| NFC NORTH |
| CHICAGOSo – it is likely to be venerable veteran QB CASE KEENUM starting on Monday Night Football tonight. It’s another chance to certify the genius of Coach Ben Johnson. Kevin Patra of NFL.com: The Chicago Bears will roll with QB3 versus the Philadelphia Eagles. Chicago is expected to start Case Keenum on Monday Night Football, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Monday morning. The news had been trending that way after backup Tyson Bagent spent most of the week in concussion protocol. Starter Caleb Williams was already ruled out due to a hamstring injury. Bagent was cleared from concussion protocol on Sunday, but took part in only one practice. With his backup missing the game-plan install for a good Eagles defense, Bears coach Ben Johnson will roll with Keenum to start Week 3. The 38-year-old Keenum hasn’t thrown a regular-season pass since two starts with the Houston Texans in December 2023. In his 14th NFL season, Keenum has made 66 career starts, with a 62.3% completion rate, 79 touchdowns and 51 interceptions. At this stage, having hung around the past couple of years more for his mentorship function, Keenum is an unknown. Clearly, Johnson trusts him to run his complex offense, ensure they’re in the right play, and make the proper read. However, we don’t know how lively Keenum’s arm is or whether his pocket mobility is any good after two seasons out of live action. |
| MINNESOTAThe Vikings won despite QB KYLER MURRAY: @JanikEckardtNFL teams in Super Bowl era to win 3 consecutive games despite failing to gain 250 yards: 2026 Vikings1999 Buccaneers1969 Vikings Kevin Seifert@SeifertESPNThe Vikings had ZERO snaps in the red zone today. The last time they did that and won a game was in a 2007 against the Bears. They have been doing it all year: @JanikEckardtTotal yard margin among 3-0 teams: Chiefs +41549ers +259Bills +121Raiders -15 Vikings -244 |
| NFC EAST |
| DALLASMike Sando of The Athletic with a good breakdown on how the Cowboys botched the ending in Rio, primarily with a touchback on the kickoff: • Game management second-guessing: The Cowboys had the ball on third-and-goal from the Baltimore 5-yard line with 14 seconds left while trailing by three points in Brazil. They lost the game in regulation without missing a field goal or suffering any kind of turnover, even on downs. Seems impossible, right? Not in the new NFL, where rule changes involving kickoffs have altered the dynamics. The Cowboys became the first team since at least 2000, and probably a lot longer, to let a team move from its own 35-yard line or farther to kick the tying or winning field goal with no more than seven seconds left in regulation. “It’s a function of having the touchback come out to the 35,” a coach from another team said. “There is no more squib kick because you have to make the landing zone, and teams are not good enough at the dirty kicks (that bounce on the ground) to make it all the time.” The Cowboys enabled the Ravens’ winning kick by booting a touchback after making their own tying field goal. The touchback removed no time from the game clock while gifting Baltimore field position at the 35. The Ravens, crucially, had one timeout remaining, which meant quarterback Lamar Jackson could target the middle of the field. Even then, this was a long shot. “You spot the ball at the 35 with four seconds left, Baltimore can’t do anything except hope for defensive pass interference,” the coach said. “You make them return that ball, they run the time against themselves.” Dallas compounded its error by playing man coverage, aligning its defenders closer to the line of scrimmage than might have been ideal. That let Jackson complete a pass over their heads to Zay Flowers for a 27-yard gain to the Dallas 38. Baltimore called timeout with a second left. From there, Tyler Loop’s 56-yard field goal won the game. “The interesting thing is, who pushed for the touchback?” the coach said. “Sometimes the special teams coach doesn’t want to be on the hook for giving up a long return. You touch it back, you have to play the correct defense. You don’t touch it back, what would Baltimore do? Hope for a Hail Mary?” Since 2000, 110 possessions have opened with an offensive snap at the team’s own 35 or farther away, tied or trailing by no more than three points, with between 1-7 seconds in regulation. Of the remaining 69 possessions without a kneeldown, Baltimore’s was the only one to produce points. |
