Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season featured very different results for the Philadelphia Eagles and their Super Bowl LIX opponents, the Kansas City Chiefs.
For the Eagles, it was a dominant effort performed under very unusual circumstances, with Jalen Carter spitting on Dak Prescott starting Thursday Night Football up on a strange note, and an hour-plus lightning delay robbing both teams of their momentum before Vic Fangio's defense shut Brian Shottenheimer down in commanding fashion.
And the Chiefs? Well, they opened the season up in Brazil just like the Eagles the year prior, only they didn't exit the contest with a win, instead being bested by their division rival Los Angeles Chargers to open the season 0-1.
To make matters worse, the Chiefs lost arguably their best receiver, Xavier Worthy, in the game after the speedster collided with Travis Kelce in the first quarter, leaving the team severely undermanned at the position thanks to Rashee Rice's suspension for violating the league's personal conduct policy.
On paper, this game is more or less a coin flip, with the Chiefs actually being favored 51.4 percent to 48.2 percent according to ESPN Analytics, but will it be such a close contest? Or will the Eagles, with regular season momentum, Super Bowl momentum, and a slew of new pieces looking to make their 2025 debuts, give former head coach Andy Reid fits on his home turf? Needless to say, this has the potential to be an early favorite for game of the year, especially if Nick Sirianni's squad can continue to call the Chiefs' number.
Jalen Carter makes his presence known for the Eagles
After having to watch the Eagles' first win of the season from the locker room, instead of the sidelines, Jalen Carter is going to come out with a chip on his shoulder against the Chiefs.
Now granted, the Chiefs know how it feels to face off against Carter all too well, as he helped to collapse the offensive line snap after snap after snap in the Super Bowl as the Eagles' offense ran up the score, but in 2025, he has yet to see the field, with every single defensive snap in Week 1 recorded without the Pro Bowl pass rusher.
Sure, offensive coordinator Matt Nagy will certainly show his players tape from Week 1, in addition to some of Carter's highlights from 2023 and 2024, but ultimately, he has no idea what Fangio had up his sleeve for the third-year rusher in Week 1 and how he plans to deploy the “Baby Rhino” now that the Eagles have a very different collection of players around him.
In Week 1, the Cowboys basically played Moro Ojomo like he was Carter, doubling him often to slow down the Eagles' second-best interior pass rusher. Fangio countered after the lightning delay by largely rushing five when he wanted to pressure Prescott, a look he likely won't deploy as often against an offense he famously stifled in the Super Bowl without ever rushing more than four.
With Carter back, the NFL will get to see how Fangio decides to use his defensive cornerstone with new rushers like Josh Uche, but also with a pair of do-it-all linebackers who are just as effective at dropping back in coverage as they are rushing the passer, which is good news for fans in Philadelphia but bad news for Patrick Mahomes and company in KC.
The Eagles' new additions give the Chiefs fits
While Carter will technically be making his debut in Week 2 after being ejected before logging an official snap against the Cowboys, he won't be the only member of the Eagles looking to get their first taste of action in a midnight green uniform, with Za'Darius Smith and Tank Bigsby both joining the team in the aftermath of Thursday Night Football.
For Za'Darius Smith, the transition from the couch to the gridiron should be fairly seamless, as he's appeared in 107 games and counting at the NFL level and was an immediate impact player in 2024 when he was traded from the Cleveland Browns to the Detroit Lions midseason.
Like Brandon Graham last season, Smith is a veteran rusher with inside-out versatility who can use his power to attack tackles, guards, and even centers. Though he likely won't play too many snaps in Week 2, if Smith can attack the left side of the Chiefs' line where rookie left tackle Josh Simmons and 2024 second-round pick Kingsley Suamataia are just getting their sea legs together, who knows? Maybe this could be the beautiful start of a fall-spring marriage.
And as for Bigsby? Well, while he, too, likely won't be splitting snaps with Saquon Barkley 50-50, he will be standing in the endzone wearing a No. 37 jersey when the Chiefs kick the ball off to the Birds, with Howie Roseman hoping he's found a weapon in the return game the likes of which Philadelphia hasn't employed since Darren Sproles was on the field instead of in the front office.
If Bigsby and Smith can use their lack of tape in a midnight green uniform to catch the Chiefs by surprise, both could make a major impact for the Eagles in Week 2.
Patrick Mahomes outguns Jalen Hurts in a Chiefs loss
In the Super Bowl, Patrick Mahomes had more yards than Jalen Hurts but ultimately came up short on the scoreboard.
In Week 2, Patrick Mahomes records more yards than Jalen Hurts, but ultimately came up short on the scoreboard… again.
When it comes to evaluating the Eagles' offense and how well Jalen Hurts operates in it, individually counting stats don't often tell the full picture. On an almost weekly basis, Hurts finds himself with fewer passing yards than his opponent, and yet, because of his unique ability to take what an opposing offense gives him, when coupled with an incredible run game he participates in, that rarely seems to matter when the final score is tallied.
In 2025, Mahomes already has 106 more passing yards than Hurts and only trails him by five rushing yards. And yet, Hurts has a 1-0 record while Mahomes hasn't played in a win that counted since January, when he and the Chiefs beat the Bills 32-29 in the AFC Championship game. While every NFL game is different and everything could click perfectly for the Chiefs in Week 2, this feels like another big win for the Eagles and a major topic of conversation on every sports talk show for the subsequent seven days.
