Jalen Hurts was a Ponzi scheme, the Vikings will baffle you until you're dust and 10 things we learned in Week 3

Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season was fairly standard; only three upsets in a 16-game slate. Week 2? That was chaos, with underdogs prevailing in half those matchups.

Week 3? Well, that fell somewhere in the middle. The Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers earned their first wins of the season. The San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys slid under .500. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings, each helmed by backup quarterbacks in their first season with the club, are both 3-0.

That leaves us with plenty to unpack from a busy weekend of football, including Minnesota's brilliance beyond Sam Darnold (...what?), Dave Canales's proof he's still a quarterback whisperer (just not with *that* Panthers quarterback) and the fleeting optimism of Bears-Colts.

Let's go in for a closer look.

1. Jalen Hurts is approaching a breaking point

The Philadelphia Eagles won Sunday. They derailed a red hot New Orleans Saints in the process. Saquon Barkley finished with nearly 150 rushing yards and scored 14 of Philly's 15 points. Jalen Hurts threw for more than 300 yards.

If you're looking at this Eagles offense from 10,000 feet, this all sounds great. But then, look a little closer, and:

It's becoming clear Jalen Hurts' 2023 struggles have extended into the new year. The young quarterback has thrown at least one interception in seven of his last eight games. The one blank in that stretch was last year's Wild Card showdown with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — a game in which Philly entered as a three-point favorite and lost 32-9. Per Trey Wingo, his 27 turnovers (two today!) are the most in the NFL since the start of the 2023 season.

This all reflects very poorly on Nick Sirianni, the head coach who developed Hurts into a Super Bowl starter, then wound up on a mildly warm seat less than a calendar year after reaching said Super Bowl. In that 2022 breakout, Hurts completed 22 of 54 deep throws (41 percent) and 61 percent of his throws between 10 and 19 yards downfield, per SIS.

On Sunday, against a Saints passing defense that's allowed just a 56.5 passer rating in coverage in its 2-0 start, Hurts looked like this:

Only 10 of Hurts' 38 passes traveled at least 10 yards downfield. He completed four of them for 97 yards and an interception (see above). That's good for a passer rating of 36.3. 10 straight incompletions would have landed him at a 39.6.

That left the Philadelphia offense to be buoyed by long runs. Barkley's 65-yard trucking got the Eagles on the board in the second half. Three different passes that traveled fewer than four yards beyond the line of scrimmage resulted in gains of 20-plus yards, including this Dallas Goedert rumble that set up the game-winning touchdown.

Credit where it's due; Hurts found the right guy and executed, knowing full well he was in a four-down situation and a modest gain was still a net win. But 103 of Goedert's career high 170 receiving yards came after the catch. Hurts finished his game with -4.7 expected points added (EPA), suggesting he had a negative overall impact despite that big yardage number and an 80 percent completion rate.

Since Week 13 of the 2023 season — the genesis of the spiral that crushed the team's Super Bowl hopes — Hurts has been good for roughly 2.86 EPA per game. That's in the positives, which is good. It's also 19th best among all quarterbacks, which is firmly mediocre.

Philadelphia can win with mediocrity, but it's paying for greatness. Hurts signed a five-year, $255 million contract after that 2022 breakthrough that was richly deserved. After inking a significant investment, the returns have slowly dwindled and a player who threw six interceptions across an All-Pro third season in the league has suddenly become one of the game's most turnover-prone quarterbacks.

He hasn't gotten a ton of help from head coach Nick Sirianni, who seemingly weighs fourth down decisions on the whims of a Magic 8-Ball. He's been without A.J. Brown, who unlocks the middle of the field with his size, athleticism and willingness to absorb punishment (for proof, see the two masses over the middle in 38 tries in the passing chart above). Both these factors are limiting his game.

But that doesn't excuse the sudden recklessness with the ball that dates back to last November. Nor does it explain the lack of efficiency that's seen his passer rating decline each season since 2022. Fortunately for the Eagles, there's still time to fix it. Hurts carries at least $50 million in dead salary cap space on his contract through the 2026 season. The question is whether or not Sirianni can be the guy to get that done and help Philadelphia recoup what once looked like a smart investment.

2. Bears-Colts was an exercise in frustration

In a battle of highly touted young quarterbacks, Anthony Richardson got the win over Caleb Williams. But instead of a Wild West shootout between two emerging gunslingers, Week 3 was more like two drunk rednecks pointing Roman candles at each other while Bubba Sparxxx plays in the background.

That back-foot, long throw to the sideline? Ill advised. And yet, it was nowhere near the worst pass thrown in Indianapolis Sunday.

Richardson backed up his claim as one of the most exciting players to watch as long as you don't have a stake in the game. Here he is rolling right, throwing left and jumping into a pass he sails approximately four yards over Michael Pittman's head.

