Week 3 is mostly in the books (though can’t wait for Lions-Ravens Monday night). What we had this time around was a sloppy and imperfect, yet highly-dramatic Sunday. We’re diving in on it in the MMQB takeaways …
With a little injury luck, Kyle Shanahan’s team has a real chance. Because, really, right now should be the hard part for the 49ers—when they’re taking their lumps with younger players learning key roles, and cornerstones such as Brock Purdy, George Kittle and Brandon Aiyuk working their way back from injuries.
Yet here we are, and San Francisco is now 3–0, having fended off a rising young Cardinals group at home Sunday, and with a showdown against the Rams two weeks away.
Sunday was by no means easy for the Niners. But it was revealing.
With the game tied at 13 and 5:19 left, Mac Jones threw a bad pick. On the Niners’ next possession, with Jones throwing out of his end zone, guard Dominick Puni got called for holding nearby, resulting in a safety that put Arizona up 15–13. At that point, the clock showed 3:15, and the upstart Cardinals were probably two first downs away from vanquishing the Niners on the road, and taking a 3–0 record into their Week 4 game against Seattle.
“It was a message throughout the game: Don’t leave anything on the field,” ninth-year linebacker Fred Warner told me afterward. “It was a super gritty game. It was hot, it was low-scoring and you think, We held them to six all game and then give up a score, then a big stop, then the offense has a safety. It was these big swings late in the game and at the end. It was everyone doing their one-eleventh, not trying to do anything ultra-special.”
Sure enough, that was just it. One of the rookies the Niners have in a prominent role, cornerback Upton Stout, broke a pass up on third down right after the two-minute warning to get the ball back. Then, Jones chipped down the field, hitting on completions of 11, 10, seven, 11 and 20 yards (that last one was a Christian McCaffrey catch-and-run) to position Eddy Pineiro for a chip shot to win the game.
Maybe the most encouraging thing of all for the Niners is that, with all the young guys they’re relying on after so much offseason attrition, and even those who have come in as the big names have gotten hurt, no one is really pressing.
“It speaks to the maturity of those young guys that have come in,” Warner said. “It’s all about the preparation they’ve put in to be ready for their moment, because they knew from OTAs that they were gonna have a chance to come in and be guys for us right away. My hats to them for being prepared for that moment. They’re only going to continue to get better.”
At least on paper, with a manageable schedule moving forward, the Niners should be able to do the same—with a shot to sweep their first run through the division coming on the Thursday of Week 5 against Los Angeles. Because just as the young guys settle in, get more confident and start to play faster, some of the older guys should filter back in the lineup.
Again, some luck will be needed too. Getting good test results Monday on Nick Bosa’s knee injury, which sounds like it could be pretty serious, would really help. But the Niners have done this before, so there’s plenty of reason to look at the team’s start and think that the team could be really, really good by the time the playoffs draw near.
“Of course we want to get some of that firepower back, the guys who’ve been injured,” Warner said. “But honestly, our mindset is being better next week than we were this week and finding a way to win next week. And like you mentioned, if we continue to keep our head down and keep working, with our young players continuing to get better …”
… There’s plenty that group could accomplish.
Which, given the history in San Francisco, probably shouldn’t surprise anyone.
The Steelers’ win in Foxboro wasn’t exactly a work of art. But in a specific way, it did go according to plan. To illustrate that, allow T.J. Watt to take you back to last week, and right into Mike Tomlin’s team meeting room.
“Mike T had a big presentation on it earlier in the week,” Watt said, of the Steelers’ Patriots prep. “I think 38 [Rhamondre Stevenson] had eight or nine fumbles last year [he had seven], which is a very high amount. Four [Antonio Gibson] had a couple fumbles. And we knew 10 [Drake Maye] had a bunch of fumbles as well [he had nine], when he was in the pocket. It was something we highlighted each and every day. There was a constant reminder throughout the week.
“We just needed to deliver and I’m glad we did.”
How badly did the Steelers need it? Probably worse than they thought they would.
It’s not overstating things much to say that the five takeaways Pittsburgh collected Sunday afternoon were the reason the Steelers escaped Foxboro with a 21–14 win over a fast-improving Patriots team. In fact, New England outgained the Steelers 369 to 203, had 26 first downs to Pittsburgh’s 17, controlled the ball for over 33 minutes and converted on 4-of-5 fourth-down attempts (though the one stop the Steelers got wound up winning the game).
