32 things we learned in NFL Week 2: For 2024 QB class, 2026 is master class in misery - USA Today

The 32 things we learned from Week 2 of the 2026 NFL season:

0. As in winless teams, of which there are seven. While it’s not a total death knell for a season, since the playoff field expanded to 14 teams in 2020, only 16% of teams that lost their first two games over that period have overcome that start to qualify for postseason.

1. One more team, the one most of the NFL universe thought was the league’s premier outfit about 11 days ago, avoided joining the 0-2 ranks as the Los Angeles Rams trounced the New York Giants 28-6 on Monday night. How cataclysmic would 0-2 have been in L.A.? Maybe not all that much considering the Rams started the 2024 season 1-4 (0-2 start included) and 3-6 the year before. But 1-1 is obviously preferable.

2. But the real losers at the start of the 2026 season may be the collective fortunes of the quarterbacks drafted in the first round two years ago – a six-pack that’s alternately seemed destined for stardom and being star-crossed – two of them carted off the field Sunday, two of them in mothballs and two of them yet to look like the players who led their teams to the 2025 AFC championship game.

3. The immediate concern is for Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams, the top pick in 2024, who was carted off Soldier Field on Sunday with a hamstring injury − 'Madden' curse anyone? − though that's at least seemingly infinitely better than an Achilles tear some feared in what was otherwise an unmitigated disaster of a day for Da Bears. A few hours later, the man drafted immediately after Williams, the Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels, was carted with a dislocation to his left (non-throwing) elbow, which looked very similar to the one that helped nuke the 2024 Offensive Rookie of the Year’s second pro campaign. At minimum, he'll miss Week 3's home opener against Seattle. Williams, meanwhile was deemed week to week Monday, though Chicago coach Ben Johnson wouldn't go so far as to rule him out of the Bears' next game against Philadelphia. Still, total bummers for the players and their teams’ immediate, and perhaps longer-term, fortunes.

4. The New England Patriots' Drake Maye and Denver Broncos ' Bo Nix are alive and well... if not playing − so far anyway − nearly as well as they did as super sophs. Maye was the runner-up for league MVP last year while guiding the Pats to Super Bowl 60, while Nix led the Broncos to the AFC's No. 1 playoff seed before an ankle injury prevented him from playing beyond the team's divisional-round postseason win over Buffalo. So far, they've combined to account for three TDs... or one-third of what the Buffalo Bills' Josh Allen has done by himself.

5. Finally, the other two passers from that record-setting draft class – the first to have six QBs come off the board within the first 12 selections – the Atlanta Falcons’ Michael Penix Jr. and Minnesota Vikings ’ J.J. McCarthy apparently remain in deep storage, the latter yet to take a snap this season in his current QB3 role. Penix has yet to be active amid the recovery from his latest knee surgery, though Atlanta could sure use him back... even if that's unlikely to happen before October.

6. The 2024 draft was only the second with a half-dozen QBs called in Round 1. The other? That occurred in 1983, half of the first-round passers tabbed in that legendary draft (John Elway, Jim Kelly, Dan Marino) eventually landing in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Immortality would be a long way off for anyone in the 2024 sextet, but seems especially distant in this moment.

7. The number of consecutive games the Minnesota Vikings have now won at Soldier Field, Sunday’s victory over the Bears leaving them perched alone atop the NFC North despite basically not having injured QB Kyler Murray for most of their 2-0 start.

8. White is the new black when it comes to NFL uniforms. The New York Jets became the eighth team to introduce an alternate white helmet to their closet in order to effectively incorporate a whiteout element to their wardrobe. The Bengals, Broncos, Browns, Cowboys, Packers, Saints and Vikings all previously created similar alternate options to the one the NYJ debuted, unsuccessfully, Sunday.

8a. Dallas? Looked pretty good, literally and figuratively, in all white − evening its record at 1-1 in Sunday's blowout of Washington.