Together, Williams and Richardson combined for four interceptions and five total turnovers.

But while Williams eventually came online by connecting with fellow rookie Rome Odunze (six catches, 112 yards and a touchdown) and tight end Cole Kmet (97 receiving yards, one touchdown), Richardson generally looked like a player content to try and smash square pegs into round holes. He completed just 50 percent of his passes and, even with slot receiver Josh Downs back in the lineup after missing the first two games of the season, didn't even attempt a single pass over the middle.

Meanwhile, Williams was responsible for throws like this:

Ultimately, the Bears couldn't win but got a moral victory from a young quarterback in a way Indianapolis did not. Williams led a pair of late touchdown drives, sandwiched around a devastating strip sack, that should inspire confidence even if it won't show up in the standings.

On the other hand, Chicago lost to one of the league's least accurate quarterbacks in a week where NFC North backups Malik Willis and Sam Darnold absolutely cooked en route to upset wins. So while both the Bears and Colts can find something to build from in Week 3, neither team should be especially happy with how they wound up there.

3. There's no need to rush Jordan Love back to the Green Bay Packers lineup

In Malik Willis's first start for the Packers, head coach Matt LaFleur turned his offense into something resembling a service academy. Green Bay ran the ball 53 times and passed just 14, setting the stage for a run-heavy offense to last until Jordan Love could return from injury.

So, on the first drive of the Packers' game against the Tennessee Titans:

Willis had 60 passing yards — on two attempts! — before running in a five-yard touchdown and setting the tone for Week 3. The third-year quarterback, whom Green Bay acquired from the Titans at the cost of a 2025 seventh-round pick, outdueled former teammate Will Levis en route to a comfortable 30-14 win in Nashville. His line? 202 passing yards, 73 rushing yards and a touchdown both through the air and on the ground.

While Willis was limited to a single touchdown pass — on a relatively low-effort screen — his ability to avoid pressure and mistakes kept the Packers rolling. Despite Tennessee's pressure, he was only sacked three times and used his legs to avoid major negative plays (those three sacks resulted in only 12 yards lost). When given time to throw, he showed off good judgment and accuracy with his shots downfield.

After attempting only two passes of 15-plus yards in Week 2, Willis launched six such throws vs. Tennessee. While he only completed three (and one incompletion was a well-placed outside shoulder toss Dontayvion Wicks never saw in the Nashville sky), those throws resulted in 85 of his 207 passing yards.

This was a big development for a player the Titans deemed as valuable as a seventh-round pick. It was also a stark departure from the play from Levis on the other side of the field. While Levis was forced to thread his throws through tight windows, Wills thrived the same way Love did before him; by finding the targets LaFleur schemed so open that pinpoint accuracy wasn't necessary. While Levis panicked amidst pressure and threw into bad situations, Willis was happy to take what he was given and failed to force bad throws.

The Willis experiment is likely over in Week 4. Love warmed up with the rest of the team before being declared out and a difficult challenge against the blitz-heavy Minnesota Vikings awaits. But the young quarterback vastly improved his resume in his two-week trial as Green Bay's starter. Free agency won't hit until 2026, but the ability to point to his 2-0 record as a Packer should add some extra years and cash to his next NFL contract.

4. The Minnesota Vikings are so much more than just Sam Darnold

Well, hey, there's a sentence I never thought I'd type. But Minnesota is 3-0 and while Darnold's resurgence is the headliner, there's much more substance to the Vikings' rise. In the last two weeks, they've not only upended preseason Super Bowl contenders in the San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans. They've made rising young quarterbacks look absolutely foolish.

Here's what Brock Purdy put up against Brian Flores' defense in Week 2:

• 36 passes, 319 yards, one touchdown, one interception, one fumble lost, six sacks and -1 expected points added (EPA)

And here's C.J. Stroud Sunday:

• 31 passes, 215 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, four sacks and -12.5 EPA

Those are two players with legitimate MVP candidacies and Minnesota forced them both into multiple turnovers. On Sunday, Stroud dropped back 35 times and was hit or sacked on 12 of those plays. That's not new; the Vikings entered Week 2 with more blitzes (34) than anyone in the league, even if Flores' blitz rate actually dropped significantly from last year's 51 percent down to 36.

The difference between 2023 and 2024 is personnel. Minnesota has the chops to generate pressure with a four-man rush in ways it couldn't last year, even with Danielle Hunter in the lineup. Flores blitzed to create static in the pocket, but also to cover up the deficiencies behind that group.

Now, with a more complete defense, Flores is able to threaten with the blitzes on which other teams have been grinding tape before dropping some of that chaos into passing lanes, disrupting blitz-beaters and generally making opposing quarterbacks feel as though they're playing rock-paper-scissors against a maniac. Shawn Syed of Sumer Sports does a great job pointing out how here:

He's also trusting a secondary that's working much better than it had in 2023. Minnesota had allowed just a 70.7 passer rating in coverage coming into Week 3, then bullied Stroud into a 68.6. While there were some bad throws involved, there were also situations where his timing was off because, say, Flores found a way to scheme Jerry Tillery (not really a threat) into a double team while allowing Andrew Van Ginkel (actual threat) to have a free run at the quarterback.

