Travis Etienne Jr. caught five touchdown passes in Week 7 of 2027 and the league spent a season and a half assuming that was the ceiling. Mark Andrews reached it on a Sunday afternoon in New Jersey, in a game the Giants led comfortably, on eleven catches for 194 yards. Five touchdowns. The single-game receiving record now has two names on it. Andrews had five scores before some of his teammates had a target, and the quarterback throwing them missed twice all day — Patrick Mahomes finished 22-of-24 with a perfect 158.3 rating, and the Chronicle has never printed that sentence about a Giants receiver and a Giants quarterback in the same paragraph before. It gets the cover.
| 49ers | 27 | Rams ★ | 17 |
| Colts | 29 | Jaguars | 37 |
| Ravens | 21 | Patriots | 35 |
| Commanders | 38 | Eagles | 24 |
| Cowboys | 38 | Browns | 20 |
| Panthers | 26 | Falcons | 24 |
| Broncos | 45 | Dolphins | 42 |
| Saints | 42 | Buccaneers | 21 |
| Seahawks | 21 | Giants | 45 |
| Chargers | 28 | Raiders | 6 |
| Steelers | 10 | Chiefs | 20 |
| Vikings | 22 | Lions | 37 |
| Cardinals | 32 | Bills | 28 |
| Jets | 31 | Bengals | 44 |
| Titans | 30 | Texans | 34 |
| Bears | 24 | Packers | 34 |
The Chronicle billed this one as the NFC West's first referendum, and Los Angeles answered almost every question except the one that decides football games. The Rams out-gained San Francisco 334 to 314. The Rams converted five of seven third downs to the 49ers' three of seven. Tevan Jett carried thirteen times for 114 yards at 8.8 a pop, which is exactly the Tevan Jett the league remembers. Trevor Lawrence threw for 226. Justin Jefferson and Jaylin Noel combined for ten catches and 155 yards. Los Angeles did the work.
Los Angeles also turned it over three times, and that was the game. Mike Sainristil intercepted Lawrence and returned it 46 yards. Garrett Williams forced a fumble and recovered it. Victor Costa — the man whose single-season interception record is the next thing on this league's horizon — knocked a second one loose. Three takeaways to one, and a 49ers offense that never needed to be spectacular.
It wasn't. Cam Ward went 14-of-21 for 192 yards and two touchdowns at a 127.4 rating, both scores to Brian Thomas Jr., who finished with six catches for 82. De'Von Achane ran fourteen times for 116 yards and a touchdown, broke five tackles, and popped a 61-yarder — a very good afternoon that, in the context of what he did in Weeks 1 and 2, reads almost like a rest day. San Francisco scored on three of its first-half possessions and then let the defense hold the thing shut.
The exclamation point came from a kicker. Alfonso Hooks hit both his attempts, one of them from 66 yards — the longest field goal anyone in this league has ever been credited with, and the second-longest of a week that produced three from 60-plus. Ka'imi Fairbairn answered with a 53-yarder and missed his other, which is roughly how the whole afternoon went for the Rams: close, competent, and one column short.
Los Angeles is 1-1-1 and has been the better team on the field for large stretches of all three games. Christian Izien returned a fumble for a touchdown here and Nnamdi Madubuike had a sack and a half. The Rams are not a bad football team. They are a team that has given the ball away seven times in three weeks, and in the NFC West that is the entire difference between 1-1-1 and 3-0.
Patrick Mahomes missed twice. Twenty-two of twenty-four for 303 yards, five touchdowns, no interceptions and a perfect 158.3 rating — and every one of those scores went to Mark Andrews, who caught eleven balls for 194 yards and matched the league's single-game receiving-touchdown record. Cam Skattebo added 150 rushing yards and a 61-yard run, DaRon Bland picked Bo Nix off twice and Jabrill Peppers got the third. Seattle did not go quietly: Louis Geyer caught ten for 158 and a score, Zay Flowers took a 62-yarder to the house, and wide receiver Tre Tucker threw a 63-yard touchdown pass of his own. The Seahawks moved the ball for 362 yards. They also gave it away three times, which against this version of Mahomes is not survivable.
The best football game of the season so far. Jahmyr Gibbs carried seventeen times for 213 yards and three touchdowns, caught six passes for 121 and two more — 334 yards from scrimmage and five touchdowns, the biggest individual afternoon of the year by a distance. Warren Davis went 20-of-25 for 318 and three scores at a 141.6 rating, and Denver converted five of six third downs on the way to 512 total yards. Miami is 2-1 and did nothing to be ashamed of: Baker Mayfield threw five touchdown passes of his own (21-of-28, 383 yards, 141.3), Terry McLaurin caught three of them, Kendall Fuller returned an interception for a score, and Byron Young had two sacks. The Dolphins went 0-for-4 on third down and still scored 42 points, which is a genuinely absurd sentence.
