Overreaction Tuesday — NFL Preseason Week 1

Yes, it’s only preseason and coaches understandably want to keep their players under wraps ahead of the regular season. But come on, people, if you’re not overreacting to Week 1, then you’re simply not paying enough attention.

Any neurotic football fan will tell you that it’s never too early to panic; here are five things to get you chewing your nails.

The Packers Offensive Line

Left guard Aaron Banks and right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele didn’t play against the Steelers, and they can’t get back fast enough!

Banks ranked 64th among 81 guards in 2025, according to PFF, so he may not start every game this year after the team drafted Jager Burton in the fifth round.

The Pack allowed five sacks and gained 2.63 yards per rushing attempt! Admittedly, the Steelers looked alarmingly good for preseason, but those are still concerning numbers.

Just know they need help, and they need it quick.

The Lions Quarterback Depth

You could see why Luke Altmeyer went undrafted. He doesn’t so much fail the eye test as refuse to take the test in the first place.

In fairness to Altmeyer, working with Drew Petzing is even an uphill battle for experienced QB’s. Josh Dobbs looked more than capable when he came into the game. But when you have two quarterbacks who are both 31, it’s time to shuffle uncomfortably in your chair, Lions fans.

The Panthers in General

The Bills might be one of the best teams in the NFL, but that was a very clunky showing from Dave Canales’ team.

On the plus side, the only way is up (and they won’t play the Bills every week), but 18 first downs and just 201 total yards (when the Bills had 396) is very suboptimal.

Every Bengal Not Named Burrow or Chase

Or Perine, really.

The Bengals seem to be stuck in some sort of time loop where they have an elite quarterback, one of the best receivers in the world and a roster filled out with guys who are ok, but not great.

Samaje Perine could be great; he’s definitely great in pass protection. But for some reason the Bengals only think pass protection is important on third downs.

There’s always a chance of greatness in Cinci while Burrow and Chase are in tandem, but even those two will struggle until the team decides they need an elite run game.

The Chargers. All of them

Rarely can you watch a team win by 20 points and decide that they are terrible. But welcome to 2026.

Maybe it was just watching Trey Lance trying to run a Mike McDaniel offense with a bunch of rookies, second-year players and KeAndre Lambert-Smith that didn’t pass the eye test. But when 38% of the passes don’t find a receiver, it’s all very clunky.

Justin Herbert is infinitely better than Lance; it’s pretty weird that the Chargers didn’t want their QB1 trying out their new offense against a top defense, if only for 10 snaps.

McConkey, Harris, Hampton, Njoku and Herbert will improve the offense immeasurably, but they need to get on the field ASAP.