New York Giants v Washington Commanders
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In Week 1 of the NFL season, there's always a whole lot to pay attention to. Chief among the topics is often the new faces in new places. And this year, we have a lot of new faces in new places specifically at the quarterback position. 

Seven different teams have a new quarterback who had never played for their team before: the Colts, Jets, Steelers, Raiders, Seahawks, Titans and Giants. That'd be Daniel Jones, Justin Fields, Aaron Rodgers, Geno Smith, Sam Darnold, Cameron Ward and Russell Wilson, respectively. (The Browns and Saints have new quarterbacks as well, but Joe Flacco was in Cleveland a couple years ago, and Spencer Rattler was on the Saints and started some games last year.) J.J. McCarthy, who makes his NFL debut Monday night against the Bears, missed last season for the Vikings with a knee injury.

In the space below, we want to take a look at what those players did in their respective debuts, and grade their performances.

Daniel Jones, Colts

The Colts scored on every single one of Jones' drives in this game. According to the NFL RedZone broadcast on Sunday, there's never been a quarterback whose team scored on every single one of his drives in a game since at least 1991, which is the inception of play-by-play data in the NFL. 

He went 22 of 29 for 272 yards and a touchdown, this nice throw up the sideline to Michael Pittman Jr.

He did a strong job of managing the pocket and escaping pressure and didn't make any mistakes all afternoon. His ability to layer the ball to the second and third level of the field was impressive, and he finished with 11 completions of 10-plus yards (half of his 22 total) and four of 20 yards or more.

The Colts could hardly have asked for a better debut from the winner of their quarterback competition, who also rushed seven times for 26 yards and two scores. 

Grade: A

Justin Fields, Jets

Fields actually led the NFL in EPA per dropback on Sunday, according to TruMedia, and he looked efficient and explosive in the pass game while also using his legs to create both inside and outside the structure of the offense. His touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson on a deep crossing route to Garrett Wilson was a thing of beauty.

Fields went 16 of 22 for 218 yards and a score, and he also ran 12 times for 48 yards and two more trips to the end zone. Offensive coordinator Tanner Enstrad seemed to know exactly how to use him and put him in position to succeed.

The Jets -- the New York Jets!!! -- appeared to have a strong offensive plan, giving Fields several easy answers with short passes in the quick game, but Fields himself also did an excellent job of working through his progressions and finding receivers beyond his first option on occasion. (That has been a big weakness of his during his career, as he's often just held onto the ball for too long when trying to do that and taken sacks instead of finding his man.) 

Grade: A

Aaron Rodgers, Steelers 

Rodgers' debut looks incredible in the stat sheet: 22 of 30 for 244 yards and four touchdowns, with a comeback win over his former team. And there were definitely some nice throws in there, with quick decision-making and nice ball-handling and footwork in the play-action game, as per his usual.

The Steelers made things quite easy for him throughout the afternoon. (This is a good thing from a coaching standpoint, as mentioned in the Fields section, but it also sheds some light on how Rodgers didn't have to do quite as much as some other quarterbacks on Sunday.)

Only 38.2% of his dropbacks were non-screens without play action, the lowest rate in the NFL heading into Monday night. He had an average depth of throw of just 4.9 yards, which ranks 29th, ahead of only Jared Goff. He threw an average of 4.7 yards short of the sticks, which ranks dead last. He also took a sack on 11.8% of his dropbacks (nearly twice the league average) despite being pressured at only a 26.5% rate, via TruMedia. So all of that tends to balance out the strong surface numbers.

 In other words, this was a good debut, but not necessarily the great one it looks like on the surface.

Grade: B+

Geno Smith, Raiders

Smith led the NFL in catchable-throw rate, with only one off-target throw out of his 34 pass attempts, according to TruMedia. He was dropping dimes all over the field, starting with a laser to Brock Bowers just ahead of the outstretched arm of a defender on the first snap of the game.

He ended the afternoon 24 of 34 for 362 yards, a touchdown and an interception. The pick was an ill-advised throw into double coverage that he probably just shouldn't have made. It got tipped up in the air and then picked off. The touchdown was a nice toss over the top of the defense to Tre Tucker.

Were it not for the pick, we probably would have given Smith a higher grade here. But you've got to grade the entire performance and not just the good stuff, so we're dinging him very slightly for that throw here.

Grade: B+

Sam Darnold, Seahawks

Darnold did not have a strong debut in Seattle. He finished 28th in EPA per play among the 30 quarterbacks who have played so far, as well as 26th in success rate and 30th in third-down conversion percentage. The concerns about Seattle's offensive line came to fruition, with Darnold getting pressured on 41.7% of his dropbacks, via TruMedia.

He actually did a pretty good job of getting the ball out quickly when under pressure (7 of 9 for 52 yards), and he was able to create outside of structure a time or two as well.

When afforded clean pockets, though, Darnold was surprisingly unable to find any openings. And this was against a defense changing over almost all of its personnel. 

Grade: C

Cameron Ward, Titans

Ward's debut in Denver was probably a bit better than it looks on the surface. It was all about missed opportunities, right from the start of the game. He had a 10.7% drop rate on his throws, more than double the league average on Sunday, and you could easily have credit the Titans with more drops than that. 

Here's a compilation of really nice throws that could or arguably should have been completions. (And the one to Elic Ayomanor up the right sideline actually was a completion. His elbow hit the ground before he fell out of bounds, but the Titans failed to challenge the play.) Keep in mind that this is against arguably the best defense in the NFL.

Some of these throws hit the receiver in only one hand rather than two, but a lot of them are just plays that need to be made. And if they were made, then Ward's stat line would obviously look a hell of a lot better. In particular, the Calvin Ridley drop in the second-to-last clip would have set the Titans up for a potential game-tying score just outside the 20-yard line. 

Still, Ward officially went 12 of 28 for just 112 yards. He took a few really, really bad sacks in this one, including two in a row when the Titans had the ball at Denver's 25-yard line after a turnover, and it knocked them out of field-goal range on that possession. He also had a pretty bad intentional grounding penalty late in the game. 

Grade: C

Russell Wilson, Giants

Here's how bad it was for Wilson in his Giants debut: Brian Daboll wouldn't immediately commit to him as the Week 2 starter after the game. He did eventually do that on Monday, but the fact that the seat is already warming up and people are calling for Jaxson Dart after just one week gives you an idea of how things looked on Sunday against the Commanders.

Wilson completed just 45.9% of his passes and was off-target 10.8% of the them, via TruMedia, and he checked in 27th in EPA per dropback and 29th in success rate out of the aforementioned 30 quarterbacks who have played so far. He rarely pushed the ball downfield (6.1-yard average depth of throw) and threw well short of the sticks (2.2 yards). He also wasn't really getting the ball out quickly to make up for it, holding it for an average of 2.76 seconds before firing. 

In other words, he looked a lot like the quarterback he has been for the last few seasons. If the Giants didn't have such a brutal schedule to start the year, it might not be long before we see Dart under center.

Grade: D