The champions are 3-0 and have finally been made to sweat. Nicholas Battle was clean again — 21-of-26, 243 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, plus a rushing score — and Jaydon Blue ripped off 192 yards and two touchdowns on nineteen carries with a 69-yard long. Jake Bates went 3-for-3 including a 58-yarder. New York, though, has an offense now: Riley Leonard threw for 364 yards and three scores at a 128.2 rating and ran for another, Dillon Day caught ten for 182, and Jameson Williams and Darrius Patterson both went over 80 with a touchdown. The Jets put up 415 yards and are 0-3. That will not last.
New Orleans is 3-0 and has still not thrown an interception. Lamar Jackson went 26-of-30 for 304 yards and three touchdowns with a rushing score, Kenneth Walker III went for 100 on the ground and 73 through the air, and the Saints piled up 27 first downs and converted six of nine third downs. Jayden Higgins caught six for 127 and two scores. Tampa Bay's quarterback was, improbably, the most efficient man on the field: Justin Herbert went 18-of-24 for 275, three touchdowns and no picks at a 151.9 rating, with Ladd McConkey and Parker Washington both clearing 100 yards. The Buccaneers are 0-3 and have not once been outplayed at quarterback.
The first win of the season for a team that has deserved one for three weeks. Shane Dressler was excellent again — 19-of-25 for 252 and three touchdowns at a 130.3 rating, plus a rushing score — and rookie Brett McCain caught his first career touchdown. The story was the front: Dexter Lawrence II and Derick Hall had two and a half sacks apiece in a five-sack afternoon that held Las Vegas to 163 total yards. The Raiders have real people on defense and showed it — Lukas Van Ness had two sacks, Sergio Greenfield picked Dressler off, Xavier McKinney led the team in tackles and Jason Mahone was perfect on both field goals. Las Vegas is 0-3 and every one of its problems is on the other side of the ball.
Washington is 3-0 and plus-55, and Anthony Richardson Sr. is the most complete quarterback in the league right now: 14-of-19 for 185 and two touchdowns, no interceptions, a 139.1 rating, and five carries for 72 yards and two more scores including a 49-yard run. Four total touchdowns. The Commanders ran for 209 as a team, with RJ Harvey and Rachaad White both going over 55. Philadelphia's afternoon belonged to Jonathan Taylor, who carried sixteen times for 133 and two scores with a 76-yard long, and to rookie Jamie Gonzales, who took a 53-yarder on his way to 77 yards. The Eagles are 1-2 and their ground game is not the problem.
Spencer Rattler threw five touchdown passes to five different receivers — CeeDee Lamb, Chigoziem Okonkwo, Chris Godwin Jr., Jake Ferguson and Jacory Croskey-Merritt — on 20-of-29 for 308 and a 143.3 rating. Dallas turned six red-zone trips into four touchdowns, sacked Shedeur Sanders five times, and got a 67-yard field goal out of Cam Little that is now the longest kick in league history. Cleveland is 0-3 and is not being outplayed so much as out-finished: the Browns out-gained Dallas 389 to 379, converted nine of fifteen third downs, and got 125 yards and a score from Sergio Rivera and 119 from Cecil Greene. Two turnovers and five sacks is the whole story.
Bryce Young was perfect. Eighteen of twenty-three for 318 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, a 158.3 rating — a week after the Chronicle spent 900 words explaining that Jacksonville won a game in spite of him. Travis Etienne Jr. was the best skill player on the field: thirteen carries for 86 and a score, nine catches for 181 and two more, 267 yards from scrimmage. Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught an 89-yard touchdown, and Chris Olave threw a 77-yard touchdown to Etienne on a trick play that was the single prettiest thing in the league this week. Indianapolis scored on three of four red-zone trips and got 108 rushing yards and a 61-yard burst from Christian McCaffrey, but Jalen Milroe threw two picks, the Colts lost the turnover battle 3-0, and six penalties for 59 yards did not help.
