Before turning the focus forward to the start of Week 4 Thursday night, let’s take stock of the winners and losers from Week 3 in the NFL.
From time to time, it’s just fun to lay out all the latest reasons why the NFL season — every season, this one being no different — is so endearingly wacky, unpredictable and even to a degree nonsensical.
Drake Maye, who missed out on the MVP award by a single first-place vote last season, has been one of the very worst quarterbacks in the league in 2026, ranking 25th in QBR (45.9), 31st in passer rating (58.6) and 30th in passing yards per game (195.0) with just 1 touchdown and an NFL-worst 6 interceptions for a 1-2 New England Patriots team that just got embarrassed by the Jaguars, 35-6.
Meanwhile, Deshaun Watson, who hadn’t played a game in nearly two years since going 1-6 for the Cleveland Browns in 2024 and who was booed by his own fans during the preseason, is 2-1 while throwing for 587 yards, 5 TDs and 1 INT and rushing for 105 yards.
All the while, the Carolina Panthers’ Bryce Young (939 yards, 7 TDs, 2 INTs) and New Orleans Saints’ second-year QB Tyler Shough (917 yards, 8 TDs, 3 INTs) lead the NFL in passing.
Go figure.
Meanwhile, Week 3 in particular was like one big Twilight Zone episode.
Any rational NFL fan would think, surely, the 2-0 reigning Super Bowl-champion Seattle Seahawks, with starting QB Sam Darnold making his return, would make quick work of the 0-2 Washington Commanders and backup quarterback Marcus Mariota in Week 3, right? And that the Philadelphia Eagles would surely capitalize on facing the Chicago Bears coming off a humbling loss and now left with their 38-year-old third-string QB Case Keenum, who hadn’t played in a game in three years. … Right?
Wrong and wrong!
Mariota threw for 3 touchdowns with 0 interceptions and beat the mighty Seahawks while Keenum (2 passing TDs and a rushing TD) and the Bears outright embarrassed the Eagles on Monday night in a 27-7 evisceration.
Go figure.
OK, OK, but the Houston Texans — a trendy preseason Super Bowl pick with one of the league’s top defenses — had to finally get its first win while playing the depleted, uninspiring Indianapolis Colts, right?
Wrong again. But, hey, the Las Vegas Raiders are 3-0 after a road win over the Saints!
Hmm, well did Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals’ bolstered defense at least take care of business against Old Man [Aaron] Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ meek offense?
Nope, Rodgers turned back the clock and threw for 292 yards and 3 TDs in a 30-27 shootout victory.
So then does anything make sense in the NFL this season?!
Well, sure the Kansas City Chiefs are back to being the Chiefs, the San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills are both undefeated as well, Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry still plays like he’s 10 years younger than he is, reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba is uncoverable, and the Atlanta Falcons’ Bijan Robinson and Detroit Lions’ Jahmyr Gibbs are the best all-around playmakers in the league.
It’s not all upside down, but the unexpected surprises — both positive and negative — are what keep the NFL so perpetually compelling from week to week, year after year.
Before turning the page to Week 4 with the Steelers visiting the Browns on Thursday night, let’s spotlight the winners and losers from Week 3.
NFL Week 3 Winners
New Life For The Falcons
We were on a bit of an island here considering the Falcons as an intriguing pick to win the NFC South while the oddsmakers (and many others) projected them to finish last.
That bold take wasn’t looking so inspired when Atlanta started 0-2 without so much as taking a single redzone snap in two games with third-string QB Cooper Rush at the controls.
Thankfully for all — and mercifully for Rush — Michael Penix Jr. made his return in Week 3 after his extended recovery from the torn ACL that ended his 2025 season early.
Penix wasn’t so much the difference for the Falcons and yet he also was — by being just competent enough (18-of-25 passing for 256 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT) to allow Atlanta to actually maximize its incredible playmakers and coach Kevin Stefanski’s offense.
Bijan Robinson was everywhere in the Falcons’ 35-14 road win at the Green Bay Packers, rushing 29 times for 194 yards and 2 TDs (plus 19 receiving yards) while Drake London did most of the rest with 9 catches for 194 yards.
