September 23, 2025
Week 3 of the NFL season is in the books, and 10 NFC teams have winning records, with three teams still unbeaten. We have our first obituary of the season, the woeful 0-3 New Orleans Saints.
Through the first three weeks of the season, the Saints have had the lead for a grand total of four minutes and 15 seconds, all of which came when they were up 7-3 after an Alvin Kamara TD run against the Cardinals Week 1. That lead was short-lived, with the Cardinals scoring on their next possession and quickly re-taking the lead. The Saints have not yet run an offensive play this season with the lead.
In Week 3, they got demolished by the Seahawks, and although their losses in Week 1 and 2 to the Cardinals and 49ers were only by one score each, they almost never had the win probability in their favor:
The Saints are one of the worst-run franchises in the NFL. Even after Drew Brees' retirement after the 2020 season, they've been kicking the can down the road with aging, declining veterans, delusional that they were still contenders, and all they had to show for it from 2021 to 2024 was a 30-38 record (0.441), with no playoff berths in one of the worst divisions in football. In 2025, they're having a way overdue teardown year, and it's going to be ugly all season long.
It starts at quarterback, where the Saints were actually lucky that the competent-but-harmless Derek Carr announced his retirement, while also getting cap relief in the process. But without Carr, that left the Saints with 2024 fifth-round pick Spencer Rattler and 2025 40th overall pick Tyler Shough, who will turn 26 later this week, as a rookie. Despite being a year older than Rattler, Shough wasn't good enough to beat him out for the starting job.
After an 0-3 start to this season, Rattler is 0-9 to start his NFL career.
As we noted in last week's Hierarchy, here are NFL quarterbacks with at least eight career losses, and no wins:
• DeShone Kiser: 0-15
• Brodie Croyle: 0-10
• Zach Mettenberger: 0-10
• Harry Gilmer: 0-10
• Spencer Rattler: 0-9
• Curtis Painter: 0-8
Assuming Rattler starts Week 4 in Buffalo, he is very likely going to be 0-10.
The Saints are tied for the worst point differential in the NFL, at -43, and it's only going to get way worse.
15) Giants (0-3): Russell Wilson had a three-pass series that was "legit lol" worthy. 1st and Goal from the 4, intentional grounding, loss of 10:
On 2nd down, Russ scrambled for 4 yards. Then on 3rd down...
That maybe could've been grounding, too. And finally, on 4th down...
Lol. We're three weeks into the season, and as was easily predicted the Giants are already done before October. We'll keep them around a little while longer because, well, I like poking fun at them here.
Last week: 14
14) Falcons (1-2): The Panthers held just one opponent under 20 points last season. That was the sucky Giants, who they held to 17 points. They allowed a league-high 534 points, which was also the most ever in a single NFL season, topping the 1981 Colts by a point.
The Falcons got shut out by the Panthers on Sunday, and never advanced the ball past Carolina's 30 yard line. As Panthers CB Jaycee Horn astutely pointed out, "That's bad."
In the aftermath, the Falcons fired WR coach Ike Hilliard. Yeah I'm sure he was the problem.
13) Panthers (1-2): And on the above note, congrats to the Panthers for their first great defensive performance in a very long time.
Jerry Jones: If we can trade Packers' picks for a "really special" player, we'll do it https://t.co/VsZBYsr1Ci
— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) September 22, 2025
11) Bears (1-2): Rome Odunze looks like he might be good:
Odunze and DJ Moore could be a potent WR duo, and then second-round rookie Luther Burden (a Jimmy fave) had a big game on Sunday, with 3 catches for 101 yards and a TD.
Add in Cole Kmet and Colston Loveand at TE, and the Bears have a really nice set of skill position players.
It's just... Is Caleb Williams it? We'll see. He had a good game on Sunday against a bad Cowboys defense.
Last week: 13
10) Cardinals (2-1): The Cardinals got to face a 49ers team that was missing a boatload of their most important players. I'm sorry for the unsophisticated analysis here, but you just have to find a way win that game. Perennial pretenders.
Last week: 8
9) Vikings (2-1): The Eagles stole Isaiah Rodgers when the Colts cut him for no good reason after he was suspended for gambling. And, well, the Vikings stole him from the Eagles, who probably could have brought him back on a reasonable deal to be the CB2.
