Week 3 NFL knee-jerk reactions: All aboard Sam Darnold, Justin Fields apology tour

Week 3 of the NFL was not short on drama. The Carolina Panthers earned their first win behind backup quarterback Andy Dalton, the Pittsburgh Steelers moved to 3-0 with Justin Fields under center and the Denver Broncos knocked off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for their first win of the Bo Nix era.

Here are some knee-jerk reactions from the third week of the NFL season:

Sam Darnold is … good at football?

Absolutely no one had Darnold being the most productive quarterback in the NFL heading into Week 4, but the 27-year-old QB is proving everyone wrong. He’s having a Geno Smith-like career renaissance, and his performance in Sunday’s 34-7 upset win over the Houston Texans made many take notice.

The Texans have one of the top defenses in the NFL, and Darnold carved them up to the tune of 181 yards and four touchdowns. Through three games, he’s thrown for 657 yards, eight touchdowns and only two interceptions, and perhaps more surprisingly, the Vikings are 3-0. There are a lot of people out there who owe Darnold an apology.

Everyone owes Justin Fields an apology

Speaking of apologies, Fields is due a significant number of them as well. Granted, it’s only been three games, but all he’s done in Pittsburgh is win. In Sunday’s 20-10 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, Fields threw for 245 yards with a passing and rushing touchdown, and the Steelers had their best performance of the season.

Fields is 3-0 in Pittsburgh and playing some of the best football of his career. Perhaps Chicago was the problem and not him, after all? Fields seems to be exactly where he should be, and the Steelers may be the franchise he needed to reach his enormous potential.

Many wrote Bo Nix off too quickly

Yes, Nix’s first two games left much to be desired. However, he looked much better in Sunday’s 26-7 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The rookie QB had his most efficient performance to date, throwing for 216 yards with no turnovers, and the Broncos pretty well dominated a Bucs team that looked to be one of the best in the NFC.

Not only was Nix smart with the football, but he was generous with how he distributed it as well as nine different players caught at least one pass. Nix showed flashes in Sunday’s game of being the player head coach Sean Payton saw on film when the Broncos took him 12th overall in April.

Someone is getting fired in Tennessee, right?

The last time the Titans traded away a player and then lost to said player during the regular season, general manager Jon Robinson was fired. While quarterback Malik Willis is not the caliber of player A.J. Brown is, losing to your former backup QB with the signal-caller you drafted to replace him is a bad look.

Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk doesn’t like being made to look like a fool, which is exactly what happened Sunday when Willis and the Packers dominated Tennessee 30-14, and Willis played the best game of his NFL career (202 passing yards, 73 rushing yards, two total touchdowns). 

It’s unlikely GM Ran Carthon is in any danger of losing his job, but given Adams Strunk’s reputation for sometimes overreacting, it’ll be interesting to see if anyone in Tennessee is fired on Monday morning.

The Anthony Richardson hype was a bit premature

When Richardson put up 212 yards and two touchdowns in Indy’s season-opening loss to the Texans — a game the Colts nearly won — some media pundits were quick to crown him as the next C.J. Stroud.

But as fans saw over the next two weeks, including Sunday’s 21-16 win over the Chicago Bears, Richardson is still very green and he has a long way to go in his development. For the second straight week, the former No. 4 overall pick threw multiple interceptions and made several questionable decisions. Richardson has the potential to be a great QB; however, he’s still a year or two away from that happening.

Not signing Derrick Henry may be one of Jerry Jones’ worst decisions

The Cowboys Achilles’ heel is their run game, and they had a chance to sign one of the top running backs on the free-agent market but failed to do so because of team owner/GM Jerry Jones’ ego. Jones didn’t believe the team’s run game was as big of a glaring issue as it turned out to be, and he was confident Ezekiel Elliott, Rico Dowdle and Deuce Vaughn could get the job done.

Fast forward to Sunday’s 28-25 loss to the Baltimore Ravens — the team Henry signed with instead — and the former All-Pro RB put up 151 yards rushing and two touchdowns and made Jones look like a fool for passing on signing him. The better Henry plays this year, and the more Dallas’ run game continues to struggle, the worse this decision will look in hindsight for Jones.

Kyler Murray could be an under-the-radar top-10 QB

The Cardinals actually have a pretty good offense, all things considered. Rookie receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. is proving to be a solid playmaker even in his first season, James Conner is a solid RB1 and Kyler Murray looks to have regained his form from the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

The 27-year-old signal-caller has thrown for 635 yards, five touchdowns and only one interception while adding 161 yards on the ground. He’s developed a strong rapport with rookie wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. and tight end Trey McBride, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Murray still playing at a top-10 level at the end of the season.

The Raiders will never change

The Las Vegas Raiders continue to prove no matter who the head coach is and no matter who the quarterback is, the team will seemingly always be in turmoil. Following Sunday’s embarrassing 36-22 loss to the hapless Carolina Panthers, Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce called out a number of his players for “going into business” for themselves. 

While he didn’t name any names specifically, he promised the coaches would make changes accordingly. After an offseason where the players advocated for Pierce to get the permanent head-coaching job, it’s astonishing how quickly the wheels have come off.