| NEW YORK GIANTSAs we go to press, the Giants take a flyer on QB J.J. McCARTHY, whom the Vikings are glad to be rid of. Tyler Sullivan of CBSSports.com: The New York Giants were rumored to be making calls all across the NFL in search of some quarterback help, and they’ve supposedly found their move. On Monday, the club agreed to a trade with the Minnesota Vikings to land former first-round pick J.J. McCarthy. In exchange, New York is sending out a 2027 fifth-round pick. This all comes after the Giants lost starting quarterback Jaxson Dart for the rest of the season due to a knee injury he suffered in Week 2. While initially thought to not be too serious, further examination showed the injury was more severe, and Dart has since undergone surgery that’ll put him on the shelf for the rest of the year. That stretched New York’s quarterback depth very thin, with Jameis Winston the only other quarterback on the active roster at the time of Dart’s injury. Winston got the start in Week 3’s win over the Titans on Sunday, with Jake Haener backing him up after being elevated from the practice squad. Despite squeaking out the victory, Winston wasn’t sharp and completed just 14 of his 22 passes for 118 yards and no touchdowns. It’s unclear whether McCarthy will come in and usurp Winston as QB1, but it does give the Giants another option, adding someone with 10 career starts under his belt. This deal puts to bed McCarthy’s humdrum tenure in Minnesota. During the 2024 NFL Draft, the Vikings moved up to the No. 10 overall pick to select the Michigan product as their QB of the future. That investment never saw returns, as a knee injury erased his entire rookie season. Then, as they turned the keys over to him in 2025 and allowed Sam Darnold — who led them to a 14-3 record the previous year — to leave in free agency, McCarthy struggled mightily. Last season, the team finished with a 9-8 record (6-4 in McCarthy’s starts) and missed the playoffs. J.J. McCarthy trade grades New York Giants: CIt really depends on how the Giants view McCarthy coming aboard. Is he simply providing depth? Or are they eyeing him to leapfrog Winston on the depth chart and be New York’s starter the rest of the way? If it’s the latter, it’s a risky roll of the dice. While Winston did not look good coming in under duress for Dart in Week 2 or even in Week 3 against Tennessee, there’s no guarantee McCarthy is an upgrade. He might even be a downgrade. Sure, he’s younger (still only 23 years old), but when he’s been on the field thus far, he’s left little to be desired. Last season, McCarthy ranked last among qualified quarterbacks in completion percentage (58%), touchdowns-to-interceptions (11-12), and passer rating (72.6). Of course, there is a Michigan/Harbaugh connection here. McCarthy played under Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, and the two won a national championship together in 2023. Naturally, one would think Giants head coach John Harbaugh gave his brother a call to vet McCarthy before making this deal, and the current Chargers head coach probably gave the green light. While it’s always possible McCarthy is the latest castoff QB to catch lightning in a bottle and resurrect his career, this feels like a lateral move right now. Minnesota Vikings: B+It felt like J.J. McCarthy’s trade value was nonexistent, so the fact that the Vikings are getting something for him should be looked at as a win. While landing a Day 3 pick will hardly change the fortunes of the franchise, getting a fifth-rounder in what is billed as a loaded 2027 draft isn’t nothing. If New York craters post-Dart and with this Winston/McCarthy combination under center, Minnesota could be looking at a pick inside the top 150. They also clear about $4.6 million in cash and cap space. While McCarthy was already established as QB3, the Vikings moving on from their former first-rounder also removes any potential tension in the QB room. It makes the pecking order of Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz as the top two options crystal clear. That aspect of the trade can’t be overlooked either. We think Sullivan screwed up his turn of phrase. McCarthy has left a LOT to be desired. Someone like, say, BROCK PURDY, has left little to be desired. We also would say if this is a “B+” trade for the Vikings, it is only because it confirms the selection of McCarthy in the first place to be an “F”. They had a relatively early first round pick – and now they have a fifth. |