A lot of the trouble signs you saw from Pittsburgh the first two weeks were there, too. The Patriots were able to run the ball, and the Steelers couldn’t. Pittsburgh’s young offensive line had its fits and starts. Aaron Rodgers struggled at times with the rush in his face.
But the Steelers have a 2–1 mark with their Week 4 trip to Dublin looming. The win was, yes, a result of those big defensive plays—and also when they happened.
Stevenson’s first fumble came on the first possession of the game, with Cole Holcomb punching it out, and Darius Slay recovering it, to set up Pittsburgh’s first touchdown. The second was Brandin Echols’s end zone pick, off a Cam Heyward deflection, to end the first half on a third-and-goal, saving at least three points. Then, there was Heyward punching the ball out from Stevenson at the goal line, after a Rodgers pick at the start of the third quarter; and Watt jarring the ball loose from Gibson in Steelers territory on the Patriots’ next drive.
“We are a ball-hawking unit,” Watt said. “That’s something that Coach always preaches. The takeover culture, the turnover culture. We weren’t successful last week. Jalen [Ramsey] had a pick, and Herb [Nate Herbig] had the pick off Cam’s deflection. But other than that, we haven’t had a lot of splash. We had some splash today. A lot of guys putting their hands in the pile and creating turnovers and opportunities for the offense to put points on the board.
“They come in bunches.”
Add that to the fourth-down stop that finished the Patriots, with Echols yanking Patriots slot receiver DeMario Douglas to the turf short of the sticks, and the Steelers survived. (“Two huge plays for him, the big tackle at the end, just shows he wants more and more,” Watt said.)
But there’s still a ton to address through an uneven start—with the line, the defense and the quarterback still looking for consistency.
The next chance the Steelers have to find it will be in Dublin next week, in Pittsburgh’s first international game in 12 years. In an effort to keep the players’ focus where it needed to be, Watt said that Tomlin kept the schedule for the trip away from them the past couple of weeks. As such, the 31-year-old joked that his goal now is “first and foremost, learning the schedule.” After that, there’ll be plenty left to address.
“We are still in the jelling phase of it all,” he said, from his seat on the team plane. “We have a lot of new guys with very successful résumés, high-pedigree guys. Everyone is trying to learn what the 2025 Steelers are going to be. Today was just a representation of what the defense can be. Week 1, the offense carried a heavy load for us. We’re trying to play Steelers football. We hope we can continue to win while we figure out what that’ll look like.
“But when you have a quarterback that can throw the ball like [Rodgers] does, it definitely gives you a chance. And on Sunday, that’s all you need, is a chance.”
Ugly as it was at times Sunday, the Steelers gave themselves enough of one in New England.
The Eagles showed everyone a little something Sunday. There was a point where this sunny afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field felt a little bit like a reckoning for the world champs—the day when a key offensive lineman went down, the tush push was rendered less useful with more long-yardage situations and Philly had to come from 19 points down behind Jalen Hurts and a group of receivers who have looked frustrated at times.
And maybe it was a reckoning.
Just one of a different kind.
With a stingy Rams defense knowing he’d have to throw it, Hurts managed to go 17-of-24 for 209 yards and three touchdowns in the second half. The line bounced back after a strip-sack of Hurts started the half. The Eagles’ premier weapons in the pass game—A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith—were at their best when needed most. And, yes, the Eagles pulled a rabbit out of their hat with Jordan Davis’s big play (we’ll get to that).
So for the third consecutive week, Philly posted a quality win (or at least what sure looks like one), with another big game on tap (that’s in Tampa against the unbeaten Buccaneers next Sunday).
What does it mean? I came up with four things:
• Hurts is still growing as a quarterback. Throwing the ball when the defense is inviting you to run it, which is what happens when the opponent has a big lead, is a different ball of wax. When he was younger, the rap on Hurts was that if you got a lead on him, and took the teeth out of the play-action game, Philly’s run-heavy offense would struggle. Now it’s getting harder to say that about Hurts.
