NFL schedule release: Rookie quarterbacks get a walk in the park Week 1

The 2021 NFL schedule will be released Wednesday evening, but already we see that rookie quarterbacks were given favorable Week 1 matchups. 

Don’t ask me why the NFL waits until the evening to release the schedule for the upcoming NFL season, as much of it has already been leaked as of Wednesday afternoon. While we are still waiting on all of the details, we do know every team’s Week 1 NFL matchup; and boy, do these games really give rookie quarterbacks a walk in the park for the first contest of their careers.

Obviously, the NFL is a business. They want to make money and start planting the seeds for future stars. Whether or not they did this on purpose, I have no idea; but it certainly seems like they were setting up most of these rookie quarterbacks for early success. Here’s a look ahead at what we will see to start the 2021 season after the NFL schedule release for Week 1:

Trevor Lawrence: Jaguars @ Texans

Need I say more? The Texans are an absolute dumpster-fire of an organization right now. Shortly after former head coach and general manager Bill O’Brien left the team in shambles, Deshaun Watson is facing some serious allegations; which will no doubt put a halt on his 2021 season.

Over the past year, the Texans made some bone-headed trades and managed to ditch two of the best players in their history in J.J. Watt and DeAndre Hopkins. With very few quality players remaining, first-overall pick Trevor Lawrence couldn’t ask for a much easier Week 1 matchup than what he has on the NFL schedule.

Zach Wilson: Jets @ Panthers

Though playing your first NFL game on the road is almost always a challenging task, doing so against a 5-11 Panthers team that lost their starting quarterback from last season is a different matter. Sam Darnold is now set to take over as the starter for Carolina, but his career has been an epic disaster so far.

While the young quarterback is now entering his fourth season, he is moving from one bad team to another. Meanwhile, the Jets recently dealt the unspectacular Darnold to make way for Zach Wilson. The Jets had a pretty impressive draft, and with Carolina ranking in the bottom half of the league both offensively and defensively in 2020, according to Team Rankings, Wilson has a favorable matchup in Week 1.

Trey Lance: 49ers @ Lions

In what might be the easiest matchup of all, a talented San Francisco 49ers team will play host to the Detriot Lions in Week 1. Like the Panthers, the Lions were a 5-11 football team last year, but that was with Matt Stafford at the helm. If you ask me, their quarterback play is going to take a significant step back with Jared Goff under center this year.

Detriot has a chance to be the very worst team in the league next season. They lost a number of quality free agents this year and did almost nothing in the way of replacing them. We still need to see whether or not Trey Lance gets the start from the gate, but if he does, he has a chance to explode onto the NFL scene against what could be a historically bad Lions defense.

Obviously, we will be waiting to see if all three of these quarterbacks will get the nod in Week 1, but with such easy schedules to begin the year, I see no reason why any of these three first-round quarterbacks shouldn’t be the starters for their team from the gate. Perhaps the NFL schedule release could persuade their coaches to start them right away.