That’s a weird Week 1. Offenses seem to be running ahead of defenses, and some odd names putting up unexpected numbers.
Only four kickers, for example, didn’t kick a field goal, and Brandon Aubrey and Cameron Dicker were two of them. Toss in Harrison Mevis (who was a top-5 kicker in the second half of last year), and you have the bottom 3 kickers so far from Week 1.
And there was weirdness with the pass catchers. I see 10 who’ve caught at least 8 passes, and two were guys who weren’t on anyone’s bingo card – Kalif Raymond and Kendrick Bourne.
Raymond is a 32-year-old who’s played for six different teams. He went undrafted back in 2016, coming out of Holy Cross. He’s stuck in the league at times because of his value on special teams. But he led the Bears yesterday with 8 catches for 84 yards.
Bourne is similarly obscure – a 31-year-old who went undrafted back in 2017. He was with the 49ers, then spent four seasons with the Patriots before returning to San Francisco last year. He debuted with Arizona with 8 catches for 75 yards, catching more passes than Michael Wilson and Marvin Harrison combined.
In the past 10 years, I see 19 wide receivers who were at least 29 years old who caught 8-plus passes in Week 1. I think these two are by far the most obscure of all of those guys. I don’t, in fact, see any others who would even be in the conversation. I see only two others who were undrafted (Adam Thielen, Cole Beasley) and both were much more established when they did it.
| OLDER RECEIVERS WITH 8-PLUS CATCHES IN OPENERS | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Age | Opp | Result | Tgt | No | Yards | Avg | TD |
| 2024 | Cooper Kupp, LAR | 31 | at Det. | L, 20-26 | 21 | 14 | 110 | 7.9 | 1 |
| 2022 | Cooper Kupp, LAR | 29 | Buff. | L, 10-31 | 15 | 13 | 128 | 9.8 | 1 |
| 2023 | Tyreek Hill, Mia. | 29 | at LAC | W, 36-34 | 15 | 11 | 215 | 19.5 | 2 |
| 2017 | Antonio Brown, Pitt. | 29 | at Cle. | W, 21-18 | 11 | 11 | 182 | 16.5 | 0 |
| 2018 | Julio Jones, Atl. | 29 | at Phi. | L, 12-18 | 19 | 10 | 169 | 16.9 | 0 |
| 2022 | Davante Adams, L.V. | 29 | at LAC | L, 19-24 | 17 | 10 | 141 | 14.1 | 1 |
| 2018 | Emmanuel Sanders, Den. | 31 | Sea. | W, 27-24 | 11 | 10 | 135 | 13.5 | 1 |
| 2017 | Golden Tate, Det. | 29 | Ari. | W, 35-23 | 12 | 10 | 107 | 10.7 | 0 |
| 2023 | Stefon Diggs, Buff. | 29 | at NYJ | L, 16-22 | 13 | 10 | 102 | 10.2 | 1 |
| 2020 | Julio Jones, Atl. | 31 | Sea. | L, 25-38 | 12 | 9 | 157 | 17.4 | 0 |
| 2021 | Keenan Allen, LAC | 29 | at Was. | W, 20-16 | 13 | 9 | 100 | 11.1 | 0 |
| 2018 | Antonio Brown, Pitt. | 30 | at Cle. | T, 21-21 | 16 | 9 | 93 | 10.3 | 1 |
| 2021 | Adam Thielen, Min. | 31 | at Cin. | L, 24-27 | 10 | 9 | 92 | 10.2 | 2 |
| 2019 | DeSean Jackson, Phi. | 32 | Was. | W, 32-27 | 9 | 8 | 154 | 19.3 | 2 |
| 2019 | Larry Fitzgerald, Ari. | 36 | Det. | T, 27-27 | 13 | 8 | 113 | 14.1 | 1 |
| 2019 | T.Y. Hilton, Ind. | 29 | at LAC | L, 24-30 | 9 | 8 | 87 | 10.9 | 2 |
| 2026 | Kalif Raymond, Chi. | 32 | at Car. | W, 59-37 | 9 | 8 | 84 | 10.5 | 0 |
| 2026 | Kendrick Bourne, Ari. | 31 | at LAC | W, 26-14 | 8 | 8 | 75 | 9.4 | 0 |
| 2021 | Cole Beasley, Buff. | 32 | Pitt. | L, 16-23 | 13 | 8 | 60 | 7.5 | 0 |
I don’t expect this will lead anywhere. I’m not sure that Raymond or Bourne will have another game with more than 4 catches all year. (I’m not planning on bidding on either of them in my leagues.) But it was their day on Sunday.
—Ian Allan
