Theo Johnson sits at the center of a Week 2 read that cuts against the usual volume story. Week 1 scoring climbed to 24.7 points per team per game, but offenses averaged only 60.8 snaps.
That split gives DFS and fantasy players an early-season sample that is useful and imperfect at once. Pat Thorman’s Week 2 edition of Snaps & Pace, published on Sep 16, 2026, uses that contrast to frame where scoring may come from when play volume is still lagging.
Week 1 scoring and snaps
24.7 points per team per game topped the 23.0 mark from a season ago. The snap total moved the other way, with Week 1 offenses averaging 60.8 snaps against 61.3 snaps per game in 2025.
That is the complication in the opening sample: scoring rose even though play volume fell from already depressed levels. For readers building lineups, the cleaner takeaway is that pace still needs to be checked against how often an offense actually gets the ball snapped.
The Saints and Ravens
The Saints finished Week 1 first in neutral pace and logged 139 combined snaps before a 20-play overtime. That was well above the 2025 NFL pre-OT average of 121.8 snaps, a gap that shows how quickly an offense can create more chances without needing a huge box-score outburst.
The Ravens offered a different version of the same idea in Indianapolis. Lamar Jackson’s offense scored touchdowns on four of its opening five possessions and reached the 3-yard line on the other one, while Baltimore operated at the 12th-fastest neutral pace.
Detroit turnover sequence
Tyler Shough opened the second half in Detroit with an interception and a lost fumble. The sequence came in a 7-0 game and turned one side of the early-season pace discussion into a short, ugly reminder that play volume alone does not protect an offense from collapse.
Zay Flowers was hamstrung, and Ja’Kobi Lane was out. Those absences sit inside the same Week 1 data set that fantasy players and DFS users are trying to read: the pace picture is useful, but it still needs healthy skill players and sustained drives to turn snaps into points.
The early numbers leave one practical read for Week 2: chase the offenses that can pair tempo with finishing drives, not just the ones that run a lot of plays. Will the early-season decline in play volume persist beyond Week 1?