So in that way all of the Falcons are winners this week.
Stefanski can maintain his sanity and avoid more PTSD trauma flashbacks to coaching the Cleveland Browns. Falcons fans have fresh hope for this season. Robinson can enjoy some extra space to operate in the box now that opposing defenses again have to worry about the forward pass from Atlanta. And London is revived after being limited to 2 catches for 29 yards and 4-51 in the first two games with Rush — this really puts it in perspective:
Rush even wins because nobody has to talk about how abysmally he’s playing anymore.
And the Falcons (not to mention our preseason hot take) are alive and well in the always wide-open NFC South, which to the surprise of literally nobody who watches football is the only division in the NFL that doesn’t have a team with a winning record.
The Falcons are back in a three-way tie for first (!) where they finished last season, this time with the 1-2 Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints, while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 0-3.
What incredible commitment to being the worst division in football, truly.
The Falcons visit the Saints this week, meaning one of those teams is going to at least have to get to .500 (unless they tie and go 1-2-1, which would be almost poetic).
A Renaissance For Written-Off Old And Damaged QBs
What a week for old quarterbacks many fans had given up on or honestly didn’t know were still playing NFL football!
– Deshaun Watson wins again! Before this past month, Watson hadn’t played in an NFL game since the 2024 season when he went 1-6 as the Cleveland Browns’ starter before tearing his Achilles tendon. Browns fans didn’t want him to be their QB again, booing him loudly in the preseason even before he was named the starter. Nobody outside the Cleveland organization (or probably even within it, to a large degree) expected he’d find success considering he hasn’t been a good NFL QB since 2020. And yet, here we are. Watson has the Browns 2-1 after wins over the Buccaneers and Panthers. As noted up top, he has a sterling stat sheet with 5 TDs and 1 INT and Cleveland is in a four-way tie for first place in the AFC North. What a time to be alive.
– Kirk Cousins is 3-0! The aforementioned Falcons were eager to send Cousins packing to avoid triggering a large guaranteed contract for 2027, but the 38-year-old QB has found new life with the Raiders as a placeholder for No. 1 overall draft pick Fernando Mendoza (whenever his time comes). Cousins is giving the Raiders every reason to be patient with Mendoza’s development while leading the team to a 3-0 start while passing for 661 yards, 9 TDs and 3 INTs in three games. That’s right, Cousins is tied with the 49ers Brock Purdy for the NFL lead with 9 TD passes, throwing 3 in each game so far. Last week in a 35-27 road win at New Orleans, Cousins completed 22 of 33 passes for 248 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs.
– Case Keenum Is Back! As noted up top, the 38-year-old Keenum hadn’t played in an NFL game since 2023 and had thrown just 1 TD pass with 3 INTs over the past four years. He’s now the third-string QB for the Bears and likely expected to go another season without ever seeing the field while collecting a paycheck toward his retirement fund. Except with starter Caleb Williams set to miss extended time with a hamstring injury and backup Tyson Bagent missing the first part of the week recovering from a concussion, Keenum got the start Monday night against the Eagles. Talk about turning back the clock … Keenum completed 22 of 34 passes for 247 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs plus a rushing TD in that 27-7 win.
– Marcus Mariota beats the Seahawks?! As touched upon in our intro, if there was one game that seemed a lock on the Week 3 NFL schedule, it would have been Seattle beating Washington. Mariota was pretty bad last season when he filled in for Jayden Daniels, going 2-6 as a starter while finishing with 10 TDs and 7 INTs (plus a rushing TD). Since taking back over for the injured Daniels midway through Washington’s Week 2 game with Dallas, Mariota has completed 30 of 47 passes for 294 yards, 4 TDs and 0 INTs and helped save the Commanders’ season for now with that win over the Seahawks.
– Aaron Rodgers answers the doubters (for now). Who had 42-year-old Rodgers outdueling Burrow in a shootout on their bingo cards? Probably nobody after he totaled just 408 passing yards, 1 TD and 1 INT through the first two games. But sure enough, Rodgers is still capable of flashing his old form now and then, passing for 292 yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT in that 30-27 win over Cincinnati.
