The 2023 NFL regular season kicks off on Thursday, September 7 with a sizzling Midwestern matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions. The defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs play host to the hyped-up Lions, both teams battling for the campaign’s first W. This game between Kansas City and Detroit represents one of three Week 1 matchups that are ripe for the picking. Are you ready for some football?
Oh yeah, football is back 🏈 pic.twitter.com/JFiQ4cdfNd
— NFL (@NFL) August 28, 2023
Detroit Lions at Kansas City Chiefs (-6.5), 9/7 @ 6:20 p.m. ET
With Aaron Rodgers (and several other Green Bay Packers) leaving Lambeau to join the N.Y. Jets, the Lions have leapt to the top of the NFC North’s pecking order. Detroit has proven to be a ferocious team, scraping and clawing its way to a 9-8 finish in 2022 after a 1-6 start. The Lions won 8-of-10 to close out last season, only losing a nailbiter to the Buffalo Bills 28-25 in Week 12 and a strange Christmas Eve game in Carolina.
Head coach Dan Campbell leads a tenacious group that is resilient and knows how to win. The days of the Lions being the butt of NFL jokes is at an end, at least for now. Detroit QB Jared Goff has a major chip on his shoulder and can still sling the rock.
Offensive weapons like WR Amon-Ra St.Brown, rookie TE Sam LaPorta, and RBs David Montgomery and 2023 No. 12 overall pick Jahmyr Gibbs will help to keep this game interesting. However, speedy second-year WR Jameson Williams is serving a six-game suspension to start the season, and the Lions’ defense is leaky. Only two teams, the Arizona Cardinals and Chicago Bears, allowed more points than Detroit last year. Also, Arrowhead Stadium is a nasty place for visiting teams to play.
The Chiefs were 7-1 when playing at home in 2022 (9-1 including the postseason), and the Lions’ record on the road was 4-4. Kansas City has won two of the previous four Super Bowls and doesn’t appear to be slowing down any. The Chiefs won Super Bowl 57 without WR Tyreek “The Freak” Hill, who took his talents to South Beach. Andy Reid is still Kansas City’s head coach. The Patrick Mahomes to Travis Kelce connection is almost automatic. Kansas City will likely flirt with disaster at some point early on, but Detroit ultimately loses this game by double digits. The Chiefs covered the spread in the last two games they played in: the AFC Championship vs the Bengals and SB 57 vs the Eagles.
Prediction: Chiefs 34, Lions 24
S.F. 49ers (-2.5) at Pittsburgh Steelers, 9/10 @ 1 p.m. ET
The last time that the 49ers played in Pennsylvania, they were demolished by the Eagles 31-7 in the NFC Championship game. San Francisco’s Super Bowl dreams were dashed to dust in the Keystone State, which will no doubt be front of mind for QB Brock Purdy, RB Christian McCaffrey, and the gang as they travel to Pittsburgh in Week 1. Head coach Kyle Shanahan can use this for some hard-core motivational material.
The Niners closed the 2022 regular season with 10 straight wins, then knocked off the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs before losing to the Eagles. San Francisco finished last season as the top-ranked defense and the sixth-ranked offense in the NFL. As long as Purdy and McCaffrey can stay relatively healthy, and WR/ Renaissance Man Deebo Samuel continues to do Deebo Samuel type things, the 49ers have reason to be excited. Defensive anchor Nick Bosa is still holding out, but there is optimism that his contract situation will be resolved in time for the start of the season.
Pittsburgh is a gritty, never-say-die squad led by a battle-tested gridiron general. Mike Tomlin has never had a losing record as the Steelers’ head coach. Pittsburgh won its last four games to finish 9-8 last year, and will not be a pushover this season, either. Youngsters like QB Kenny Pickett, WR George Pickens, and RBs Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren give the offense some pop, and the Steelers have a top-10 defense.
However, this will not be enough to stop San Francisco from spoiling Pittsburgh’s home opener. In a defensive struggle, the 49ers will stifle the Steelers and silence the crowd.
Prediction: 49ers 23, Steelers 17
Buffalo Bills at N.Y. Jets (+1.5), 9/11 @ 8:15 p.m. ET
Many experts believe that the Buffalo Bills are still the team to beat in a talent-stacked AFC East division. Hence, the New York Jets are 1½-point underdogs in their own house on September 11. However, if anything the Bills have lost some potency on both offense and defense during the offseason, while the Jets have worked to build a winner.
New York finished 7-10 last year, but fought tooth and nail to earn respect with a flimsy three-headed monster at the quarterback position. The QB carousel of Zach Wilson, Joe Flacco, and Mike White has been upended in favor of future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers. Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, WRs Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, and Malik Taylor, and OT Billy Turner also came over to the Jets from the Packers. Former Pro-Bowler and two-time Super Bowl champion Mecole Hardman defected from Kansas City in favor of joining the Jets’ receiving corps.
Gang Green already had the offensive and defensive rookies of the year in WR Garrett Wilson and CB Sauce Gardner. The Jets’ D was the fourth-stingiest in the NFL last year, only two slots behind the Bills in that category. New York was well behind Buffalo in offensive ranking in 2022, but that was before Green Bay’s mass exodus, and before former Minnesota Vikings RB Dalvin Cook signed with the Jets. Phenom RB Breece Hall is back from injury and itching to tear up defenses. In an offense where Michael Carter is #3 in the running back room and Zonovan Knight can’t even make the team…
2023 is the year that the Jets flip the tables on “Bills Mafia”, effectively ending Buffalo’s three-year reign atop the AFC East. This new Jets’ regime will make a statement by thumping the Bills at MetLife Stadium on Monday Night Football. Take the free points.
Prediction: Jets 31, Bills 17