As good as Darnold has been — and on Sunday he was four touchdowns worth of greatness — he can take extra risks knowing he's got a defense that can cover for him. Despite limited cap space, the Vikings found the players capable of thriving in Flores' frenetic defense and locking opposing passers in quarterback hell. In Week 2, that was the defending NFC champion. In Week 3, it was one of the league's most promising young players.

Now Minnesota needs to do that to Jordan Love to improve to 4-0.

5. Malik Nabers is going to make the New York Giants' next quarterback very, very happy

The wide receiver class of 2024 is turning out to be as good as advertised. Brian Thomas Jr. looked great in Week 1. Marvin Harrison Jr. had a monster game in Week 2. Rome Odunze had 100-plus receiving yards in Week 3, but even his performance was overshadowed by the man drafted fifth overall in April.

He didn't even time his jump right! This was merely a display of dad strength against a child:

Fortunately, when he does time his jump right he gets waaaaay the hell up there:

Nabers finished his day with eight catches for 78 yards and two of New York's three touchdowns in an upset win in Cleveland. For the Giants, it was an encouraging proof of concept for a young player who displayed a diverse route tree and pushed Daniel Jones to his finest performance of 2023.

For the Browns, it was more proof the Deshaun Watson situation is untenable. The veteran quarterback, accused of more than 20 counts of sexual misconduct and what the NFL itself described as "predatory behavior" stemming back to his time with the Houston Texans, had his best game of 2024 and only his fifth game with multiple touchdowns as part of Cleveland's roster.

Unfortunately, his defense wasn't the bear trap it typically is. Watson was faced with the daunting task of leading his offense to three touchdowns in hopes of a home win. Instead, he led exactly one second half scoring drive. After making the score 21-15, Watson fumbled and turned the ball over on downs twice. With a chance to take a fourth quarter lead, the veteran took a fourth down sack and threw a fourth down incompletion to effectively stem any comeback hope.

It was a frustrating turn from a player who'd finally struck up a connection with Amari Cooper, who had both Browns touchdowns on the day. Cleveland gave up a king's ransom for the kind of player it hoped could be the difference between a win and loss on a day like Sunday. Instead, he was rendered inert late by a Giants team that came into Week 3 as a 6.5-point underdog.

6. The Tennessee Titans' Will Levis experiment isn't built to last beyond 2024

The good news: Will Levis led his Tennessee Titans to an opening drive touchdown. His accuracy, at times, was impeccable. He fired lasers through rapidly closing windows and showed the promise of a franchise quarterback four seconds at a time. He threw two touchdown passes against a solid Packers defense.

The bad news: Well,

And:

Levis remains a collection of traits and ideas rather than a full-fledged quarterback. He shows you enough to make you believe in him, but it turns out that's merely a fraction of the confidence he has in himself. Which leads to the belief he can run through two defenders to pick up two crucial yards, or stare down a target because he's going to throw a laser beam through a cornerback's chest. Or launch a throw into double coverage against a safety playing at an All-Pro level.

The Titans gave him the tools he needs to thrive. After adding DeAndre Hopkins in 2023, Calvin Ridley came aboard in 2024. But while Hopkins continues to thrive, Ridley had just one catch on three targets. Former first round pick Treylon Burks hit that very same, very attainable benchmark. Tennessee's running backs ran for just 21 yards on eight carries. The offensive line ahead of him allowed him to be sacked eight times in 42 dropbacks.

There's still room for Levis to grow. The mechanics involved with his game still suggest he can be a proper starting quarterback. But Tennessee has left little room for positive growth in an offense that can't sustain his abilities or create contingencies for his worst instincts.

The Titans have a long way to go on the road back to contention. They may have to find a new driver if Levis can't properly calibrate the risk/reward sensors in his brain.

7. The Pittsburgh Steelers can win even if they can't run the ball

The Los Angeles Chargers brought the league's top run defense to Pittsburgh in Week 3. This looked like anathema to a Steelers team that had thrown the ball less than any other NFL offense but the New Orleans Saints through two weeks.

True to form, Los Angeles held Pittsburgh's running backs to a modest 108 yards. But this didn't matter, because Justin Fields and a smothering offense were enough to topple a Chargers team playing with a hobbled Justin Herbert, then without a hobbled Justin Herbert late.

