NFL Week 3 recap: Highlights & analysis (2024)

Week 3 of the NFL season is in the books! Check in with The Athletic for all the latest news, game previews, injury updates and analysis from our team of experts and insiders.

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It is Monday following Week 3. The Los Angeles Chargers are 1-2. And they are dealing with a season-ending injury to a crucial offensive star.

No, this is not a description of 2022. Exactly one year later, the Chargers are faced with a very similar situation.

Receiver Mike Williams tore the ACL in his left knee late in the third quarter of Sunday’s 28-24 win at the Minnesota Vikings. An MRI on Monday revealed the tear. The Chargers announced later in the day that Williams will miss the remainder of the season.

The Chargers finally got in the win column. Even their wins come with crippling losses.

“The toughest kind of news,” coach Brandon Staley said Monday.

Read more here.

Josh McDaniels said he doesn’t pay attention to the pundits and critics who question his decision to kick a field goal down eight points with 2:25 left Sunday night.

And while the Las Vegas Raiders coach would likely do the same thing over again, he gets why fans were screaming at their television screens.

“I think it’s fair to be critical of it,” McDaniels said Monday morning. “I’m not saying I would do it differently, but I understand both sides and that’s what I was going through in my mind too is trying to evaluate both scenarios. Again, you can say I was wrong. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it was 100 percent an easy decision.

“It had nothing to do with not believing if we had a play that would work or whatever. Went for it a number of times yesterday on fourth down as it is. I think we’ve gone for it in every game on fourth down at some point. So, not averse to doing that.”

Read more here.

Rashan Gary started crying when Matt LaFleur flipped him a game ball amidst the postgame locker room celebration on Sunday. Gary, still being used on a limited basis in his third game off a torn ACL, paced Green Bay’s defense in an 18-17 comeback win over the Saints with a career-high three sacks, two of which came in the Packers’ second-half shutout.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in here that wouldn’t go to war with this dude,” LaFleur said to the team before it erupted in cheers while surrounding Gary.

Defensive coordinator Joe Barry wrapped his arms around Gary as the 25-year-old edge rusher laid his head on Barry’s shoulder and cried.

“I’m gonna try not to get emotional just because it means so much to him,” Barry said Monday. “To truly sit here and witness what he’s gone through — I’m the most positive, upbeat person on the planet, as you guys know. I was like, ‘Ah, god, there’s no way Rashan’s gonna be ready Week 1.’ And just to watch what he’s done Week 1, Week 2 and then to see that, it was really, really cool, so it was a cool moment to be a part of, not only the entire game, but just the postgame and you could see how much it means to that kid.”

Read more here.

Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is in concussion protocol, coach Josh McDaniels said Monday. Here’s what you need to know:

• Garoppolo was evaluated for a concussion following the Raiders’ 23-18 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on “Sunday Night Football.”
• McDaniels said there was no discussion in the fourth quarter about Garoppolo having a concussion. He doesn’t know what hit may have caused it and hasn’t talked to his QB yet this morning.
• Garoppolo was 28-of-44 passing for 324 yards and two touchdowns with three interceptions in his home debut, bringing his season pick total to a league-high six. He was sacked four times, twice by T.J. Watt.
• On a second-and-10 with 7:18 remaining in the fourth quarter, Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick was flagged for unnecessary roughness for making contact with Garoppolo’s helmet while leveling him on a sack. Garoppolo was slow to get up, but stayed in and threw a touchdown pass to receiver Davante Adams three plays later to make it a one-score game. Garoppolo also played the entirety of the Raiders’ final two drives.

Read more here.

A warrant was issued for J.C. Jackson’s arrest Monday in Massachusetts after the Los Angeles Chargers cornerback failed to appear in court Friday for a probation violation hearing.

Jackson was to appear in Attleboro District Court on Friday, according to online court records. Jackson was previously charged with negligent operation of a motor vehicle and speeding in 2021, when he was a member of the New England Patriots.

According to the probation violation and hearing notice, Jackson failed to attend or successfully complete the “Brains at Risk” program and failed to pay a $300 fine. The “Brains at Risk” program is an awareness and prevention program by the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts that links dangerous driving behaviors to the effects of traumatic brain injuries, per the association’s website.

Read more here.

Seattle Seahawks safety Jamal Adams will make his season debut this week against the New York Giants, coach Pete Carroll said Monday during a radio appearance. Here’s what you need to know:

• Carroll said Adams is “so ready” to play.
• Adams, 27, suffered a torn quadricep tendon in the first game of the 2022 season and underwent surgery.
• The Seahawks activated Adams off the PUP list on Aug. 24, which indicated the team expected him to miss fewer than four games.
• Carroll also said left tackle Charles Cross (toe), right cornerback Riq Woolen (chest/shoulder), tight end Will Dissly (shoulder) and right guard Phil Haynes have a “good chance” to return to the lineup this week

Read more here.

