We are still incredibly early in the NFL season. I mean, we aren’t even officially done with Week 2 yet. But even this early, there are already a handful of players who have caught my attention.
Some of these are players we weren’t particularly high on entering the season. Others are guys who had been written off after disappointing stretches of their careers. And some simply look like they’re ready to take a major step forward.
Two weeks doesn’t tell us what the rest of the season will look like, but it can give us a reason to start paying attention. Here are five players who have impressed me so far and who I think are worth keeping an eye on for the rest of the 2026 NFL season.
Bryce Young
Let’s start with someone whose career could have gone in a completely different direction.
Bryce Young entered the NFL as the first overall pick in 2023, and almost nothing went according to plan early. The Panthers struggled, the coaching staff changed, and eventually Young was benched during the 2024 season. That can destroy a young quarterback’s confidence. Instead, Young kept fighting.
He eventually earned the job back, continued improving and last season helped Carolina win the NFC South and return to the playoffs for the first time since 2017. Now he appears to have taken another step.
Young opened this season against Chicago by throwing for 361 yards and three touchdowns, while also adding a rushing touchdown. Carolina’s defense couldn’t stop anything in the 59–37 loss, but Young certainly wasn’t the reason the Panthers lost. Then came Week 2 against Atlanta, where Young completed 23 of 36 passes for 287 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions as Carolina dominated the Falcons 34–3.
That gives Young 648 passing yards, six passing touchdowns and just one interception through two games.
There’s another storyline worth watching here: his contract. Carolina exercised Young’s fifth-year option, so he’s under contract through 2027, but that doesn’t stop the Panthers from offering him an extension earlier. He’s already eligible for a long-term deal, and this season could go a long way toward determining whether Carolina is ready to make that commitment.
What impresses me most, though, is his resilience. Young has struggled, been criticized, been benched and had plenty of people questioning whether Carolina made a massive mistake drafting him first overall. None of it seems to have rattled his confidence. He fought his way back, took Carolina to the playoffs and now looks better than ever to begin 2026.
Tyler Shough
Tyler Shough might be the player who has surprised me the most, and his emergence could mean much more to New Orleans than just two impressive games.
The Saints have been searching for a long-term answer at quarterback ever since Drew Brees retired after the 2020 season. Jameis Winston, Trevor Siemian, Taysom Hill, Andy Dalton, Derek Carr, Spencer Rattler and others all got opportunities, but New Orleans never truly found its next franchise quarterback.
Shough might finally be changing that.
Against Detroit in Week 1, Shough threw the ball 56 times, completing 35 passes for 410 yards and three touchdowns. He did throw two interceptions, but he helped New Orleans put up 30 points and nearly pulled off a huge comeback on the road.
Then came Baltimore.
The Saints fell behind 14–3, but Shough never looked rattled. He finished 27 of 34 for 252 yards and a touchdown, and in the fourth quarter he helped completely flip the game. Shough found Chris Olave for a 21-yard touchdown before New Orleans converted the two-point attempt to tie the game at 17. Then, with 1:28 remaining, Shough punched in the go-ahead touchdown himself on fourth-and-goal.
Saints 24, Ravens 17.
That’s not just putting up numbers. That’s leading a comeback on the road against Baltimore and delivering when the game matters most.
Through two games, Shough has thrown for 662 yards and four touchdowns, the most passing yards by a Saints quarterback through two games since Brees had 669 in 2009. But Shough’s impact goes beyond his own statistics.
Look at what has happened with Chris Olave.
Earlier in Olave’s career, it felt like we spent way too much time worrying about the hits he was taking. He battled multiple concussions and was regularly put in difficult situations by quarterback play that wasn’t doing him any favors. Too many passes seemed to leave him exposed to unnecessary punishment.
Shough has helped change the entire feel of that connection. Their chemistry started developing last season, when Olave finished with 100 receptions, 1,163 yards and nine touchdowns and eventually earned a contract extension from New Orleans. Now that connection has carried directly into 2026.
Olave opened this season with 10 catches for 182 yards against Detroit and followed it with eight catches for 86 yards and a touchdown against Baltimore. When Shough needed a play during Sunday’s comeback, it was Olave he trusted for the game-tying touchdown.
Olave always had the talent. Now he appears to have a quarterback who trusts him, has legitimate chemistry with him and consistently gives him opportunities to make plays.
