The Rich Top 5: The Biggest NFL Offseason Narratives That Were Proven VERY Wrong in Week 1

Months of talking about a sport produces narratives, and one weekend of actual football obliterates them. Rich counted down the five offseason storylines that did not survive Week 1, presented by Hyundai, and then threw in a sixth because it was too good to leave out.

5. The Jaguars and Bears are the league's top regression candidates.

This one produced a 24 hour exchange between Jacksonville and Chicago before a snap was played. Liam Coen noticed he was seeing 40 pictures of Caleb Williams on NFL Network's website and figured nobody was talking about his team. Then Ben Johnson got labeled the top regression candidate and wondered what that was about, and Coen's response was essentially welcome to our world.

Both answered. Trevor Lawrence threw a touchdown that is getting run today because of the angle from behind the play, which shows four Browns in the area and a ball threaded through all of them. The Bears simply scored until it stopped being funny. The shutouts Johnson wants are not showing up. The blowouts are.

There was also a photo of Williams that matched up with an iconic Dwyane Wade and LeBron James image, which makes two straight years he has recreated an NBA moment after the Jumpman throw last season. Call it aura.

4. The Bengals defense will never come to Joe Burrow's rescue.

Looking at you, pal. Cincinnati won because the defense forced fumbles on three straight Tampa Bay drives, which is not a sentence anyone wrote in August.

Rich did add the asterisk himself. Offenses were on tilt across the board in the highest scoring Week 1 in 60 years, and defenses normally start faster than offenses, so the sample is strange. The narrative could come back. For one week, it is gone.

3. Mike McDaniel will unlock Justin Herbert.

Rich reached for Judge Smails of Bushwood Country Club to sum it up.

"Well, we're waiting."

There is no gentle version. The Chargers could not protect it, could not run it, could not hold onto it and could not pass it. It was billed as a timing offense, and the timing was off. Brutal, in the desk's assessment, and repeated for emphasis.

It is also one game, which Rich said twice, because there is a lot of football left.

2. The Cowboys defense is fixed and can complement the greatest offense there is.

Rich knows exactly how this one lands, because the show is getting shredded in the comments for believing in Dallas. Everyone at the desk was in on it.

His one piece of retroactive counsel had nothing to do with the defense. Dak Prescott spent the offseason branding the offense GOTI, and Rich would have advised against naming your offense before playing a game.

1. The Rams are the league's best team by a wide margin.

A layup, as Rich put it, and he was genuinely surprised to find Los Angeles still sitting as the Super Bowl favorite in Vegas.

His explanation is that people are hanging their hat on the travel plan, which was an absolute disaster, and he counts himself among them. The counterargument is real too. Last year this team nearly reached the Super Bowl without Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald, though it did have Jared Verse, who was a big player.

None of that changes what the tape showed. The Rams struggled, and they were not close to the best team of Week 1.

Bonus. The Chiefs, and Travis Kelce in particular, are washed.

This one was for Chris, who heard it all offseason. Kelce looking fat and happy. Who do the Chiefs even have on defense? Who is going to catch it? Are they really going to run it?

Rich did concede one point, that a defensive breakdown and some poor tackling helped make the highlight look better than it was. He is not conceding the premise.

The narrative got obliterated into a million pieces in front of a Monday Night Football audience, on not one but two networks.

Two.