• This is why the Eagles are paying what they’re paying for Brown and Smith. Those two juiced the Philly comeback. Brown’s 38-yard catch down the right side early in the third quarter got the Eagles on track (and was followed by a 33-yard touchdown throw to Dallas Goedert down the seam). The Eagles’ next drive was sparked by a 16-yard catch by Smith and capped by a touchdown to Brown. And the two combined to convert three third downs on the go-ahead drive, which ended with a Smith touchdown.
• The Eagles’ athletic freak defensive linemen made special teams plays, which highlights how seriously Philly takes that phase, using star players on those units. Jalen Carter’s blocked field goal preceded the go-ahead drive. Jordan Davis’s spectacular field goal block and return for a touchdown (Davis rumbled 61 yards) finished off the Rams. And both showed effort you might not expect from stars in that area of the game.
• Even when Philly has issues, the Eagles have a way of working them out on the fly. Losing Lane Johnson to a stinger was a big blow, of course. Matt Pryor was first off the bench, and then the Eagles turned to Fred Johnson. Eventually, it got cleaned up. After the Rams opened the second half with Jared Verse’s aforementioned strip-sack, and pushed their lead to 26–7 on the next play, the line settled down, yielding one sack against L.A.’s excellent front the rest of the way.
Now, obviously, Sunday was far from perfect for the Eagles. Next week’s trip to Tampa will be fascinating. But this one was, too—and, for Philly, it was for a lot of the right reasons, that’ll make you believe that, with some growth, a repeat could be in play.
Marcus Mariota’s Sunday was more proof of what’s right with the Commanders these days. The No. 2 pick in the 2015 draft wasn’t Superman on Sunday in Landover. He was 15-of-21 for 207 yards, with 99 of those yards coming on two throws. He also ran for 40 yards on six carries, and threw for a touchdown and ran for another.
But what he gave the Commanders was more valuable than gaudy stats.
With Jayden Daniels one of five starting quarterbacks shelved for Week 3, Mariota gave his coaches and teammates normalcy, and that helped bring home a breezy 41–24 win over the Raiders that moved Washington to 2–1.
When I was at the Commanders’ camp last month, a few different guys told me how important it was to Daniels that Mariota was coming back. The reasoning was that the quarterback room had been so healthy in 2024 that it needed to be preserved at any (reasonable) cost.
“It’s the hardest position in sports,” Mariota told me after Sunday’s win. “In my experience, I’ve always wanted to lean into my quarterback room. That’s the group that really understands what it feels like to play the position. So in my role here, I try to make it friendly and positive for Jay, and compete and push him in different areas to be the best. And in return, it helps me be the best version of myself. It’s such a great culture [we have] and I think it’s important.
“When you get the quarterback room healthy, that trickles down to the rest of the team.”
All that was at work through the 10 days between the Commanders’ loss to the Packers on Thursday in Week 2, and Sunday’s inter-conference game in the D.C. burbs. Mariota knew coming out of the Green Bay game that there was a shot he’d start against the Raiders, but the coaches left the light on for the idea of Daniels starting through last week. Meanwhile, Mariota was working with OC Kliff Kingsbury, with Kingsbury figuring out what Mariota liked best within his scheme, and then leaning into that. “He tailors it … and I trust what he’s going to call,” Mariota said.
What helped Kingsbury, Dan Quinn and everyone else in burgundy and gold is that there are certainly stylistic similarities between Daniels and Mariota, which means making things comfortable for the backup won’t flip things upside down for the other 10 guys in the huddle. Another thing that helped Mariota? Daniels himself, who was alongside Mariota all week to be a resource, just as Mariota has been for him over the past year and a half.
And that adds up to moments such as the one Mariota picked out for me at the end of the third quarter, with Washington leading 27–10 and looking to put the quarterback’s former team away. Mariota had just hit Terry McLaurin downfield for 56 yards, on a play that was initially called a touchdown, then put back on the 1 after review. A Jacory “Bill” Croskey-Merritt run was stoned on first-and-goal, and Mariota was stopped on second-and-goal.
Mariota looked at his offensive line and told the guys that was where they’d end the game.
“Bill had a great run, and that set the tempo for the rest of the game,” Mariota said. “When you have guys that believe in one another and want to do that, it’s cool to be a part of.”
That Mariota’s gotten to be a part of it has brought his love for the sport back to life—and that isn’t overstating it, according to him. Two years ago, he left Atlanta with questions in that area. He doesn’t have those anymore.