| WASHINGTONThe Commanders will head to London coming off a big win with a familiar face joining the team. The Washington Commanders plan to sign veteran running back Austin Ekeler to the 53-man roster, a source confirmed Monday morning, adding a familiar face to the rushing attack as the team heads to London to face the Indianapolis Colts. Ekeler, 31, played the past two seasons in Washington but was injured both years. He suffered a right Achilles tendon injury in Week 2 last season and has not played in a game since. But when he’s healthy, Ekeler is a weapon, particularly in the passing game. In 14 games over his two previous seasons with the Commanders, Ekeler had a combined 40 catches for 404 yards. He also ran 91 times for 410 yards, a 4.5-yard average. Despite their upset 33-31 victory over Seattle on Sunday, the Commanders largely struggled to run the ball, particularly with their running backs. Washington gained 82 yards on 32 carries, a 2.6-yard average. Starter Jacory Croskey-Merritt ran 19 times for just 36 yards, although his longest carry was called back because of an illegal-formation call. Rachaad White had more success, with eight carries for 35 yards. But White suffered a shoulder injury just before halftime. He returned to the game and ripped off a key 19-yard scamper late in the fourth quarter, but his shoulder was heavily wrapped in the locker room afterward. Rookie Kaytron Allen, a sixth-round pick out of Penn State, did not play on offense against the Seahawks. Should he appear this season for the Commanders, Ekeler would be in his 10th NFL season. He spent his first seven years with the Los Angeles Chargers, from whom he was once one of the NFL’s most dynamic backs. In 2022, he gained 1,637 yards from scrimmage, catching 107 balls and adding 915 yards on the ground. He does have a history of injuries, though. In 2024 with Washington, Ekeler was limited to 12 games because of two separate concussions. He has missed at least three games in four of the past six seasons. Also slated to head to London, is QB JAYDEN DANIELS. Myles Simmons of ProFootballTalk.com: Could Jayden Daniels be back as soon as Sunday? It’s not off the table. Via multiple reporters, head coach Dan Quinn said in his Monday press conference that Daniels will practice this week as he comes back from a dislocated left elbow. It doesn’t necessarily sound like Daniels is on track to start, but the quarterback will travel to London with the team and get on the practice field before the Week 4 matchup against the Colts at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The Commanders are set to travel on Tuesday. Quinn noted that Daniels has already started getting in his ear about wanting to play. “That would be him, for sure, yes. But to his credit, he’s been absolutely putting in the work,” Quinn said. “I am excited to get him back out on the practice field.” In two games so far this season, Daniels has completed 29-of-51 passes for 260 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He’s rushed for 100 yards on 12 attempts. Marcus Mariota started Sunday’s win over the Seahawks and is currently in line to start Week 4 again. Additionally, Quinn noted that linebacker Frankie Luvu and tight end Chig Okonkwo are slated to practice and travel to England this week. And linebacker Leo Chenal underwent neck surgery on Monday morning, which Quinn said went well. |
| NFC SOUTH |
| NEW ORLEANSQB TYLER SHOUGH threw 4 TD passes in defeat Sunday. They all went to tight ends. With Raiders QB KIRK COUSINS throwing 2 of his 3 TD passes to TEs, this happened: @QBgamiSunday’s Raiders-Saints saw 6 TDs scored by tight ends, tying the record for the most TE touchdowns in any game in NFL history. The other was on November 22, 1981 in a game also featuring the Raiders. San Diego’s Kellen Winslow had 13 receptions, 144 yards, & 5 touchdowns. The Saints squandered a big lead: @geoffschwartzSaints were up 11 in the middle of the 3Q Their final 5 offensive drives FumblePuntInterceptionFumbleFumble |
| TAMPA BAYThe 0-3 Buccaneers will be without their highly-paid QB on Sunday against the Packers – and beyond that as well. Myles Simmons of ProFootballTalk.com: There is more clarity on Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield after he suffered a dislocated thumb late in Sunday’s loss to the Vikings. Head coach Todd Bowles told reporters in his Monday press conference that Mayfield will be out for a minimum of three weeks. “It’s consistent with everything we thought it was — a dislocation,” Bowles said. According to multiple reporters on the Bucs beat, further tests on Mayfield’s thumb did not reveal a fracture or ligament damage. With the current timetable, the Buccaneers are not planning on placing Mayfield on injured reserve right now. But that could change. If the Bucs were to put Mayfield on IR, he’d be out for a minimum of four games. Undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels is set to become the starter in Mayfield’s absence. “Well it’s going to be like every other rookie, but he’s played well in the preseason,” Bowles said. “He’s very bright. He’s not going to be out there by himself — there will be 22 other guys out there helping him out. So, we’re just expecting him to do his job, play at a high level, as he expects from himself.” Bowles added that the Buccaneers will likely add either a veteran or a practice squad quarterback. Only Mayfield and Daniels are on the 53-man roster with Easton Stick on the practice squad. |
