It’s true everywhere in the NFL: Overreactions are rampant after Week 1

The National Football League is the king of overreactions, and at no time is it ever worse than during or after Week 1.

I have always said that when the dust clears on all the openers, there are fan bases in 16 cities believing their team is headed to the Super Bowl, while the other 16 fan bases are searching for the nearest bridge to jump off.

The emotional reactions, of course, aren’t limited to teams. Much of it revolves around the players. Never mind that most of them haven’t played real tackle football for eight months, many are returning from season-ending injuries and a large group were playing in college at this time a year ago.

But that doesn’t matter to the loud voices constantly featured on social media, where anyone can say anything they want with a large degree of anonymity.

That was surely the case Monday night when Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy had an interception returned for a touchdown, which was followed by shrieks of "he stinks!” What happened next was a total reversal, rendering those comments to the nearest waste bin.

It's always best to let games and seasons play out before trying to make instant evaluations, but that’s not the way it works in the social media world or in the rabid media spectrum of podcasts and opinion shows, where the goal is to be noticed.

In case any of you have missed it, there are currently those believing that Arizona Cardinals cornerback Will Johnson is on the path to being the Defensive Rookie of the Year after a – pick you description -- “historic ... elite ... dominant” (choose all three if you want) 45 plays against the New Orleans Saints Sunday.

I took some heat Monday, albeit after writing a story that highly praised Johnson’s play, for pushing back on some of the over-the-top comments.

Hall of Fame head coach Bill Parcells would often to react to premature praise for young players by saying, “Let’s not put him in the Hall of Fame yet.”

I’ll never forget him saying that after the Hall of Fame Game in Canton in 2002 when tight end Jeremy Shockey had four receptions for 80 yards with a long of 48 and an 8-yard touchdown in a Giants 34-17 victory over the Hosuton Texans, who, by the ewsay, were playing their first-ever game. Parcells wasn’t the Giants coach at the time, but someone asked Parcells about him.

Shockey had a very good 10-year career and was a four-time Pro Bowler, but, coincidentally, his 75 receptions and 894 yards as a rookie were career highs.

As for Johnson, he appears headed for an excellent career, but my pushback had nothing to do with his obvious ability. It was based on the fact he played only 60 percent of the snaps (45) Sunday, yet many repeat his Pro Football Focus grade as proof of being elite. In general, their grades are cited way too much by the media and fans. Players, coaches and personnel people agree.

One Cardinals player laughed and told me once that “there have been many times I’ve played poorly and they gave me a good grade while the reverse was often true when I played well and I got a poor grade.”

The reality is that PFF doesn’t know what player assignments are on each play and surely don’t know when offensive or defensive calls are changed at the line of scrimmage. In addition, there are different people grading each game.

Where there are real questions is when players with limited snaps are graded. It’s simply an incomplete assessment.

It’s notable that 80 cornerbacks in Week 1 played a higher percentage of snaps than Johnson. Of that 80, there were 54 that played 90 percent or more and 34 played every snap. That includes Cardinals cornerback Garrett Williams and Max Melton, who each played all 75 snaps on Sunday.

As for Defensive Rookie of the Year, in the last 10 seasons there have been three cornerbacks that won the award: Marcus Peters of the Chiefs in 2015, Marshon Lattimore of the Saints in 2017 and Sauce Gardner of the Jets in 2022.

In those seasons, Peters played and started all 16 games and was on the field for 1,036 snaps (95 percent). Lattimore missed three games because of injury, starting 13, and played 906 snaps (88 percent). Gardner started all 17 games and played 1,115 snaps (98 percent).

Obviously, we don’t know what will happen in the next 16 games this season for Johnson. However, to even be considered for any awards, he will probably have to show he can play at a high level while being on the field a lot more than he was against the Saints.

The question is if that will occur if Williams and Melton continue to eat up a large number of snaps.

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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Overreactions everywhere after Week 1