“It’s fun again,” he said. “It comes down to us having a group of guys that love ball, love competing and love being the best version of themselves. When you can be a part of that and fall in line like everyone else, I really enjoy it. That’s how I’ve always treated it. I appreciate ‘Q’ [Quinn] for creating that type of environment here for us. I think it’s allowed guys to be the best version of themselves.”
It’s also allowed the Commanders to ride out bumps, even significant ones like being without the face of their franchise for a week or two.
The Chargers are off to a monster start. They have three wins. One in Brazil. One in Las Vegas. Now one at home. They’ve swept their first run through the AFC West, which might be the toughest division in football, and they’ve done it after losing Rashawn Slater for the year and Khalil Mack (more temporarily) in their Week 2 game against the Raiders.
But what makes them really scary is how Justin Herbert is playing. If he keeps it up, everyone else might start talking about the sixth-year quarterback the way Jim Harbaugh does.
And based on the way the fourth quarter went, against Denver’s loaded defense, what Harbaugh’s been saying about his quarterback since landing in Los Angeles two Januarys ago is looking more and more justified. And at no moment more so than Herbert’s 20-yard touchdown pass to old vet Keenan Allen that tied the game at 20 with less than three minutes left, after the Chargers blew an early 10–0 lead.
Afterward, Allen had an idea that his quarterback did something wild to get the ball to him, but didn’t see it as he was working to get open for Herbert.
“Was it nasty?” Allen asked me afterward.
I answered that indeed it was.
On the play, Herbert slid through Zach Allen and Jonathon Cooper, who were coming at him in the pocket from different directions, and broke to his left. Nik Bonitto caught up to him on that edge, and forced an off-balance throw on which Herbert whipped his arm back and somehow threw a fastball that landed in Allen’s midsection.
“It was really a broken-down play,” Allen said. “Herbert got flushed out the pocket. I saw him roll out and I tried to spin around and get to the back of the pylon as fast as I could. When the ball got in the air, I honestly don’t know how I caught it. It just ended up sticking to my hands.”
That tied the score. The Chargers’ defense then forced a three-and-out and punt, and Herbert got the ball back with 1:43 left on his own 32. Herbert promptly went 4-for-4 for 36 yards from there, setting up Cameron Dicker’s 43-yard field goal that won it, and made the Chargers 3–0 for the first time since 2002.
And the reality was, with how Herbert’s playing, few defenses, even one at the level of Denver’s, would have much of a shot to stop him in that spot.
“He’s just getting better every day,” Allen said. “He knows the offense like the back of his hand. He knows when we’re in stuff, when to get out of it. I think that’s the start of it, and then the rest is having confidence he can make every play. When he knows everything—can get to what he wants to get to and knows how to do it—it’s kind of hard to stop him.”
Meanwhile, with Harbaugh’s second year off to this kind of start, you could say that about a lot of aspects of this particular Chargers team.
Allen says, as he sees it, the team still hasn’t put together a fully balanced game. But the potential is obvious, and the Chargers know what they’re capable of.
“It’s the belief, for sure,” Allen said. “The trust we have in each other and the confidence we have in each other, knowing we always have a chance. Nobody flinched, nobody laid down, we all kept fighting. We all kept going till the end.”
As such, they sure have the look of a team that’ll be there at the end of the year, too.
Speaking of program wins with backup quarterbacks, the Vikings got themselves one of those, too. At the half against the Bengals in Sunday’s battle of backup quarterbacks, the Vikings had a modest 144 yards and 10 first downs. Those aren’t anemic numbers by any measure, but they’re not great numbers, either.
Yet, the team was leading 34–3, and on its way to a 48–10 bludgeoning of Cincinnati.
Perhaps the player most symbolic of the effort was Isaiah Rodgers, the star corner the Vikings imported from Philly in the offseason. Rodgers made plays every which way, becoming the first player in franchise history to score on interception and fumble returns in the same game, and the first in league history to do both of those things and force a second fumble in the same game.
“That’s something I haven’t even done in Madden,” Rodgers joked with me.
And since it’s historic, even against video game standards, here’s a recap of the three big plays:
• The first one came with the Bengals driving, down 7–0, midway through the first quarter, and Rodgers breaking on a ball inside the 20 and bringing it back 87 yards to pay dirt. “It was understanding where I need to be—just focusing on myself,” he said. “And Harry [Harrison Smith] made a great play by deflecting the ball. I was at the right spot and once I broke that first tackle, I had to get to the end zone.”