| NFC WEST |
| SAN FRANCISCOWe really should be talking about QB BROCK PURDY for MVP, right? Zachary Pereles of CBSSports.com: Brock Purdy is playing as well as he ever hasOverreaction or reality: Reality The 49ers are 3-0, but all anyone wanted to talk about in Week 1 was the Rams’ strange flight strategy/the Rams not being a super team/what was wrong with Myles Garrett. Then they played the Dolphins and the Cardinals the last two weeks, and, well, most people didn’t pay attention. Well, let’s give Brock Purdy his due. This season, he ranks … 1st in net yards per attempt (9.5)1st in EPA per dropback (0.62)1st in success rate (65.6%)1st in touchdown rate (10.8%)3rd in completion percentage (72.3%) Now, Kyle Shanahan always has uber-efficient offenses. There were times when Jimmy Garoppolo was atop similar categories. But Purdy’s film matches his awesome numbers. His 13 completions on throws of 15+ yards downfield are tied for the NFL lead. He’s also doing this with no Ricky Pearsall, no De’Zhaun Stribling and no DeMarcus Robinson. Mike Evans left Sunday’s game, too. George Kittle is coming off a torn ACL. If no one else wants to notice Purdy, we will. He deserves it.– – -WR MIKE EVANS went off on a cart Sunday – and so did T TRENT WILLIAMS. But neither suffered an injury to a leg and it sounds like they won’t be out long term. Evans has a “rib strain” and Williams has a stinger. |
| SEATTLEThe Seahawks saw their 12-game losing streak end at the Commanders. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com: The Seahawks did something on Sunday that they had not done in a long time. Their 33-31 loss to the Commanders marked the first time they were on the wrong side of a final score since a two-point loss to the Rams in November last year. They won 12 straight games in between those losses, including Super Bowl LX, and they had a shot to write a happier ending on Sunday, but the Commanders converted a pair of late first downs to ice the win. After the game, the consistent theme in the Seahawks’ locker room was that the team will respond well to their first loss in nearly a year. “The feeling right now, we’re disappointed,” linebacker Ernest Jones said, via the team’s website. “We didn’t execute. Hat’s off to them, they executed, they made the plays when the plays needed to be made. But on our side, we just didn’t execute. It was sloppy play from the beginning to the end, all three levels. We’re not down, we’ve been here before, we’ve lost games. We’ll be good.” A home date with the 0-3 Chargers will be the Seahawks’ first chance to show that their resiliency and starting another winning streak would be the best way to wash away the bad taste that Sunday’s game left in their mouths. |
| AFC WEST |
| DENVERAlbert Breer of SI.com thinks Sunday night was a preview of the Super Bowl: Sunday night didn’t get me to back off my feeling that the Broncos and Rams will meet in Super Bowl LXI whatsoever. The Rams are the Rams. They looked mostly great—save for the pick-six, and a couple of defensive lapses—and that was without Puka Nacua and Myles Garrett. As for the Broncos, they are kind of unspectacular. But they’re tough and smart and deep and complete, and those things matter, and they showed up in a big way when it mattered most in Sunday night’s wildly entertaining 30–26 win. And maybe most so on the game’s biggest play—Talanoa Hufanga’s 66-yard pick-six that gave Denver its first lead of the game with less than five minutes left. Hufanga told me afterward that he actually wound up responsible for covering two guys, because the Rams came out in an empty backfield, with all three wideouts to Matthew Stafford’s right, and the safety left with tight end Davis Allen and running back Kyren Williams to the left. Hufanga said at the snap he tried to bait Stafford into thinking he was going with Allen, before he “passed the tight end off to Jesus to cover him.” Allen was left wide open. Stafford threw to Williams. The rest is history. “Understanding football, if you’re covering two guys, if you got one guy, they usually throw it to the other one,” Hufanga said. “So not ideal in terms of what we were