NFL Kickoff

A look into the upcoming season

Blake Haffer, writer

With the NFL season underway take a look at some surprising players, as well as some teams, players and gameday matchups to watch this season.

Week one of the season is in the books and there have already been quite a few surprise performances.  Rookie running back Kareem Hunt of the Kansas City Chiefs may just be the biggest so far totalling 247 yards by catching five passes and rushing 17 times.  

“Kareem is a great runner who hits the holes given to him with a great burst of speed,” sophomore Razshae Miller said.   

Reciever Kenny Golladay of the Detroit Lions also had a great debut, catching  4 passes for 69 yards and two touchdowns.  Chicago Bears running back Tarik Cohen also surprised as he racked up over 100 yards and scored one touchdown.  Fans will have to wait and see if these players can keep this production up throughout the rest of the season.

There are quite a few exciting teams that I would like to watch this season.  Missouri’s own Kansas City Chiefs are one of them, but a season ending injury to locker room leader Eric Berry will test the team early in the season.

“I am most excied to see if my team will succeed one game at a time,” Miller said, whose favorite team in the Chiefs.

 The Patriots will be another team  to keep an eye on.  Injuries to their receiving core have left Brandin Cooks as the number one option.  

The last team that might be a sleeper this season are the Los Angeles Rams.  The Rams have a very solid defense with and have added some great offensive weapons to help out second year quarterback Jared Goff.

“I liked the Rams when they played in St. Louis so I still like to see them succeed in LA.  This is exciting for them,” junior Dylan Curtis said.

One of the most intriguing matchups between teams already happened week one of the season.  The defending champion Patriots against a Chiefs team with the tools to take them down.  Week two has a matchup between the Patriots and the Saints as well as the Packers against the Falcons.  Both of these games are almost certain to be offensive shootouts.

“The Pats-Saints game is going to be fun to watch because there will be two of the best quarterbacks going at it,” sophomore Ian Enright said.