New England scored twice without its offense on the field. Andre Cisco returned a fumble for a touchdown, Divine Deablo returned another, and Travis Hunter added an interception, a forced fumble and two breakups in a four-takeaway afternoon. Shemar Turner had two sacks. Drake Maye was efficient rather than explosive — 23-of-27, 252 yards, no interceptions — and Xavier Worthy took a 54-yarder for a score. Both teams gained exactly 256 yards. Baltimore is 0-3, but Quinshon Judkins ran for 102 with a 52-yard long, Michael Pittman Jr. caught a 74-yard touchdown, Oluwafemi Oladejo had two sacks and Devin Lloyd was everywhere. The Ravens went 0-for-6 on third down. Fix that and this is a different team.
Houston is 3-0 and won this one on third down: nine conversions in twelve attempts, the best mark of the week. Bijan Robinson carried fifteen times for 120, Quintin Warner threw two touchdowns and ran for a third, backup Tyler Huntley threw a 28-yard score on his only attempt, and Jason Sanders hit from 63. Nick Bolton had a sack and an interception. Tennessee falls to 2-1 having done almost nothing wrong: Dak Prescott went for 309 and two scores, DJ Moore and Dalton Schultz both caught touchdowns, Harrison Butker was 3-for-3 with a 57-yarder, and Daiyan Henley had two sacks and a forced fumble. Four points, on the road, against the AFC's best record. The Titans are fine.
Green Bay is 3-0 and plus-76, and this was the first week the defense looked human — 24 points allowed after giving up ten in two games. Jayden Daniels threw for 369 and three scores, Keaton Mitchell turned his only catch into a 75-yard touchdown, Sam LaPorta caught seven for 82 and a score, and the Packers turned six red-zone trips into three touchdowns with 24 first downs. Nick Bosa and Micah Parsons each got home. Chicago is 0-2-1 and played its best offensive game of the season: Lorenzo Whitworth went 19-of-30 for 310 and two touchdowns without a pick, Ja'Quan Wofford caught six for 130, and Jamal Hill returned an interception 38 yards for a score. The Bears went 3-for-4 on fourth down and 1-for-8 on third, which is a coaching staff refusing to accept the evidence, and the Chronicle respects it.
The Chronicle said last week that Detroit's eight-interception afternoon was one bad day. C.J. Stroud came back 16-of-22 for 280 yards and five touchdowns at a 135.4 rating. Jerry Jeudy caught three balls for 146 and two scores including a 79-yarder, Isaiah Likely caught two more, and the Lions intercepted Jordan Love four times — Kamren Curl, Casey Peterson, Jamien Sherwood and rookie Ben Ali each getting one, with Patrick Surtain II adding three breakups. Minnesota is 0-3, and yet: James Cook III ran for 61 and a score, Jaelan Phillips picked Stroud off, and the Vikings turned all three red-zone trips into touchdowns. The finishing is there. The middle of the field is not.
Arizona is 3-0 without ever having been the favorite. Brock Purdy went 16-of-28 for 397 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, Danny Gray caught five balls for 203 yards and two scores including a 73-yarder, Devin Culp went for 101 and Cade Otton for 52 and a touchdown. The Cardinals did not turn it over once and took the ball away twice, with rookie Thaddeus Spencer getting the interception. Buffalo lost a game it led in every other column: Josh Allen threw for 416 yards and three scores, Adonai Mitchell caught an 83-yard touchdown on the way to 139, Amon-Ra St. Brown scored, and the Bills out-gained Arizona 484 to 429 with 22 first downs. Six red-zone trips, two touchdowns, two giveaways. That is the margin.
Kansas City got its season off the floor, and did it the least Kansas City way imaginable: 20 points, 278 total yards, no touchdown passes, and a defense that decided the game. Levi Brooks returned a fumble for the score that broke it open, Kobie Turner had a sack and a forced fumble, and Hayden Andrews ran one in himself. Younghoe Koo was 2-for-2. Pittsburgh is 1-2 and lost the lowest-scoring game of the week without embarrassing itself — Emmett Bennett ran for 54 yards, Tyjae Spears scored, Logan Wilson picked Andrews off, Devin Bush forced a fumble and Cody Blackwell led all Steelers with six tackles. The Steelers gained 194 yards. That is the part to fix.
Carolina won without a touchdown pass, without a turnover, and without a single penalty. Brandon Aubrey kicked four field goals in four attempts, two of them from beyond 50 with a long of 56, which is now the most field goals anyone has made in a game in this league. Rookie Brandon Hart carried sixteen times for 86 and both Panthers touchdowns, Carolina went 3-for-3 on fourth down, and Foyesade Oluokun picked off Jalen Hurts. Atlanta out-gained the Panthers 392 to 309 and converted four of five third downs. Hurts threw for 248 and two scores and ran for a third, Saquon Barkley put up 221 yards from scrimmage with a receiving touchdown, and Jaylen Waddle caught a 68-yarder. Two points. The Falcons are 1-2 and are better than that record by a distance.
