Another week in the NFL season is behind us, and a whole lot more learned. Are the Saints actually good? Are the Rams not? What in the hell are the Dallas Cowboys?

Let’s dive into some Week 2 risers and fallers.

Stock Up: NFC South

Raise your hand if you had the Saints being the NFL’s best offense through two weeks! Not a whole lot of hands going up, but through two weeks the Saints have put up 91 points good for an average of 45.5 points per game.

Week 1 they throttled Carolina, so we were in wait-and-see mode a bit, but in Week 2 they went into Dallas and dominated the Cowboys 44-19. They bullied Dallas on both sides of the ball. Alvin Kamara looks like a superstar again. Derek Carr is taking care of the football and has already thrown for 5 TDs. Rashid Shaheed and Chris Olave have been a dynamic duo. Oh, and their offensive line has been outstanding!

But it’s not just the Saints who look good in the AFC South. Tampa moved to 2-0 after a physical road win in Detroit avenging their playoff loss from last season, and the Falcons came from behind on Jason Kelce Night Football Monday Night Football to beat the Eagles on the road.

The Panthers are terrible, and they seem to be the outlier, but will the NFC South actually be a pretty good division this year? The Saints won’t be this good all year, but if their offensive line play is this good they’ll be in the playoff race. The Falcons have high hopes. Tampa hasn’t appeared to take a step back after last year’s playoff bid. What seemed to be one of the worst divisions in football might end up being pretty darn fun.

Stock Down: Dallas Cowboys

We’ll stick in the same realm here as the Saints’ stock rising is directly correlated to the Cowboys’ stock falling. I’m not really sure what that was from them. Their defense and their defensive line in specific is supposed to be a strength of their team, yet they got bullied by the Saints on Sunday and Alvin Kamara ran all over them.

Offensively, there was just zero ability to run the football. As a team, they ran for just 68 yards. Sure, they had to throw the ball more often when they fell from behind, but they averaged just 3.2 yards per carry. Zeke Elliott managed just 16 yards on 6 carries. On the plus side, CeeDee Lamb is still very good!

The Cowboys just kind of seem to be who they are every year. They’ll have some high highs, some head-scratching lows, and probably not be deep enough to make a deep playoff run if they get there.

Next week we get a Cowboys and Ravens matchup. With Dallas at 1-1 and Baltimore at 0-2, this game holds even more weight than previously expected.

Stock Up: Arizona Cardinals

Welcome to the NFL, Marvin Harrison Jr!

The Cardinals’ first pick in the 2024 NFL Draft had his coming out party with two touchdowns and 130 yards on four receptions. Kyler Murray looked healthy and was incredibly efficient going 17-21 for 266 yards and three touchdowns. James Connor ran for 122 yards on the ground and looked as good as he’s ever.

Defensively, they completely took away the run from the Rams holding Kyren Williams and Blake Corum to a combined 53 yards on 20 carries, good for just 2.7 yards per rush. They sacked Matthew Stafford five times.

Through two weeks the Cardinals have gone on the road to the Bills and lost by just six, then they came home and absolutely throttled the Rams, granted it was a Los Angeles team that had a few significant injuries to worry about.

Stock Down: Los Angeles Rams

It’s been a tough start for the Rams. They lost a hard-fought game on the road in Detroit on Sunday Night Football in Week 1, then they got throttled by the Cardinals – a team that Sean McVay has had a lot of success against. To make matters worse, their two star receivers in Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua will each miss significant time with injuries.

As I mentioned above, they really struggled to run the ball in Arizona on Sunday too which is a problem. Their season truly turned around last year once Kyren Williams began breaking out and the run game came along. It’s a long season, and there aren’t many coaches in the NFL better than Sean McVay, but all things considered, this has been a disastrous start for the Rams.

Can they turn things around? Absolutely. There’s still a lot of time left. But things don’t get a whole lot easier over the next three weeks with games against the 49ers at home, at the Bears, and then home again against the Packers. Plus, all of those games will likely be without Kupp and Nacua. Sean McVay is a great coach, but he’s got his work cut out for him.

Stock Up: Sam Darnold

I was debating whether or not to say the Vikings or Darnold. I went with Darnold. We knew coming into this year how good the Vikings’ skill players were. We knew how good of a play-caller Kevin O’Connell is. The question mark was what could Sam Darnold contribute. After two games, he certainly looks like a guy who can do more than just manage the game and that offense, he looks like a guy who can win you football games.

Darnold has the Vikings at 2-0. He’s thrown four touchdowns to two interceptions and has put up QB Ratings over 109 in both of the first two games. They have an interesting matchup with the Texans this weekend that should test them, but it’s also a game they get at home.

It’s a long season, but if this is the version of Darnold we’re going to see this season then the Vikings will be in the NFC North race until the end.

Bonus Stock Up: Gervon Dexter Sr. & Andrew Billings

I want to include a Bears item here every week, good or bad. While we covered and will continue to cover a lot of the bad from the Bears’ loss on Sunday night, there was a whole lot of good defensively to get to as well.

From the good, what’s stuck out to me most this season has been the dominance of the defensive line. Gervon Dexter Sr through two games is just a half-sack away from hitting last year’s total, and he’s been an absolute menace at the three-technique. Andrew Billings has been unblockable from the one-technique spot and continues to be one of the best values in the NFL.

So much of what Matt Eberflus likes to do defensively is dependent on only needing to rush four and getting dominant play from the interior defensive line. Thus far, Dexter and Billings have provided just that for Flus.