in, but I tried to make the most of it.” In doing so, I think he really illustrated what the Broncos showed themselves to be again on Sunday. It’s a team built for Sean Payton, in so many ways. Not perfect. But perfect for big moments like those the Rams game presented, because of guys like Hufanga. “You got to give a lot of credit to Sean Payton and [GM] George Paton,” Hufanga told me. “What they did in bringing people in and drafting players, that’s what they want. They want smart players that are physical, blue-collar workers that go out there and get the job done. And so for us as a team, we’re super grateful that we get these opportunities.” Based on how Sunday went, they should have plenty more coming. |
| LAS VEGASThe Raiders are 3-0 without the top pick in the draft playing a down: @ESPNInsightsThe Raiders are the 4th team in the Common Draft era to start a season 3-0 after making the No. 1 pick in the previous draft (only team to not have that pick play at any point). The Raiders had a 6.7% chance to start the season 3-0 (per ESPN Analytics). A slightly different version of the above: @OptaSTATSThe @Raiders are the second team in NFL history to start a season 3-0 with a rookie head coach and having made the No. 1 overall pick in the most recent draft. The other was the 1959 Packers behind Vince Lombardi. Thoughts on 3-0 from Mike Sando of The Athletic: Beyond Kubiak and Kirk: The Raiders are 3-0 under new coach Klint Kubiak after going 5-25 over their previous 30. In the process, Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins has joined Aaron Rodgers as the only quarterbacks age 38 or older to toss three touchdown passes in each of a season’s first three games, per Pro Football Reference (Rodgers did it to start his 2021 MVP season in Green Bay). Think it might be awhile before we see Fernando Mendoza? The four-game win streak overall is the Raiders’ longest since 2016, when Jack Del Rio was coach. The Raiders are 10.9 EPA per game better on offense year-over-year, the second-largest gain behind San Francisco’s 13.2. Having a veteran play caller in Kubiak and an experienced quarterback in Cousins is only part of the equation. Cousins’ comfort with Kubiak from their time together in Minnesota is another part. But players win games, and in the Raiders’ case, they invested heavily in the spine of their team on both sides of the ball. Cousins, center Tyler Linderbaum, middle linebacker Nakobe Dean and weakside linebacker Quay Walker were all higher-profile additions. Those moves could be differentiating the Raiders from, say, the 0-3 Chargers, whose only outside addition earning more than $8.1 million per year was center Tyler Biadasz ($10 million), who was lost for the season to a knee injury suffered in camp. |
| AFC NORTH |
| PITTSBURGHA rare fast start for the Steelers on Sunday: @Alex_KozoraThe streak is over! Pittsburgh has scored more than 7 first quarter points for the first time since Week 1 of the 2022 season (also against the Bengals), breaking a drought of 69-straight regular season games. |
| AFC SOUTH |
| HOUSTONThis: @NFL_ResearcherTexans fall to 0-3. The only teams to make the playoffs after an 0-3 start since 2000: 2025 Texans2018 Texans |
| JACKSONVILLEWe really should be talking about QB TREVOR LAWRENCE for MVP, right? Zachary Pereles of CBSSports.com: Trevor Lawrence is a darkhorse MVP candidateOverreaction or reality: Reality Want to see what the best version of Maye could be? You only needed to look at the other offense Sunday in Jacksonville. Trevor Lawrence threw three touchdown passes and could have ran for another score (he kneeled). The difficulty level on some of his throws is really impressive. On the drive that helped the Jaguars put the game away — a 15-play, 72-yard march in the third quarter — Lawrence somehow found Bhayshul Tuten for 15 yards with two Patriots defenders draped all over him. On a third and 11 later in the drive, he got hit as he threw and still found Jakobi Meyers for 14 yards. Oh yeah, and to top it off, he did this on third and goal from the 17. (Parker Washington is awesome, by the way.) Lawrence is simply playing at an extremely high level. He wasn’t great last week at the Broncos, but as we’ve already seen, every quarterback has off weeks. He is finally unlocking everything we projected he could be when he was coming out of Clemson: big arm that can access the entire field, impressive athleticism and awesome downfield accuracy, especially over the middle of the field. |
| AFC EAST |
