BBNFL Week 1: Josh Allen records a sack hat trick
Both Josh Allen and Josh Allen had three sacks in their stat column in the first game of the 2023 NFL season. However, it was Big Blue Nation’s Josh Allen, the defensive beast for the Jacksonville Jaguars, who was happy with that performance.
The former Kentucky edge rusher burst into the 2023 NFL season with authority on Sunday. Allen gave the rookie quarterback out of Florida, Anthony Richardson, a rude professional football welcome, sacking the former Gator three times (a career-high) in the Jags’ 31-21 victory over Indianapolis.
This serves the Colts right for selecting Richardson over Levis with the fourth pick in the 2023 draft. Josh Allen extracted his own karma out of the situation.
In total, Allen had six tackles and an additional QB hit, making the executives in Jacksonville feel good about picking up his 5th-year option worth $10.9 million. For what it’s worth, ESPN credits him with 10 tackles and two QB hits, but NFL.com and PFF only gave him six. A great game, nonetheless.
The former ‘Cat is in the final year of his contract and started it off with a nice little bump to his free agency value. After one week, he leads the league in sacks.
‘Cats on Defense
Despite Allen’s great game, it was actually Za’Darius Smith who graded out best among former Kentucky players in Week 1 with a score of 90.5. Now with the Cleveland Browns after spending last season with the Minnesota Vikings, Smith was a terror in the Cincinnati backfield all game. He was one of the primary reasons Joe Burrow never got anything going on offense as the Browns destroyed the Bengals 24-3.
On Thursday night, Josh Paschal got the NFL season started off right for both Lions and BBN fans, coming up with a huge tackle for loss in Detroit’s upset win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Paschal only played 17 snaps, but was in during a crucial 3rd-and-1 in the 4th quarter and came up with a major stop for Detroit, getting into the backfield and disrupting a gimmicky end-around play.
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For Green Bay, Carrington Valentine had a solid rookie debut in the Packers’ opening-week win over the Chicago Bears. The former Kentucky defensive back had two tackles on the day but finished with an above-average PFF grade of 68.8.
‘Cats on Offense
In other BBNFL rookie debuts, Chris Rodriguez Jr. received three carries in his first game with the Washington Commanders and rushed for seven yards. In true C-Rod fashion though, six of those yards came after contact.
Brian Robinson Jr. led the Commanders in carries with 19 but Rodriguez finished with the same number of rushes as his backup, Antonio Gibson, who lost a fumble. C-Rod might be inching up the depth chart already.
On Monday Night Football, Randall Cobb was quiet in his New York Jets debut, disheartened after his buddy Aaron Rodgers went down with a torn Achilles just a few plays into the game. BBNFL aside, I don’t have a strong opinion on Aaron Rodgers like most of the Internet seems to, but I was really looking forward to his fresh start in New York. Now, he could be nearing retirement with his season already over.
BBNFL snap counts, PFF player grades for Week 1
Of note, PFF grades in this chart reflect the overall offense or defensive grades based on their position unless snaps are marked as special teams. In that case, they did not play offense or defense and the grade shown is their special teams grade.
| Player | Pos | Stats | PFF Grade |
| Za’Darius Smith (CLE) | DE | 37 snaps, 1 tackle, 1 stop, 4 QB hits, 2 hurries | 90.5 |
| Josh Allen (JAX) | LB | 57 snaps, 6 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 QB hit, 6 stops | 89.2 |
| Lonnie Johnson Jr. (NO) | CB | 24 special teams snaps, 1 tackle, 1 penalty | 81.3 |
| Jamin Davis (WAS) | LB | 40 snaps, 5 tackles, 4 stops | 75 |
| Josh Paschal (DET) | DE | 17 snaps, 3 tackles, 1 stop | 73.5 |
| Carrington Valentine (GB) | CB | 20 snaps, 2 tackles, 1 stop | 68.8 |
| Kelvin Joseph (MIA) | CB | 24 special teams snaps | 65.9 |
| Landon Young (NO) | OT | 4 special teams snaps | 61 |
| Chris Rodriguez Jr. (WAS) | RB | 3 snaps, 3 rushes, 7 yards | 58.6 |
| Randall Cobb (NYJ) | WR | 22 snaps, 1 target | 52.6 |
| Bud Dupree (ATL) | LB | 50 snaps, 1 tackle, 4 hurries, 1 stop | 51.2 |
| Luke Fortner (JAX) | C | 70 snaps | 48 |
| Mike Edwards (KC) | S | 16 snaps, 1 tackle | 41.5 |
| Josh Ali (ATL) | WR | Inactive | |
| Wan’Dale Robinson (NYG) | WR | Inactive | |
| Will Levis (TEN) | QB | Inactive |
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