. The other directly resulted in a Bucs field goal. At minimum, that's a nine-point swing directly tied to Cousins.
Cousins is another player who is undoubtedly not going to get benched. There's too much talent on this roster to not have a proven commodity under center -- even if we know the defined ceiling for Kirk Cousins. Even still, a game like this only furthers the notion that, with the Vikings not planning to extend the QB unless he earns it this season, that we could see a changing of the guard in Minnesota in the 2024 offseason.