| BUFFALOAlbert Breer of SI.com on how the Bills won despite all those turnovers: I think we saw how much margin for error the Bills are playing with. Speaking of sloppy, imperfect football, we saw a lot of it in Buffalo. Joe Brady and his staff definitely didn’t draw up Sunday’s game against a desperate Chargers team the way it played out. Nor will Monday’s look at the film be especially pleasant for the Bills’ folks. But somehow, they came out of it 3–0, 24–16 winners over a Los Angeles team that, while now 0–3, made the playoffs the past two years and arrived in Buffalo as a wounded animal of a foe. “I’d like to think that great teams don’t have to lose to learn, and, unfortunately, we had a lot of losing football today,” Brady told me later in the afternoon. “But sometimes when people say, Hey, you found a way to win, it can come across as the guys didn’t earn it. That’s not the case. They just kept playing. It’s like, Hey, we might not have our fastball, but can we find a way and just keep digging, and keep playing and kind of roll with it? And I learned a lot about the guys in the fact that they were able to do that. “It doesn’t have to be pretty. I will never remember the scores of these games. We just remember that we found a way to go 1–0.” O.K., so as for what went wrong, there was a lot to get to. The Bills turned the ball over five times on Sunday, and only took it away once. Josh Allen’s passer rating was 54.0, his lowest since New Year’s Eve 2023. Buffalo dug itself a 10–0 hole in the first quarter and drew 10 flags, costing the team 88 yards over the course of the game. And as such, you could argue the Bills were lucky to be tied at 10 going into the half, having looked like a shell of the team that won in Houston, then pounded Detroit, to open the season. But with all that, their new head coach—who’s been around most of these guys as an assistant the past few years—saw an opportunity to find out a little more about his group. So he challenged them at the half. “I told the guys, This is perfect,” Brady said. “We were playing terribly, and it was a 10–10 game, and you never want that, right? I don’t ever want us to have to be humbled. You want to come out and absolutely dominate every game. And I think it’s an excuse when people say there are ups and downs in the season. I don’t think there has to be. But there obviously was today, and it was an opportunity to see the character in the locker room. “Like, is there gonna be finger-pointing? Are we a front-running crew, and what does it look like?” Brady got his answer, maybe most so in that the speech didn’t work right away. The Chargers opened the half with a 13-play drive that consumed more than half of the third quarter and put the visitors up 13–10. And the Bills’ offense promptly fumbled five plays after that, just as it was starting to get some momentum back, then fumbled again on its next possession. From there? The Bills picked off Justin Herbert, drove for a touchdown, got a fourth-down stop, drove for another touchdown, then held L.A. to a field goal and covered an onside kick. The key, to Brady, goes back to an offseason mantra—“Our message all offseason has just been just f—ing put the ball down and just keep going for 60 minutes, and they’re gonna have to play us for 60 minutes.” So even with the miscues, the team had Chauncey Gardner-Johnson’s crucial pick, James Cook’s rugged running, corner Davison Igbinosun filling in for Christian Benford, and Ed Oliver registering a key pressure on Herbert in crunch time. Over the years, everyone’s seen Allen keep playing through those ugly moments. Sunday showed his teammates now can, too. And Brady had a feeling they would, after seeing those guys at the half. “Look, I don’t want to say [the second half] was any prettier, because we ended up fumbling [twice],” he said. “But we talked all week about us, staying like a chain, staying linked, and I felt that we were that. I didn’t see anybody fighting with each other, pointing fingers like bad teams do. We were able to have success the first two weeks, so you really don’t know how guys are going to handle when we’re not having success. And so I’m really proud. I mean, we had five giveaways. You should never win a football game like that, right? And to be minus-four in the takeaway column? “But our guys didn’t blink, and they just kept believing that they’re going to find a way.” They sure did. And that makes them, at 3–0, and set to play the Patriots, who took the AFC East from them last year, next week, as dangerous as a Josh Allen Bills team has ever been. |
