Five juicy Week 1 NFL match-ups to look forward to

It’s under three months now until the return of NFL Football. 

As most fans attention turns towards upcoming training camps, pre-season games and fantasy drafts, I’ve taken a look a bit further ahead to Week 1 of the regular season and come up with five games I am really looking forward to when the season kicks off on Thursday the 10th of September (American time).

1. Pittsburgh @ New England – the Thursday night season opener has to be on this list. Both teams will be depleted through suspension. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will be missing as part of his four game suspension for his part in the deflated football controversy, while both team’s starting running backs, Pittsburgh’s Le’Veon Bell and New England’s Lagarrette Blount will be missing from a suspension handed to each of them when Blount was also playing in Pittsburgh for drug possession.

Despite this, many talented players from two popular and successful teams will be on show. I give the Steelers the edge despite the game being in New England due to the weapons they will still have available, Ben Roethlisberger to Anotonio Brown is a lethal combination, while DeAngelo Williams will provide capable cover for Bell.

2. Indianapolis @ Buffalo – one of the league’s best offence goes head to head with one of the league’s best defences in this one. The Colts have surrounded quarterback Andrew Luck with a new running back in Frank Gore and new receivers in Andre Johnson and highly touted rookie Phillip Dorsett.

Buffalo’s defence gave up the fourth fewest points and yards last season, numbers which are sure to be improved this year under new head coach Rex Ryan. Add to that an offence that has added some pieces in the off-season and you have a team that could challenge the Patriots for the AFC East crown.

3. Titans @ Buccaneers – you might ask why would you look forward to a game featuring the worst two teams of last season is a juicy match up. The one thing that makes this game infinitely interesting is the match-up between the first two picks of the draft, quarterbacks Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota.

This is all predicated on both of them being the starters for their respective teams. If only one of them is, the game becomes a bit less exciting. If neither of them are playing, this game is almost unwatchable.

4. Lions @ Chargers – a sneaky pick here of two teams that have really good offences and could be chances to win their divisions or take a wildcard playoff spot if things fall their way. Detroit will be hoping for a return to form from Calvin Johnson and that their defence can stand up folowing the loss of Ndamukong Shu to Miami via free agence.

The Chargers, potentially in their last season in San Diego, will be excited to see how rookie running back Melvin Gordon goes and have a wave of solid receivers that quarterback Phillip Rivers can look for. Rivers is one of the top ten quarterbacks in the NFL, which will have any team going into a season with optimism.

5. Eagles @ Falcons – as an Eagles fan, I’m clearly looking forward to this one. To see how Sam Bradford goes at quarterback, if fit, and how Chip Kelly uses all his pieces on offence will be intriguing, as will the performance of the secondary coming up against a team that has a good quarterback (Matt Ryan) with some outstanding receivers in Julio Jones and Roddy White. Teams with this kind of class on offence torched the Eagles too many times a year ago.

For the Falcons, under new head coach Dan Quinn, all eyes will be on how much they can improve in order to challenge for the NFC South division, particularly on defence.

It will be here before we know it.