After years of searching for an answer following Drew Brees’ retirement, the Saints might finally have something at quarterback again.
Jalen Coker
Jalen Coker has quietly put together an excellent start to the season. Coker exploded against Chicago in Week 1 with eight receptions for 138 yards and two touchdowns. That immediately got people’s attention, but the question after a performance like that is always whether it was just one huge game.
So what did he do in Week 2? He caught another eight passes for 66 yards. No touchdowns this time, but the production remained. Through two games, Coker has 16 receptions for 204 yards and two touchdowns.
But I’m not only interested in Coker individually. I’m interested in what Carolina might have found with the combination of Tetairoa McMillan and Jalen Coker.
McMillan is the highly drafted young receiver who defenses already have to account for. Coker is the other side of the equation. He entered the league undrafted out of Holy Cross and has continued developing into a legitimate NFL receiver. When defenses shift attention toward McMillan, Coker has shown that he can punish them.
For a young team still trying to build something in Carolina, the McMillan-Coker combination could prove to be a diamond in the rough. Add in the way Bryce Young has started this season, and suddenly the Panthers might have the beginnings of a young passing attack that can grow together for years.
Chase Young
The numbers don’t completely tell the story with Chase Young.
Against Detroit in Week 1, Young appeared to make one of the biggest defensive plays of the game when he got to Jared Goff, knocked the football loose and watched the Saints return it for a touchdown. Replay eventually overturned the play, ruling Goff’s arm was moving forward, so officially Young finished Week 1 without a sack or forced fumble.
But I watched the play. Young beat the protection and got to the quarterback. The stat sheet doesn’t change what I saw.
Then against Baltimore, he made sure his impact showed up in the official numbers too. Young recorded 1.5 sacks as New Orleans held Baltimore to 17 points and picked up its first win of the season.
This is particularly interesting because of the expectations Chase Young once carried. He was the second overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and won Defensive Rookie of the Year. At that point, it looked like he was going to become one of the league’s premier defensive players. Injuries and inconsistency changed that conversation.
Young quietly bounced back with 10 sacks in 2025, and through the opening two weeks of this season, he looks disruptive again. Maybe we’re finally watching Chase Young settle into the player people thought he could become years ago.
Kirk Cousins
And finally, we have Kirk Cousins. This might be my favorite storyline of the five because of what everyone expected the Raiders’ season to look like.
Las Vegas owned the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft and used it on quarterback Fernando Mendoza. Once that happened, we knew where the future of the franchise was headed. The question surrounding Cousins wasn’t whether Mendoza would eventually become the quarterback. It was how long Cousins could hold him off.
How many games would the Raiders lose before everyone started calling for Mendoza?
Two weeks into the season, Cousins has completely changed that narrative.
The Raiders are 2–0. Cousins opened his Raiders career against Miami by completing 21 of 30 passes for 160 yards and three touchdowns. It wasn’t some massive yardage performance, and he did throw two interceptions, but Las Vegas won 27–13.
Then came Week 2 against the Chargers. Cousins threw for 253 yards and three more touchdowns as Las Vegas won 26–14. That gives him six touchdown passes through two games, and instead of everyone wondering when Mendoza will take over, we’re suddenly talking about a Raiders team that hasn’t lost a game.
Mendoza is still the future. You don’t use the first overall pick on a quarterback for him not to eventually become your guy. But Cousins has made something very clear through two weeks: there is absolutely no reason to rush it.
If Cousins keeps winning games and playing like this, Mendoza can sit, learn and develop while the Raiders see just how far their veteran quarterback can take them. That’s a very different conversation than the one many of us expected to be having two weeks into the season.
It’s Only Two Weeks
That’s the important part of all of this: it’s only two weeks.
I’m not saying Bryce Young has officially become an elite franchise quarterback. I’m not saying Tyler Shough is suddenly a star. I’m not saying Jalen Coker is an elite receiver, Chase Young is about to become Defensive Player of the Year, or Kirk Cousins has discovered the fountain of youth.
I’m saying they’ve impressed me.
The NFL season is long, and plenty will change between now and January. Some early-season surprises disappear. Others turn into legitimate breakout seasons. That’s what makes the beginning of a season so interesting.
These five have my attention. Now let’s see what they do with it.
Who has impressed you the most through the opening two weeks of the NFL season?
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