| MIAMIFriend of Don Shula are trying to add two more wins to his career victory total. Mike Sando of The Athletic: 5. Who will add more wins this season, the Dolphins or Don Shula?The Miami Dolphins finished 10-4 in Don Shula’s first season as coach, after going 3-10-1 in the previous season. “The whole thing,” Shula said before his first game with Miami in 1970, “is to try to instill confidence. You want to build an idea, make winning a habit, and to do this, you have to first form a basis from which to work.” No one should hold new Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley to the standard Shula set as the winningest coach in NFL history. A more realistic goal: collecting more wins this season than Shula adds. Wait, what? Shula, who died in 2020, could out-win the Dolphins this season? It could happen, as the former Miami Herald columnist Dave Hyde detailed on Substack. Shula twice won “Playoff Bowl” games as the Baltimore Colts’ coach in the 1960s, back when the NFL had a third-place game. The league counted those victories in its official records until inexplicably removing them in 1982. Shula, ever the competitor, thought his widely cited win total (347, counting playoffs) should actually be 349. In 1972, when Shula was about to become the youngest coach to win 100 regular-season games, he told the Boston Globe’s Will McDonough, “Actually, if you count playoffs, I’ve already won 105 games,” per Hyde. That 105-win total included the two Playoff Bowl victories. How many wins are enough? All of them. And if the NFL revisits the matter, after Hyde reached out to the league and competition committee, Andy Reid could become an even longer shot to overtake Shula, who currently has a 347-310 lead over him (Bill Belichick is second at 333). As for the current Dolphins, they are 0-3 for the fifth time in franchise history after losing 24-10 to Reid’s Chiefs. Their -50 point differential through three games isn’t close to the -117 margin through three games in 2019, when the team started 0-7, then won five of its final nine games under first-year coach Brian Flores. It’s still early, but with the Dolphins’ best player, running back De’Von Achane, suffering what appears to be a serious knee injury on Sunday, the grade just got steeper heading into games against Minnesota and Cincinnati before a Week 6 bye. |
| NEW ENGLANDThe simple fact is that QB DRAKE MAYE and the Patriots are, at the moment, bad. Bill Barnwll of ESPN.com: Lost 35-6 to the JaguarsOn one hand, there’s nothing unrealistic or shocking about the Patriots losing to the Jaguars in Jacksonville. On the other, unlike the other four games I’ll talk about here, this loss wasn’t particularly close. While Mike Vrabel & Co. might feel like they played better than the final score indicated and lost 10 points on sloppy play in the red zone and a missed field goal, the Patriots aren’t building on what they put together in 2025. They look like they’ve gone back in time to the first half of the 2024 season, when Drake Maye was a rookie, Vrabel was out of football and a half-dozen dismal plays per game typically doomed them to losses. Since A.J. Brown went down in the second half of the Week 1 loss to the Seahawks, the Patriots have looked like a completely different offense. Maye was playing well in that game, continuously taking checkdowns and small profits. With Seattle quarterback Drew Lock being summoned to play on short notice with Sam Darnold’s early injury and the Seahawks struggling to score, that would have been a logical way for the Patriots to try to win. Instead, Maye threw three interceptions to turn that game, all on throws he never should have considered making. He was better against the Steelers in Week 2 but badly underthrew a pass to Patrick Queen on a crosser for an interception, one play after he had escaped pressure and found Romeo Doubs on the sort of scramble drill creation Maye had excelled with last season. And on Sunday against the Jaguars, Maye continued to put the ball in danger in spots where it wasn’t needed. His first interception was a disaster — a throw offensive coordinators try to pry out of their quarterbacks after they turn pro. Booting to the right on the same fast-to-the-flat concept so many teams are running these days, Maye’s first option, running back Rhamondre Stevenson, was taken away. Under pressure from Foyesade Oluokun, Maye realistically should have thrown the ball away on a third-and-goal situation and either lived to try on fourth down or picked up three points. Instead, he threw against his body to Hunter Henry, and Travis Hunter made the interception. It was the wrong risk at the wrong time. Maye also had the ball slip out of his hands in the middle of a dropback for a fumble, an issue he attributed after the game to a bloody football. He lost another one at the