The Best Week 1 Matchups to Watch

The full Sunday slate for Week 1 is finally here, and Roger Goodell and his cadre of schedule makers delivered a gem. Eagles-Cowboys and Chiefs-Chargers wet our appetite, but the truth is Week 1’s best matchups will happen on Sunday. Here’s what to watch for as you settle in for your first of 18 Sunday’s nestled in front of your big screen for the NFL season.

San Francisco at Seattle:

The NFC West is always one of the most intriguing divisions in football, and this season is no different. The 49ers are coming off of a down year, but (despite a mid-week scare), Christian McCaffrey is back and hopefully healthy, Brock Purdy got paid, they brought back Robert Saleh to lead the defense, and Kyle Shanahan is still one of the best offensive minds in football. Mike MacDonald is in his second year with the Seahawks, and most expect their defense to take a massive leap forward. MacDonald is one of the league’s premier defensive minds but his scheme is complex. It took some time for Seattle to adjust in his first season, but they were quietly a top 5 defense in terms of DVOA for the second half of the season. This year? We at Field Vision project them to be a top 5 defense all year long. The Seahawks also have a new QB (Sam Darnold) and new wide receiver (Cooper Kupp). This matchup is strength on strength, and in a divisional game early in the season, we’ll take the home team when they are getting points.

Our pick: Seahawks +2.5

Detroit at Green Bay

Talk about a Week 1 divisional matchup that carries weight. This is last year’s 15-2 Super Bowl darling vs. this years most popular pick. Everyone likes the Packers this year – and that was before they traded for the best defensive end on the planet. Detroit? Well, the prevailing thought is that this team is likely to take a step back for multiple reasons. They lost both of their coordinators to head coaching jobs, and several members of what was the best offensive line in football. They still have Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Sam LaPorta and Jamyr Gibbs, though, and Dan Campbell has beat up on Matt Lafluer since he joined the division, with a 7-2 record overall, including plenty of wins in Green Bay. Green Bay is favored by 2.5 points. And while we’re not crazy enough to take a position on the spread – the one thing we at Field Vision are pretty sure of is that there will be A LOT of points. Our model has both teams going well over their total – we expect this to be a shootout, including Detroit looking to exploit Micah Parsons run defense early on in his NFC North Tenure.

Our Pick: OVER 47.5 pts

Ravens at Bills

The Week 1 Sunday slate ends with a matchup of what most people view as two of the best 4 teams in the NFL – the Ravens vs. the Bills. The 2025 season picks up where the Ravens left off in 2024, in Buffalo against a team that it out-gained 416 yards to 273, but managed to lose with multiple critical turnovers and a dropped pass on a two-point conversation to tie the game by Mark Andrews. These are two of the most physical teams in the NFL, but if there is one glaring weakness on either of these teams it is the Buffalo secondary. Both Christian Benford and Tre’Davious White will be out for this game. We fully expect Lamar Jackson and Co. to take advantage. But we also know Josh Allen is super human, and will undoubtedly move the ball and keep his team in this game. Buffalo has been a top 5 offense by DVOA every year since 2019, Allen’s second year. Simply put, if Josh Allen is playing quarterback, the Buffalo offense is elite. The Ravens have the revenge factor, the Bills are playing at home, where they’ve lost two times in the last 50 games. We see this similar to Green Bay-Detroit – points, points, points. These are essentially the co-MVPs from 2024, and they’ll kick off 2025 with a bang.

Our pick: OVER 50.5 pts

We hope you settle, and enjoy what is sure to be amazing Week 1 slate. We look forward to the conversation, debate, and your feedback. Hit us up at @fieldvisionmi on X, @fieldvisionsports on Instagram, or on our website www.fieldvisionsports.com.