Redemption For Tyler Loop … Sort Of
Who can forget how Baltimore kicker Tyler Loop’s rookie season ended last year — missing a 44-yard field goal at the end of regulation in Week 18 in a 26-24 loss to the rival Steelers that kept the Ravens out of the playoffs.
Well, it’s hard to make up for that kind of thing in Week 3 of a season, but Loop delivered a memorable game-winner nonetheless with his 56-yarder as time expired to send Baltimore to a momentous 34-31 win over the Dallas Cowboys in Rio de Janeiro.
That led to this amazingly fitting soccer-inspired celebration.
It wasn’t just Loop exorcising some demons in that moment, though.
The Ravens had spent all week hearing about their peculiar penchant for blowing fourth quarter leads in crushing losses, after giving up 15 unanswered points to the New Orleans Saints in a 24-17 loss in Week 2.
Well, it almost happened against Sunday vs. the Cowboys.
Baltimore was up 24-13 late in the third quarter until all of a sudden Dallas had a 28-24 lead in the fourth quarter. With the Ravens back up 3 points in the final minute, the Cowboys were on the doorstep of stealing the game with first-and-goal from the 2, but a false start penalty and stout defense forced a game-tying field goal instead.
With only 7 seconds on the clock, the game looked headed for overtime.
But Lamar Jackson managed to connect with Zay Flowers for 27 yards up the seam to the Dallas 38 and call timeout with a fraction of a second still on the clock, allowing Loop to come out and finish off an incredible ending for a team (and kicker) that needed it.
Bo Nix And The Broncos’ Late Game Magic Is Back For 2026
Much of the Denver Broncos’ 2025 success hinged on second-half rallies and fourth quarter dramatics, and it seems they still have that intangible in their 2026 collective makeup.
The Broncos trailed the Los Angeles Rams 16-0 at halftime on Sunday night, with the broadcast crew openly wondering if head coach Sean Payton was going to take over play-calling from first-time coordinator Davis Webb. Instead, QB Bo Nix and Co. put together two third quarter touchdown drives to tie the game, setting up a dramatic fourth quarter — when the Broncos oddly seem most comfortable.
The Rams went ahead on a 48-yard Harrison Mevis field goal and the Broncos answered with a 66-yard Talanoa Hufanga pick-6 to take their first lead, 23-19.
The Rams went back ahead on a 48-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford to Konata Mumpfield with 3:38 remaining, but again, this is when Nix thrives.
He found Pat Bryant open for a 39-yard gain on second-and-20, then connected with Troy Franklin on the next play for 21 yards down to the Los Angeles 15-yard line. With the help of a very controversial pass interference penalty (that could have been an interception the other way) on third-and-6, Nix eventually leapt over the pile for a 1-yard touchdown on third-and-goal for a 30-26 lead.
What a classic Broncos sequence …
With just 47 seconds left and no timeouts, the Rams somehow managed to get all the way to the Broncos’ 14 (moved back to the 19 after a penalty) for a final play, but Hufanga struck again with his second pick of the game to end it.
The difference between 1-2 and 2-1 seems so massive for a team with Super Bowl expectations, and this was a momentous win in many ways for Denver.
Liam Coen And the Jacksonville Jaguars
If taking over a Jaguars team with minimal outside expectations in 2025 and immediately turning it into a 13-win playoff team wasn’t enough to make the case, Liam Coen is showing again this fall that he’s truly one of the NFL’s top coaches.
Jacksonville had an abysmal offseason, let’s be frank. The Jaguars decided they couldn’t or wouldn’t pay to keep running back Travis Etienne or star linebacker Devin Lloyd, they made no notable additions of their own in free agency and didn’t have a first-round draft pick due to the misguided trade a year earlier to move up in the first round and take Travis Hunter.
And yet, Jacksonville is off to an encouraging 2-1 start and bounced back from a sloppy road loss to the Broncos with a resounding 35-6 beatdown of the New England Patriots.
QB Trevor Lawrence did struggle in the defeat in Denver, but he has otherwise looked exactly like the player who experienced a breakthrough down the stretch last season. Overall, Lawrence has passed for 616 yards, 7 TDs and 2 INTs.