Week 3's honor roll, built straight from the box scores.
Three weeks in, the paces are starting to mean something. The Chronicle still reserves the right to be embarrassed by all of them.
Two entries changed this week, and one of them is a category the Chronicle admitted last issue it should have been tracking all along.
Start with the part that is easiest to dismiss. The Broncos drafted a quarterback, handed him the job, and three weeks later he is 54-of-68 for 717 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception. That is a 79.4 completion percentage. Warren Davis has posted ratings of 127.7, 150.4 and 141.6, and the league's response to each of them has been a version of "sure, but wait until somebody makes him throw it." In Miami, somebody did. He threw it 25 times, was sacked three times, and put up 318 yards and three scores anyway.
Now the part that is harder to dismiss. Denver is 3-0 with wins over the Chargers, the Chiefs and the Dolphins — a division rival on the road, the AFC's most decorated roster, and a 2-0 team in a 45-42 shootout. That is not a soft schedule. The Broncos have scored 110 points, third-most in the league behind San Francisco and level with Green Bay, and they have done it three different ways: 30 in a three-point opener, 35 behind a rookie's near-perfect afternoon, and 45 in a game that never had a defensive stop in it.
The engine is Jahmyr Gibbs, and Sunday in Miami was the loudest argument he has made. Seventeen carries for 213 yards and three touchdowns. Six catches for 121 yards and two more. Three hundred and thirty-four yards from scrimmage and five touchdowns in a single football game, and Denver needed every one of them, because the Dolphins scored 42 and Baker Mayfield threw five touchdown passes on the other sideline. Gibbs now has 746 scrimmage yards and nine total touchdowns through three weeks, and he is doing it in an offense that converted five of six third downs and gained 512 yards.
What makes this a story rather than a hot start is the shape of it. Denver runs for 224 yards and throws for 288 in the same game. Its rookie quarterback's worst rating of the season is 127.7. It converts on third down at a rate nobody else is matching. Darnell Washington and Dont'e Thornton Jr. both went for 70-plus in Miami without being the point of the offense. This is not a team getting by on one thing.
And then there is the defense, which is the reason this feature is not a coronation. The Broncos have allowed 83 points in three games — more than any other unbeaten team, more than eleven teams with losing records. They did not record a single sack against Baker Mayfield. Miami had seven red-zone trips. Deommodore Lenoir's interception was the only takeaway Denver managed all afternoon, and it came in a game the Broncos won by three. Kansas City scored 14 on this defense and Los Angeles scored 27.
So the question for Denver is not whether the offense is real — three weeks of a 79 percent completion rate and 110 points says it is — but whether a defense that lets opposing quarterbacks throw five touchdown passes can survive a January where the games get tighter and the field gets shorter. The Broncos get New Orleans, then the rest of an AFC West that is 2-7 without them.
For now, the standings say 3-0 and the record book says a rookie quarterback is completing four out of every five throws. In the final season on this game, Denver has produced the most fun team in the league, and the Chronicle is not going to spend its afternoon explaining why that cannot last.
The trade block woke up. Three trades were approved in the days around Week 3 — two between Houston and Las Vegas and one between Houston and Minnesota — which makes the 3-0 Texans the most active front office in the league by a comfortable margin. The wire does not publish the contents of a completed deal, so the Chronicle can tell you they happened and not what changed hands. If any of the three clubs would like to correct that, this column is available and so is Press Row. Elsewhere it was depth churn: Las Vegas finally settled its kicking job on Jason Mahone, who repaid the faith by going 2-for-2 in a game where the Raiders scored six points.
Bobby Brown III, DT, Dolphins — torn pectoral, a long absence. The only new name on the board, and it landed on a Miami defense that just allowed 512 yards and did not record a sack. Interior help was the last thing the Dolphins could afford to lose.
The injury board remains the quietest in memory. Seven rostered players are out league-wide, one more than last week.
Otherwise the sick bay is unchanged: Eagles edge Jalon Walker (torn labrum, the shortest stay on the board), Patriots defensive tackle Jordan Davis (broken collarbone) and safety Cam Beasley (torn pectoral), 49ers center John Michael Schmitz Jr (broken collarbone), Raiders right tackle Brennan Poole (torn pectoral) and Jaguars right tackle Matt Feldman (Achilles). New England carries two of the seven; nobody else carries more than one.
