He decimated Gloucestershire's batting line-up, taking 6/27 from 12.1 overs as he helped skittle the opposition for just 79 before lunch on the first day.
One ball in particular provided a terrifying sight and did the rounds on social media — a searingly quick bouncer that decked back after hitting the pitch and beat both the batsman and the wicketkeeper.
It looked like an easy bye was on offer but the non-striker didn't appear too keen to run through for a single and get himself on strike to face the fearsome English quick.
Just a few hours after being posted online the footage had already been viewed more than 180,000 times. But Australian cricket great Dean Jones didn't like what he saw.
"I am sorry but ECB contracted players should not be playing 2nd XI cricket," Jones tweeted in response to the video. "Never liked it when our guys did it in Australia either with (Josh) Hazlewood and (Mitchell) Starc!"
Jones added it was "bloody dangerous" to have someone of international calibre sending down thunderbolts to players of a lesser standard, and said a centre wicket practice against top-quality stars was a better way to prove a bowler's fitness rather than dropping them down to 2nd XI level.
"I played county cricket. I captained Derby. I know what guys can do and can't do. This is not the platform for these guys to prove their fitness. It's bulls***," Jones said.
Real pace can make batsmen freeze and you only have to look at the wickets Archer took of batsmen staying leg side of the ball, throwing their hands at it without any footwork and getting caught behind the wicket to appreciate just how quick he was bowling.
Archer also demolished the stumps a couple of times en route to his six-wicket haul.
Up-and-coming players usually relish the chance to play against professionals but facing up to a man who can hit the 150km/h mark must have been terrifying for some of the Gloucestershire batsmen who, according to English cricket writer Chris Stocks, were extremely young.
"This has been a brutal introduction to top-level cricket for many of these Gloucestershire lads," Stocks wrote on Twitter. "Eleven of the 12-man team are aged 20 or under. One, 19-year-old, Milo Ayres was hit in the grille."
Archer will have an important job to do if called into action at the home of cricket after Anderson left a huge hole in the England side when he was unable to bowl in Birmingham. But despite Anderson coming into the series opener under an injury cloud, captain Joe Root said he didn't regret playing the man with 575 Test wickets to his name.
"It was a group decision to select him," Root said. "He passed every fitness test, we went about it how you normally would.
"It's one of those freak things, he pulled up in the middle of a game. The other bowlers work extremely hard to take it up but we weren't able to build enough pressure.
"It's easy in hindsight. Jimmy went through every medical check absolutely fine and it was a unanimous decision from all parties. Sometimes things go against you and you have to find a way of getting through the game.
"We miss a bowler of Jimmy's calibre. He has a fantastic record on this ground and against Australia in England. We are still very capable of taking wickets and being more competitive than we were here in the rest of the series."