The Jags look like the overwhelming favorites in the AFC South, they’re a true “greater than the sum of their parts” kind of team, and Coen deserves to be mentioned among the top coaches in the league in just his second season in the role.
49ers Medical Staff (Really!), Full Strength Raiders And Free-Spending Cowboys
Let’s wrap up the “Winners” column with the traditional alliterative speed round …
For all the talk the San Francisco 49ers get about their never-ending injury misfortune and conspiracy theories about the electrical substation next to their practice facility, let’s at least acknowledge some positions.
It was fair to wonder what tight end George Kittle would look like in returning to game action just eight months after tearing his Achilles tendon, but Kittle has been impactful in the early going for the 49ers with 12 catches for 174 yards and 3 TDs already.
Meanwhile, linebacker and defensive leader Fred Warner also looks fully back to form from the broken/dislocated ankle that ended his 2025 season early. Warner had 17 tackles (7 solo) in the team’s 36-30 win over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 3 and is up to 33 total tackles and 2 forced fumbles so far.
…
First-year Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak deserved heaps of credit for getting the team to 2-0 despite having one of the weakest wide receiver corps in the league and missing star tight end Brock Bowers.
Kubiak is going to get even more credit if he continues to maximize Bowers’ ability all over the field like he did in the tight end’s Week 3 return from arthroscopic knee surgery.
Bowers had 10 catches for 116 yards and a TD in the Raiders’ win at New Orleans.
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Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones quipped after his team’s week 2 win over Washington that “There’s nothing more dangerous than an old man with money.”
He wasn’t just teasing …
The Cowboys announced Thursday that they have traded a 2027 sixth-round pick and 2028 second-rounder to the Steelers for cornerback Joey Porter Jr.
Dallas continues to throw money and draft assets at fixing its defense. The promising moves of the offseason haven’t netted much positive impact as the Cowboys rank 30th in the NFL in total defense (387.0 YPG) and 25th in scoring defense (27.3 PPG) while starting 1-2.
Adding Porter can only help.
NFL Week 3 Losers
The Matt LaFleur Era In Green Bay
Matt LaFleur and his staff seemed to have zero answers last Thursday night in that embarrassing 35-14 loss to the previously winless Falcons.
And more and more, it’s looking like the only answer for the Packers in the near future is to make a change and initiate a reset for a team that seems to be going in the wrong direction.
Is it all LaFleur’s fault? Of course not.
The defense was supposed to be built around star edge rusher Micah Parsons, who is out the first chunk of this season continuing to recover and work back from a torn ACL. Running back Josh Jacobs got himself in a heap of off-field trouble in the offseason and remains on the commissioner’s exempt list unable to even practice with no timeline for a return in sight. And the offensive line has been a bit of a mess.
But other teams seem to at least find ways to mitigate such setbacks.
The Bears dominated the Eagles with their third-string quarterback. The Colts have been remarkably spunky despite having one of the most uninspiring rosters in the league, save for a few notable highlights. The Raiders are 3-0 in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year with a 38-year-old QB everybody had written off. The Browns have won two games with Watson at quarterback and a roster still in the first stages of a rebuild. As noted, the Jaguars had a net-negative offseason with minimal cap room to operate in free agency and no first-round draft pick and they look like contenders again after a 2-1 start and blowout win over the Patriots.
And then there’s the Packers …
They gave up 29 unanswered points to the Minnesota Vikings and backup QB Carson Wentz in a discouraging Week 1 loss, they needed a spirited fourth quarter rally and overtime to beat the New York Jets and then they entirely imploded at home against the Falcons.
Including the playoff collapse against the Chicago Bears last January, the Packers and LeFleur have now lost seven of their last eight games.
LaFleur was given an unspecified “multi-year” contract extension after last season with terms not revealed, but if things don’t turn around fast, Green Bay may be forced to make a tough decision.
As is, LaFleur is surging up our NFL Head Coach Hot Seat Rankings, which will be updated on Friday.
Speaking Of Seats Getting Hotter …
On that note, let’s not let Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni off the hook.