• The second came with the game still close. The Vikings were up 17–3, and the Bengals were driving again, at the Minnesota 36. Rodgers punched the ball out from Noah Fant, recovered it and then raced 66 yards to make it 24–3. “I landed on the ball; I knew where it was,” Rodgers said. “I wanted to lay there because it hurt, but that’s one of the moments.” In other words, he had a sense of what was around him and realized if he popped to his feet, he’d have a chance to score.
• With the Vikings leading 31–3 and less than 30 seconds left in the first half, Rodgers came in low on Ja’Marr Chase and simply punched the ball loose. “It’s just understanding what he didn’t see—I was on his blindside,” Rodgers said. “And understanding the ball was loose in his right hand and he was trying to make a play, dealing with the timing of the game.”
Now, if you go back and look at those circumstances again, you’ll see how Rodgers’s football IQ and awareness played into each of them, and it’s no mistake. It’s what defensive coordinator Brian Flores looks for in guys, and why the Vikings identified Rodgers as a fit in free agency. It’s also why, as Rodgers sees it, Minnesota’s bringing out the best in him. “It’s helping me be smart,” Rodgers said. “I’m not at any discomfort because I know the guys out there know what they have to do.”
With a roster full of guys like that, the Vikings are well-positioned to deal with whatever challenge lands at their feet, even if it comes at the most important position on the field.
“K.O. [Kevin O’Connell] and his staff created the 53-man roster knowing we would create the best roster for the Vikings this season,” Rodgers said. “Everyone on this team has the mentality. So we did not waver not having our starting quarterback. We knew as a defense, we had to go out there and make plays and cause turnovers. We got a great display by the special teams—in the kicking team, everyone showed up today. It was great Minnesota Vikings football.”
Which, it turns out, is about a lot more than just who’s playing quarterback.
Sunday’s win was why the Browns are starting Joe Flacco at quarterback. To prove it, I’ll take you back to when Cleveland got the ball at its own 20 with 9:26 left in Sunday’s home game against the Packers. At that point, Kevin Stefanski’s team had 138 yards on 39 offensive plays (3.5 yards per play), seven first downs and zero points. On the other side of the ball was the league’s most dominant defense to this early point of the season.
In other words, there was no reason for the 0–2 Browns to have much hope. And, as such, the conversation on the sideline wasn’t rosy.
“You can imagine,” Flacco said to me, laughing, postgame. “It’s hard. We had to stick through it. It’s one of those where your coaches are saying, Stick to it. It’s not like you have a ton of confidence. But in that moment, you have to be able to withstand some of that stuff and continue to play the full 60 minutes. Sometimes the ball just bounces your way. And because you didn’t bury your head in the sand, you’re able to take advantage of it.”
The Browns did take advantage because they have a quarterback experienced enough to know how quickly things can flip, as they did Sunday in Cleveland’s 13–10 shocker over Micah Parsons and the vaunted Packers.
The Browns’ reality this year is that they’re in a state of transition. GM Andrew Berry dealt away the No. 2 pick in the draft, and the right to take Travis Hunter, because the team needs an infusion of youth on the roster—with the core aging a bit, and the loss of draft picks from the Deshaun Watson trade now being felt. It means having a mix of guys such as Myles Garrett and Mason Graham, and needing to build up the culture.
So let’s say these Browns had one of their rookie quarterbacks starting on Sunday. Would he be able to stare down the barrel of Parsons and the Packers in the last 10 minutes of a game, and essentially turn the Titanic against that defense? Probably not.
Flacco did.
It started with two runs from rookie Quinshon Judkins, the first for 14 yards, and then the second for 38. “Guys are excited about him because they saw him in the spring and saw what he was capable of,” Flacco said. “He has juice.” And from there, Flacco calmly led the Browns to the edge of the goal line, before a penalty forced a field goal. Then, Cleveland capitalized on a Grant Delpit pick that put the ball on the Packers’ 4 to tie it.
After a blocked Packers field goal and a 55-yard game-winner from kicker Andre Szmyt, Cleveland (improbably) is in the win column. And the cool Flacco brought to the huddle was no small factor, with the hope now that his level-headedness will rub off on those around him.