end of a scramble, costing the Patriots another drive that ended inside the 5-yard line. And while his second interception might have been more on wide receiver Kyle Williams (who didn’t offer much physicality on a contested catch situation on the sideline), it certainly feels like Maye is pressing or trying to make too much happen. Still, Maye does have stretches where he’s playing well. He was fine for most of the game against the Seahawks and made several important plays, mostly with his legs, late in the contest to get the Pats back in a position to tie or take the lead before his final ill-advised pick. And there were multiple third downs in this game against Jacksonville where Maye was pressured, escaped, reset and delivered a ball that either hit his receiver in the hands or went through them. Mack Hollins taking a taunting penalty after a 9-yard catch on third-and-10 down 28-3 in the fourth quarter isn’t on Maye and probably wasn’t a great idea (even if that’s a score that might feel comfortable for Patriots fans). Is it just the fact that the Patriots are playing tougher opponents than they were in 2025? I think that’s certainly part of the issue. If you go back to 2025, Maye wasn’t turning the ball over this often against top-tier competition. Including the postseason, Maye played nine games against top-15 defenses by DVOA last season, and he threw eight interceptions in those nine games. We don’t know if the Seahawks, Jaguars and Steelers will finish as elite defenses in 2026, but he now has six picks in three games and might have been lucky to leave Jacksonville without adding even more to that total. I would say more specifically that Maye was not punished anywhere near as often for putting the ball into dangerous situations a year ago. Remember that he had multiple wideouts run remarkable catch rates over expectation last season, with Kayshon Boutte, Stefon Diggs and Hollins all coming in 10-plus percentage points ahead of expected. I’m not saying that Maye was careless, but when he did take risks, he typically came out unscathed. Maye completed 47.7% of his tight-window throws in 2025, which was 11.4 percentage points better than his expected completion percentage on those attempts. He threw four picks on 88 tight-window attempts. This season, he has more interceptions (three) than completions (two) on tight-window passes, going 2-of-9 there. And after running a plus-9.0% completion percentage over expectation across all his throws in the 2025 regular season, Maye is at plus-2.4% this season. The offense around him hasn’t been as effective, in part because of injuries. The Patriots were the sixth-healthiest offense in the league last season by adjusted games lost. This year, they’ve already lost Brown to a high-ankle sprain and right guard Mike Onwenu to a fractured ankle. They miss Diggs, who was one of the NFL’s most efficient receivers on a per-snap basis, even if the Patriots only used him for about 50% of their offensive snaps. Hollins has instead been their unlikely lead receiver, as Doubs has been inconsistent. (Doubs’ drop against the Seahawks before a Maye interception looms in the memories of Patriots fans.) The word that keeps coming to mind when I watch this version of Maye, though, is inexperienced. That ability to calibrate decisions? To know when and where to put the ball in danger? To be a quarterback who both simultaneously makes the best possible decision within a play and the broader context of the game situation? It’s tough to watch Maye and say he has a great handle on that part of the job right now. And that’s not completely uncommon for a QB in Year 3. But Maye was perhaps able to cover over those issues last season while playing from ahead so often against teams that couldn’t make him pay. The Patriots might consider acting accordingly now. They’re already calling designed runs on first down nearly 57% of the time this season, the ninth-highest rate in the NFL. Could they lean even more into the run on early downs? Could they up the play-action rate to create easy completions for Maye when only four offenses run play fakes less often? Or should the Patriots just stick it out and trust that Maye will get right? After all, the guy who finished ahead of Maye in the MVP balloting last season is a lot more experienced than his younger predecessor, and Matthew Stafford has four interceptions in three games, too, including a pick-six that helped the Broncos back into things Sunday night. With games against the 3-0 Bills and Raiders on the way, though, the Patriots can’t afford to watch Maye learn on the fly given their expectations heading into 2026. |
