Three weeks into the NFL season, there have been plenty of ups and downs for teams already and surprise results.
New York football fans had a good week as both the Jets and Giants pulled off wins in Week 3, and Tom Brady clearly had enough of calling Cowboys games three games into his broadcasting career.
Now with Week 3 in the books, let’s take a look at some of the biggest winners and losers around the NFL.
Winners from Week 3
Former LSU products
It was a good week to be a former LSU Tiger, between Malik Nabers’ incredible performance against the Browns and Jayden Daniels followed it up with a two-touchdown effort for the Commanders on “Monday Night Football.”
Nabers finished Sunday’s game with two highlight-reel touchdown catches and 78 receiving yards to his name, all while becoming the youngest wide receiver in NFL history to record two touchdowns in a single game.
His game was enough to even earn praise from former Giants running back Saquon Barkley.
Daniels actually finished the game with three touchdowns — one of which came on the ground — and in the air, he completed 21-of-23 pass attempts for 254 yards.
The 2023 Heisman Trophy winner told ESPN after the game that his team was “just executing at a high level” in the win.
Tom Brady
The seven-time Super Bowl champion is slowly taking strides in his broadcasting skills, and on Sunday, while calling the Cowboys’ game against the Ravens, he seemed to be coming into his own a little more.
Brady will be a work in progress all season as he acclimates to his new role around football, and this week was another sign that he’s moving in the right direction.
Week 3. Getty Images
Fans seemed to appreciate the human reaction from the former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback when he sounded like he wanted to throw his headset when the Cowboys took a penalty down 28-6 in the third quarter.
At the very least, Brady can be considered a winner this week for the sole fact that he survived calling another game involving the Cowboys, and he’ll finally call another team when Fox sends Brady and Kevin Burkhardt call the Eagles-Buccaneers game.
Andy Dalton
For all the talk around Dave Canales’ decision to bench Bryce Young, he looked like a genius after veteran backup Andy Dalton came in and threw for 300-plus yards and led the previously winless Panthers to victory over the Raiders.
Granted, the bar was pretty low for Dalton to have to vault in order to make Canales look like he made the right call.
Dalton completed 26 passes for 319 yards and three touchdowns, becoming the first quarterback this season to throw for more than 300 passing yards and three scores this year.
In the process, the 36-year-old quarterback locked up the starting job for at least another week.
Losers from Week 3
Dolphins offense
Miami has found itself blown out two straight weeks now, and things only got worse for them with backup Skylar Thompson going down with an injury in the middle of the game on Sunday.
Even before the injury, Thompson only had 107 passing yards and didn’t throw a single touchdown, while the Dolphins were limited to just 65 yards on the ground.
The Dolphins finished the game with just 205 total yards.
Travis Kelce
NBC cameras caught the Chiefs’ star tight end looking miserable during Sunday’s win over the Falcons, and concerns have only grown over Kelce, as he’s struggled to make much of an impact this season early on.
Kelce was limited in Sunday night’s game and he had just four catches for 30 yards.
He has just eight catches for 69 yards and no touchdowns this season.
With the struggles come the questions over everything else he has going on from his off-field endeavors to his relationship with Taylor Swift.
It’s all coming under the microscope after another tough week.
Bengals
Cincinnati collapsed in prime time to the Commanders and now sits at 0-3 after the first three weeks of the year.
While it’s early in the season still, the Bengals playoff chances took a hit, as only six teams have made the playoffs after losing their first three games of the season since the 1970s.
The defense struggled against Daniels, and now there’s a question going into Week 4 about whether the Bengals will be able to beat the Panthers, who shocked the Raiders this past week.