“Anytime you win games like that as a team, it does something for you,” Flacco said. “You have to remember how good this defense has been—they held the Lions to basically nothing. You do have to remember that side of it. So as frustrating as today was [early on], the embarrassment of it, we still held it together through the frustration and made it work. Obviously, we had things go our way, too, but that’s how football works. We didn’t do anything to make it worse, no turnovers after the first half.
“They gave us something and we were able to capitalize on it.”
And now, in the midst of a grind of a schedule, the Browns’ young guys—rookies such as Graham, Judkins and Carson Schwesinger primary among them—have this experience to point back to and reference as new and different challenges arise over the next three months.
Which is why Flacco was the right guy for this young group all along.
Now, maybe, eventually, it’ll be time to get a look at Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. However, the Browns still have something to play for, so you’ll probably have to wait for that.
Baker Mayfield, Emeka Egbuka and even kicker Chase McLaughlin will get most of the attention for the Buccaneers’ heart-stopping win—and they deserve plenty—but that was a true organizational triumph. The reason? Tampa Bay’s offensive line.
For a variety of reasons, almost no one in the NFL has any depth in that area. It’s too hard to find linemen coming out with an increasingly spread offense-oriented college level, too hard to develop backups who don’t play on game day and can’t hit nearly as much as they used to in practice and so on. So, usually, if a team loses a starter or two, that team really feels it.
On Sunday, the Buccaneers were without star left tackle Tristan Wirfs, starting right tackle Luke Goedeke, starting right guard Cody Mauch and key backup Michael Jordan, whom the team was shuttling up and down from the practice squad, and planning to sign for the season.
It would be a disaster for most teams, and it would be idiotic to suggest it didn’t affect the Buccaneers.
Yet, at the end on Sunday—after the Buccaneers overcame Will McDonald IV blocking a potential game-clinching field goal and running it back 50 yards for a touchdown that put the Jets up 27–26—Tampa had given up only one sack, rushed for 122 yards and scored a 29–27 win. That the game went that way is a result of the work of a lot of folks. Consider:
• The Bucs’ 2024 first-round pick, Graham Barton, was drafted to play center, and played center as a rookie. But he started at left tackle for three years at Duke, making All-ACC at the position twice, so the Bucs flipped him back over there after Wirfs went down, and his experience there has been a godsend. He’s not perfect as an NFL left tackle, but he’s a really good stopgap in this sort of pinch.
• Later in that draft, VP of player personnel Mike Biehl and college scouting director Tony Hardie (then the director of player personnel and assistant college director) helped dig out UTEP guard Elijah Klein in the sixth round—feeling like his toughness and grit would be a fit. He made his first career start Sunday at left guard.
• Luke Haggard came aboard in 2023 (having first played at Santa Rosa Junior College, then Indiana) as an undrafted free agent. He was developed by line coaches Kevin Carberry and Brian Picucci over the past two years on the team’s practice squad. Like Klein, he made his first career start Sunday, as the team’s right guard.
• Guard Ben Bredeson was a find for the pro scouting department, and assistant GM Rob McCartney and assistant pro scouting directors Donovan Cotton and Sean Conley in particular, on a one-year deal in 2024. He came back this year on a three-year, $22 million deal. And with the shuffling, Bredeson replaced Barton at center, where he’s emerged as a the glue of the group, with his intelligence and maturity.
• Journeyman Charlie Heck arrived this offseason to replace Justin Skule, who went to Minnesota (where Christian Darrisaw’s injury created an opportunity). Heck’s the right tackle with Goedeke out, and looks like another win for the pro scouting department.
And to tie it all together, it’s worth mentioning that GM Jason Licht and coach Todd Bowles have been very picky on whom they put in the offensive line room, because they think the culture inside of it is so good. You sure could see the benefit of it Sunday, and there’s real hope now that they’ll have not just Wirfs back next week, but also Chris Godwin (Egbuka replacing him is another one of these stories) for next weekend’s titanic NFC showdown against the Eagles.
The flag football in Saudi Arabia thing merits paying attention to. And not because I’m overly interested in actually watching the games.
Twice this week, I reached out to the NFL for comment on the announcement that current players such as CeeDee Lamb, Christian McCaffrey, Myles Garrett, Brock Bowers, Maxx Crosby, Saquon Barkley, Tyreek Hill and Sauce Gardener—along with future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady—are slated to play in the tournament in March. I haven’t heard anything back. And I think that’s because the NFL is using this as a trial balloon.