The Eagles may be 2-1, but all winning records aren’t created equally. Philadelphia barely got past Washington, 24-22, in Week 1, needed a game-winning touchdown in the final 10 seconds to escape with a 24-20 win over the lowly Tennessee Titans and then got outright embarrassed by the Bears and Keenum.
The Eagles are bottom 10 in offense (302.3 YPG) and scoring (18.3 PPG) while Jalen Hurts (16 of 25 for 153 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT, 25 rushing yards and a TD) looks lost or broken. He again isn’t running like he used to with just 16 attempts for 87 yards and a TD through three games, even though last season made abundantly clear that the Eagles are a much easier team to gameplan for and defend when Hurts isn’t really a true dual-threat.
Which begs an important question …
Why would Sirianni and the Eagles, after faceplanting last season with a first-time offensive coordinator in one-and-done Kevin Patullo, choose to hire an even less-experienced, first-time OC in Sean Mannion, who had all of two years of NFL coaching experience (one as a general offensive assistant for the Packers and one as their QBs coach)?!
It’s an inspired move if it works out and Mannion looks like a play-calling prodigy, but it’s a mind-boggling move if it doesn’t. And that’s where we are so far.
But more so, the Eagles looked lifeless and with no answers in that loss to the Bears on Monday night. It was a flat-out embarrassment for a team that won a Super Bowl two years ago.
Sirianni has been something of a lightning rod throughout his tenure, despite reaching two Super Bowls and winning a ring, and a second straight underwhelming season won’t sit well with Philadelphia fans or the one of the best/most aggressive front offices/ownership tandems in the league.
Drake Maye-Day!
What in the world happened to Maye?!
We laid out the situation up top, but again he ranks among the worst QBs in the league this year while throwing an NFL-high 7 INTs with just 1 TD through three games.
He completed just 14 of 25 passes for 199 yards, 0 TDs and 2 INTs in the loss to Jacksonville.
This is, ostensibly, the same guy who threw for 4,394 yards, 31 TDs and 8 INTs while leading the NFL in completion percentage 72.0%) and taking the Patriots to the Super Bowl last year.
How does this happen? What has happened?
So many questions with no answers so far.
Bad Officiating And Baker, Bowles And The Bumbling Bucs
A quick alliterative speed round to close things out …
First, we mentioned the horrible pass interference call late in the fourth quarter against the Rams on a pivotal third-and-6 from the Los Angeles 11. If anything, it looked like Broncos wide receiver Pat Bryant initiated and contact with cornerback Josh Wallace and that Wallace came away with the interception!
Instead, Denver got a fresh first down from the 7 and eventually scored the game-winning touchdown inside the final minute in a game with sizeable ramifications on league standings and future playoff seeding, etc.
Well, Rams coach Sean McVay says even the NFL had to admit it was a bad call that should never have been made.
That does nothing for the outcome of the game or the Rams’ 1-2 record, though.
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Lastly, the Todd Bowles Era in Tampa Back, which looked to be life support entering the season, appears to have no chance of resuscitation at this point.
The Buccaneers are 0-3, which makes them 2-12 in their last 14 games going back to last season’s second-half collapse.
Sure, they’re in the NFC South so anything is still possible, but quarterback Baker Mayfield hasn’t looked right again to start this season and is now expected to miss several weeks after dislocating his thumb. Rookie Jalon Daniels, who went undrafted this year out of Kansas, will take over in the meantime.
The Bucs have more issues than that, though.
Chris Godwin, the team’s highest-paid wide receiver, hasn’t bounced back this season after two injury-marred seasons prior. He has just 10 catches for 111 yards and 0 TDs in three games. Fellow wideout Jalen McMillan, who was supposed to take on a key role in his return from injury this year, is now on injured reserve for at least the next four games.
And first-round draft pick Rueben Bain Jr., who the Bucs are counting on to make a difference in the pass rush this year, has just 1 tackle with no sacks or tackles for loss in two games and missed Week 3 with a groin injury. Beyond the numbers, the tape shows that Bain has been too-easily gobbled up by blockers this season while showing none of the game-wrecking abilities that made him at a star at Miami.
It’s way too early to assume anything or make any firm evaluations, but the early returns are at the very least discouraging.