Vikings CB Isaiah Rodgers Sr. is the first player in NFL history with a pick-6, a fumble returned for a touchdown and two forced fumbles in a single game.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 21, 2025
He did it in one half.
7) 49ers (3-0): Nick Bosa is done for the season with a torn ACL. Add him to the injury list, along with Brock Purdy, George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk, and Jauan Jennings, among others. The Niners seems to have some really bad injury luck, like, almost every year. Graphic below via @SunsetShazz:
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the way they practice like it's 1975.
That said, the Niners are out to a 3-0 start, and that counts for something, even if they've had an easy schedule so far (and it won't get much harder).
6) Commanders (2-1): Credit the Commanders for holding down the fort with Jayden Daniels out. Marcus Mariota was 15 of 21 for 207 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs, and he ran 6 times for 40 yards and a TD.
A bunch of their old guys did good things in this game. Mariota (31) had a good game, as noted above. Bobby Wagner (35) had 11 tackles and 2 sacks. Von Miller (36) had a sack. Deebo Samuel (29) had a 69-yard kick return.
I'm damn sure going to harp on when their old guys ultimately fail them, so it's only fair that I point out when they help win games.
Last week: 6
5) Packers (2-1): The Packers are very talented, and young, and should be contenders for the foreseeable future. But the big concern with them is that Jordan Love loses otherwise winnable games because he makes too many bad decisions. And, well, the Packers lost in Cleveland for exactly that reason:
4) Rams (2-1): The Rams completely dominated the reigning champs for a full half of football, but only led by 12 at halftime. They had all kinds of opportunities to put the Eagles away, but Sean McVay called a cowardly game. In chronological order:
• In the first half he kicked a field goal on 4th and 3 from the Eagles' 15. OK, fine. That made the score 16-7. Not egregious, but also not the right call.
• With 57 seconds left in the first half, he ran it on 2nd and 2 from the Eagles' 28, which got stuffed for no gain. He then let the game clock run all the way down until there were only 17 seconds left before running the next play. Ridiculous.
• He punted on 4th and 2 from the Eagles' 49. The Eagles scored a touchdown on the ensuing possession anyway.
• Up 26-21 with over 8 minutes to go, he attempted a field goal on 4th and 2 from the Eagles' 18. Sure, a made field goal puts you up 8, which is nice, but a touchdown all but puts the Eagles away. And sure enough, Jalen Carter blocked the field goal.
Against a powerhouse on the road, you have to take chances and trust your players to go win the the game. McVay played every critical decision about as conservatively as possible, and he eventually lost, as cowards usually do.
Last week: 4
3) Buccaneers (3-0): It is now three straight weeks that Baker Mayfield has led game-winning drives.
• Week 1 final drive, in 1:18: 4/5, 63 yards, TD.
• Week 2 final drive, in 2:04: 8/10, 78 yards, capped by a Rachaad White rushing TD.
• Week 3 final drive, in 1:49: 2/4, 48 yards, set up the walk-off field goal with no time left.
Two of the teams the Bucs have faced are 0-3, and the other opponent was the Falcons, who lost 30-0 to the Panthers Week 3. So, they're just barely beating bad teams, but I can forgive that to some degree since they have had so many good players out, like LT Tristin Wirfs and WR Chris Godwin.
Still, they're already up two games in the NFC South. They're going to cruise to their fifth consecutive divisional title.
Last week: 3
2) Lions (2-1): The Lions had a hell of a team win on Monday night in Baltimore.
• They gained 224 yards on the ground.
• Jared Goff was efficient and the receivers made the plays that came their way.
• The offensive line protected well.
• They held an elite rushing team to 85 rushing yards. One 28-yard rushing TD aside, they held Derrick Henry to 22 yards on 11 carries and Aidan Hutchinson forced a Henry fumble on a Peanut Punch.
• They sacked Lamar Jackson 7 times.
• Up 7 late, Dan Campbell went for it on 4th and 2 from their own 49, deciding to try to end it with his offense rather than give Lamar Jackson a chance to beat him. McVay would never.
• They even ran some fun trick plays, that worked.
The Eagles aside, this is the most complete team in the NFC.
1) Eagles (3-0): In 2022, the Eagles were last remaining unbeaten team. In 2023, they and the 49ers were the last two unbeaten teams. In 2024, they won the Super Bowl. In 2025, they're one of six teams to begin the season 3-0.
I guess this is just yet another way of saying that the Eagles win a lot of games.
Last week: 1
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