It was, in many ways, a classic Mike Tomlin win. His defense swarmed to the ball en route to five sacks and seven quarterback hits on only 25 Los Angeles dropbacks. That unit added another seven tackles for loss. The Chargers' offense ran 45 plays and nearly 27 percent of them resulted in lost yardage. With that proliferation of third-and-long situations, it's no wonder LA converted just three of 11 third downs.

But credit here belongs to Fields as well. He stared down one of the league's more complete defenses and responded by spraying the ball everywhere but long. His passing chart has a field of drips and dots that would be at home in a George Seurat painting.

That +10.6 CPOE is his completion percentage over expected — what a typical quarterback would be expected to do in the same situation. Not only did he prove capable of firing the ball into tight windows in the short range, but he also remained viable as an occasional runner.

While none of this means Fields is finally set to seize the potential with which he once thrilled Bears fans, it should lock him in as the team's starter even once Russell Wilson is healthy again. Pittsburgh is 3-0 for the first time since 2020 and Mike Tomlin is now only six wins away from yet another non-losing campaign. Fields is a big part of that, even if he isn't the bomb-lobbing rocket launcher he once looked like he could be at the height of his college and early NFL career.

8. So maybe Bryce Young *was* the Carolina Panthers problem

If the Carolina Panthers weren't going to trade Bryce Young before Sunday, they certainly aren't now. That's not because Young did anything of value in Week 3 from his spot on the bench. It's because his trade value couldn't possibly be lower after Andy Dalton roasted the Las Vegas Raiders.

Dalton took the league's 32nd-ranked offense and sliced up the team that had made Lamar Jackson look like a dork one week earlier. He pushed Diontae Johnson, the former Steeler acquired via trade in hopes of pushing Young toward his potential, to by far his best game as a Panther. Coming into Week 2, Johnson had five catches on 12 targets for 34 yards. On Sunday, he had eight receptions on 14 targets, 122 yards and a touchdown as Carolina cruised to its first win of the season.

Make no mistake, Dalton didn't come in and look like a replacement player, He made his first start in nearly a calendar year and looked incredible.

Young threw for 245 yards in two games this season. Dalton had 319 Sunday. Young failed to find the end zone but threw three interceptions. Dalton flipped those numbers. Young completed three passes that traveled at least 15 yards downfield. Dalton completed four — including a litany of the over-the-middle throws that had been markedly absent from the Panthers' first two games of 2024.

This is what we expected from head coach Dave Canales, who previously had resuscitated the careers of Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield in his last two stops as an assistant. The first-year play caller took a player entrenched in his journeyman era and made him a king. On a day where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints each lost, Carolina made a statement. Maybe it's not about to compete for a division title, but the Panthers aren't anyone's penciled-in "W" with Canales pumping up their quarterbacks.

9. The NFC is sort of a mess

It's early still, but let's look at the status of last year's NFC playoff teams:

• The reigning NFC champions, the San Francisco 49ers, are 1-2 with losses to Sam Darnold and a then-winless Rams team.

• The Detroit Lions, who lost in that NFC title game, are 2-1. So all is well there.

• The NFC East champion Dallas Cowboys are 1-2 and Dak Prescott has yet to play up to his status as the league's highest-paid quarterback.

• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were 2-0 and then got absolutely stomped by the then-winless Denver Broncos, giving up Bo Nix's best game as a pro in a 26-7 loss.

• The Philadelphia Eagles are 2-1 but could easily be 3-0 or 0-3. Jalen Hurts has turned the ball over six times in three games.

• The Green Bay Packers are 0-1 with Jordan Love at quarterback and 2-0 with Malik Willis.

• The Los Angeles Rams, fresh off a playoff appearance, just earned their first win of the season.

The NFC's two undefeated teams are the Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks. There's no clear pecking order developed in the NFC. While we're only three weeks into the season, you can build optimism for pretty much anyone in the conference — even the Carolina Panthers.

10. Fantasy team you absolutely didn't want to field in Week 3

• QB: Anthony Richardson, Colts (167 passing yards, 24 rushing yards, one sack, two interceptions 8.58 fantasy points)

• RB: James Conner, Cardinals (nine carries, 17 rushing yards, one catch, eight yards, 3.5 fantasy points)

• RB: Ezekiel Elliott, Cowboys (three carries, six yards, one catch, six yards, 2.2 fantasy points)

• WR: Mike Evans, Buccaneers (two catches, 17 yards, 3.7 fantasy points)

• WR: Calvin Ridley, Titans (one catch, nine yards, 1.9 fantasy points)

• WR: Jameson Williams, Lions (one catches, nine yards, one rush, -7yards, 1.2 fantasy points)

• TE: Isaiah Likely, Ravens (one catch, five yards, 1.5 fantasy points)

• D/ST: Las Vegas Raiders (two sacks, 36 points allowed, -6 fantasy points)

Total: 16.58 points

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Jalen Hurts was a Ponzi scheme, the Vikings will baffle you until you're dust and 10 things we learned in Week 3