It shouldn’t have happened this early, but the Chicago Bears have to think about a quarterback change, whether it’s this year or in 2024.

A 41-10 loss to start a season 0-3 and extend a losing streak to 13 games means serious, high-level conversations should be had about the future of a franchise. In Halas Hall, that would inevitably include the quarterback. It always does.

Read more here.

Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson, who missed the Colts' 22-19 OT victory in Baltimore yesterday, remains in concussion protocol, coach Shane Steichen said today. The same goes for starting center Ryan Kelly, who also missed Sunday's game.

Richardson was at yesterday's game, cheering on his team.

Atlanta Falcons backup inside linebacker Nate Landman “did a fantastic job” when he filled in for Troy Andersen two weeks ago against Green Bay, assistant head coach for defense Jerry Gray said last week. Now it looks like Landman is going to be needed a lot more in Atlanta.

Falcons head coach Arthur Smith said Monday that the injury Andersen suffered late in Sunday’s loss to Detroit could end up being season-ending, which would mean a permanent promotion for Landman.

“Our DBs watched the run plays and he was hitting guys (against Green Bay),” Gray said. “I was like, ‘Woah, that’s amazing.’ That’s what you want, you want linebackers coming downhill and hitting guys. All of a sudden, we’re like, ‘Do we need a three linebacker package?’”

Landman had four tackles and a tackle-for-loss against the Packers.

Here are three interesting nuggets from TruMedia following the Bears’ ugly 41-10 loss to the Chiefs in Kansas City.

1. The Chiefs attacked quarterback Justin Fields differently by playing less zone coverage than the Packers and Buccaneers. Kansas City was in zone coverage 38.9 percent of the time. The Packers and Buccaneers were at 92.0 and 84.6 percent, respectively.
2. Over three games, the Bears offense's average distance on third downs is 7.72 yards. The Bears have been in shotgun 82.6 percent of the time.
3. In Matt Eberflus’ second game in charge of the defense, the Bears barely blitzed at 7.3 percent. Over three games, only two teams have blitzed less percentage-wise: the Cardinals and Bills. The Bears have one sack this season. The Bills have 12.

Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is in the concussion protocol. Garoppolo played every offensive snap against the Steelers on Sunday, but was evaluated for a concussion afterward.

Through three games, Brian Hoyer has been the Raiders' backup quarterback and rookie Aidan O'Connell has been inactive on game days. McDaniels wouldn't say whether that pecking order will hold if Garoppolo misses time.

The next sack for a San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle will match the position group’s sack total from all of last season.

That’s right: 49ers interior linemen managed only three sacks in 2022. This anemic production on the interior made edge rusher Nick Bosa’s 18 1/2-sack campaign all the more impressive. But it also prompted the 49ers to make a huge offseason splash to fix their most glaring weakness, that tackle position.

They signed Javon Hargrave, the top defensive free agent on the market, to a deal worth up to $84 million. That move is undoubtedly paying off so far. Hargrave has two sacks and 13 pressures to lead 49ers defensive tackles in both categories and rank near the top of the NFL at the position through three games.

But what’s happening next to Hargrave has been just as significant.

Read more here.

Los Angeles Chargers receiver Mike Williams is out for the season after tearing an ACL in Sunday’s win against the Minnesota Vikings, according to a league source. The NFL Network was first to report the news. Here’s what you need to know:

• Williams left Sunday’s game after making an 11-yard reception near the end of the third quarter.
• Prior to the injury, Williams had seven catches for 121 yards and a touchdown.
• The Chargers host the Raiders at 4:05 p.m. ET on Sunday.

This story will be updated here.

In the wake of arguably the ugliest regular-season loss in franchise history, Broncos head coach Sean Payton on Monday attempted to reassure a frustrated fan base.

“To the fans, we’re going to work our tail off and get this ship straightened away,” he said on a conference call with reporters, less than 24 hours after Denver suffered a 70-20 loss to the Miami Dolphins. “That’s going to happen. There’s going to be a process involved in that. Certainly, there’s a lot of work ahead of us.”

Up first on Monday is a painful review of the film, evidence of a performance in which the Broncos yielded 70 points, gave up 726 yards, turned the ball over three times and managed a meager 7 percent pressure rate, according to TruMedia.