Clearly, the players are profiting from it, and that their teams aren’t preventing them from going could be read as some tacit curiosity on how it goes.
The players get paid for it. Owners get to see what the reaction to it is, and whether the human rights record or terrorist ties of Saudi Arabia get the attention of the general public, without taking the PR risk on their own. They also get stars playing flag football, rather than the traditional tackle version that is their trade, ahead of the 2028 Olympics.
Is there a moral question here? Absolutely. If you consider the Saudis’ surge into American sports, most prominently with LIV Golf, to be sportswashing, then I assume you’d have an issue with football dipping its toe in these waters (the Saudis would contend it’s an effort to diversify their ability to generate profits outside of the oil industry).
Either way, this isn’t the first time the Saudis have tried to get involved with American football. If this works for the NFL, it’s also a solid bet that it won’t be the last.
To cap off this fun, sloppy Sunday, we’ve got the quick-hitting takeaways. Let’s roll …
• I talked to Panthers corner Chau Smith-Wade, who had a pick-six in Carolina’s dominant 30–0 win over the Falcons, and he raised what a lot of the team’s shot-callers did over the summer. There’s a real synergy in the types of guys the team has brought in over the past couple of offseasons. “We’ve slowly developed our identity,” Smith-Wade told me. “Our standard and mindset, we put that at the forefront today.” It is, to put it in simple terms, reflective of Dave Canales’s roots working for Pete Carroll. Tough. Edgy. Physical. Competitive. And we’ll see how that holds up next Sunday in New England, against the similarly feisty Patriots, with a chance for both teams to hit .500 at the quarter mark.
• Speaking of the Patriots, Maye might’ve had some bumpy moments against the Steelers. But more often than not Sunday, he looked confident, smooth and difficult to defend (particularly in how he picked his spots running the ball). With each week, he seems to be playing a little faster.
• Ditto for Caleb Williams on Sunday. That he went 19-of-28 for 298 yards and four touchdowns in a 31–14 win over a defensive coach that knows him like Matt Eberflus does is pretty impressive. So if you killed the Bears’ quarterback for how he played the first two weeks (I was critical, too), you have to give him credit for a really clean effort this week.
• The Cowboys are now a 64-yard field goal away from being 0–3 going into next week’s reunion with Micah Parsons. That said, if Dallas can steal one from the Packers, the schedule lightens some from there. So a nice rebound next week could be a launching point.
• The Chiefs’ offense had a bit of a moment in the locker room at halftime against the Giants. At the time, the score was 9–6—Kansas City was up, but not playing great—and the leaders told everyone to settle down, and just handle the game on a play-by-play basis. After that, Patrick Mahomes was an efficient 10-for-14 for 124 yards and a touchdown. Up next? The Ravens.
• The Seahawks-Saints game was 21–0 in the blink of an eye and 38–6 at the half, and I’m not sure if that says more about Seattle’s excellence or New Orleans’s ineptitude. What I do know is Sam Darnold’s a good quarterback, and the Seahawks’ talent is better than you think.
• Daniel Jones and the Colts looked for real again. Yes, it was against the Titans. But taking care of games like that one is part of becoming a really good team, and Indianapolis might actually be one (if the Colts aren’t what the Saints were early last year).
• I thought we’d see more from Michael Penix Jr. at this point. But I also would like to have more evidence before we really judge the Falcons’ quarterback. Remember, other than McCarthy, he actually played the least of the six first-round quarterbacks in the 2024 draft.
• I’m excited to get a closer look at the Jaguars later this week—but Liam Coen looks like he’s got something cooking down there. And Josh Hines-Allen was a force against the Texans on Sunday, registering five quarterback pressures against C.J. Stroud and a struggling offense.
• While we’re there, I still think it’s appropriate to give the Texans some more time, with a rookie offensive coordinator (Nick Caley), a rookie left tackle (Aireontae Ersery) and rookie receivers (Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel) in prominent roles. That said, this has to be frustrating for a defense that’s allowing 17 points per game and has a chance to be the league’s very best.
• Bonus: I mentioned at the top that I’m fired up for Lions-Ravens Monday night. Give me Baltimore in close one.
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