“This is one of those weeks where, (after) you take a butt whooping like that, you find out a lot about everyone,” Payton said.

In his own overview of the film, Payton said he was struck by his team’s failure to set the edge defensively as the Dolphins ran for 350 yards and five touchdowns. He noted that Miami scored following all three of Denver’s turnovers Sunday, illustrating the offense’s role in the blowout.

Payton also said that no coaching changes were on the horizon following the blowout loss. Typically, the aftermath of Week 3 would be far too early to consider changing a first-year coordinator, but Denver’s historically bad showing Sunday has turned up the heat on Vance Joseph, who was hired by Payton in the offseason, four years after being fired as the team’s head coach.

“No, and that wouldn’t be something I’d share on a conference call if that ever were the case,” when asked if there were any jobs in jeopardy.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Every day, pro scouts John McKay and Matt Waugh — and sometimes general manager Les Snead — lean on large wooden plyo boxes stacked outside of the weight room and study the offensive line during the individual drills portion of Los Angeles Rams practice.

Those drills look different this year — and the three front office members who helped retool an offensive line that now features more size (especially on the interior) watch them for good reason: The 2023 Rams are deploying a higher frequency of gap-style concepts in their run game alongside their mid- and outside-zone concepts.

That run game has not quite fully taken off just yet. The Rams rank No. 23 in the NFL in total yards with 181 and No. 28 in yards per carry with 2.9; however they also rank No. 5 in EPA/rush (0.05) and No. 6 in successful play rate per rush attempt (44.1 percent), according to TruMedia. They also changed their personnel last week by trading veteran running back Cam Akers to Minnesota, clearing the way for Kyren Williams to take over as their No. 1 back.

Even as the details come together, the idea behind what they’re trying to accomplish is clear: An increase in usage of those gap/man and power run concepts, lends a brand of physicality and dimension to their run game – and their offense overall – that they have not had in a while.

“When you do get to those gap schemes, you do get a little bit more downhill physicality out of it — rather than what we’ve primarily been in the past, of a wide-zone/mid-zone team where it’s stretch-and-cut, stretch-and-cut,” right tackle Rob Havenstein said. “We still obviously do a lot of that, but it’s definitely good flavor especially with some of the size that we have up front.”

Read more below.

There often isn’t much to glean from snap counts after a 31-point loss, but here are a few observations from the Bears in Week 3:

- Wide receiver DJ Moore played all 51 snaps. His first catch came late in the third quarter, on his fourth target.

- Marcedes Lewis played nine snaps, all in the first half. Using him in “12 personnel” packages to help ignite the running game and offer Justin Fields more protection was part of the game plan, but once things spiraled, the Bears had to stick to “11 personnel” with three wide receivers.

- The running back split: 28 snaps for Khalil Herbert and 23 for Roschon Johnson.

- Sunday marked the seventh time since the start of 2022 the Bears had 51 plays or fewer on offense. They’re 0-7 in those games. From 2018-21, they had only five such games.

- On defense, the injuries in the secondary are apparent in the snap counts. Elijah Hicks played every snap and Jaquan Brisker missed only one, but No. 4 corner Terell Smith played 57, followed by Greg Stroman (49), Jaylon Jones (42), Jaylon Johnson (36), Tyrique Stevenson (22), Josh Blackwell (9) and Quindell Johnson (6).

SEATTLE — Late in the fourth quarter of the Carolina Panthers’ latest loss, the giant videoboard at Lumen Field implored the Seattle Seahawks’ famed 12th-man fan base to “make noise!”

And then: “Make more noise!”

Three games into the Frank Reich and Bryce Young era, it’s been the opposing teams that have made the most noise and plays and everything else.

It was an odd game for the Panthers, who found their downfield passing game with their franchise quarterback on the bench and lost on a day when the offense scored 27 points — the total from their first two games combined. But every step forward Sunday was followed by a few steps back — specifically, the five yards the Panthers were penalized for an unfathomable eight false starts.

And as players dressed and prepared for the cross-country flight home, they did so as an 0-3 team that might not be favored until after their bye week in late October. It’s the franchise’s worst three-game start since 2010, when the Panthers went 0-5 out of the gate on the way to a 2-14 finish.

The silver lining that year was the No. 1 pick, which the Panthers used to draft Cam Newton. That won’t be the case this season: General manager Scott Fitterer sent the first-round pick to Chicago as part the package to move up and take Young first overall.

“We’re three games into this,” Reich said. “Everybody understands it’s a long season. And there’s no guarantees of anything. We know we can be a good time. I’ve been 1-5 and won playoff games.”

Read more here.