The Chronicle will keep saying this until it stops being true: for a league averaging 58 points a game, with 932 points scored across sixteen games in Week 3 alone, seven men on the shelf is a remarkable number. Jahmyr Gibbs touched it 23 times in Miami and walked off fine. Bijan Robinson has 44 carries in three weeks. Enjoy it while it lasts.
The two rookie quarterbacks are both 3-0 and both starting to look like the story of the season rather than a curiosity of it.
Offensive Rookie of the Year lean: Warren Davis, still, and now with an argument that extends past efficiency — 318 yards in a shootout Denver had to win. Nicholas Battle is close enough that a Bengals-Broncos game would settle it.
Defensive Rookie of the Year lean: Andres Sanchez holds it on volume, three interceptions in three weeks, but Dom St. Clair had the better Sunday and the gap is closing.
Week 7, 2027. Travis Etienne Jr. caught fourteen passes for 257 yards and five touchdowns in a single afternoon and put three separate lines in the record book at once — receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, all in the same game, all still standing eighteen months later. It remains the most complete individual receiving performance this league has logged.
Mark Andrews reached the touchdown column on Sunday with eleven catches and 194 yards, which is to say he got to five scores the efficient way and left the other two records alone. The book now reads 5, shared. Two names, both of them on teams that were not supposed to be doing this.
The coincidence the Chronicle cannot let pass: in the same week Andrews tied Etienne's record, Etienne himself caught nine passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns in Jacksonville, added 86 rushing yards and a third score, and finished with 267 yards from scrimmage. One of those two touchdown catches came on a throw from Chris Olave, a wide receiver, and went 77 yards. The record holder had the second-best receiving day in the league on the weekend somebody finally caught him.
New York arrives off a 45-21 afternoon in which Patrick Mahomes was perfect and Mark Andrews tied a league record, and Chicago arrives at 0-2-1 having just thrown for 310 yards in a ten-point loss at Lambeau. On paper that is a mismatch. On the field it is the most interesting kind of trap: a Bears team that has out-played its record in all three games, at home, against a Giants offense that has never had to do this two weeks running. Lorenzo Whitworth has thrown four touchdowns and no interceptions in two weeks. Somebody in this game is going to find out something about themselves.
The game of the week that isn't. Both teams are 3-0, both play in the NFC West, and San Francisco has scored 128 points to Arizona's 104. Brock Purdy's 397-yard afternoon against the league's most efficient defense.
Two 3-0 teams and the best matchup on the board after that one. Bijan Robinson's 574 scrimmage yards against a Bengals team that just gave up 415 to the Jets.
Washington is 3-0 and plus-55; Detroit just got five touchdown passes out of C.J. Stroud and picked Jordan Love off four times. Anthony Richardson Sr. against Patrick Surtain II is worth the admission on its own.
Tennessee lost by four in Houston and has been within a score of 3-0 all season. Green Bay is plus-76 and has not been behind for meaningful stretches yet.
Two teams playing well enough to be much better than 1-1-1 and 0-3. Justin Herbert's 151.9 rating in defeat against a Rams defense that forced a fumble and got a return touchdown out of it.
Bryce Young just threw a perfect game. Jordan Love just threw four interceptions. Minnesota is 0-3 and has been outscored by 61.
Both 0-3, both better than that, and one of them will not be after Sunday. Shedeur Sanders's 348 yards against a Baltimore defense that just got two sacks out of Oluwafemi Oladejo.
New England scored twice on defense last week; New York put up 415 yards and lost. Riley Leonard against a Patriots secondary with Travis Hunter in it.
Two 1-2 teams with functioning ground games and quarterbacks under scrutiny. Jonathan Taylor's 133 yards against Christian McCaffrey's 108.
Spencer Rattler threw five touchdowns and Dallas got a 67-yard field goal. Pittsburgh has scored 47 points in three games and just won a defensive slog.
Josh Allen threw for 416 and lost. Baker Mayfield threw five touchdowns and lost. Whichever of these two finds a defense first wins the AFC East.
Carolina just won on four Brandon Aubrey field goals. Las Vegas has scored 44 points in three games. This may be the quietest scoreboard of the week.
Seattle is 0-3 and has been outscored by 67; Kansas City just won its first game with a defensive touchdown. Louis Geyer is the best player who will be on the field.
Fourteen right, two wrong in Week 3, which is the best week this column has had and almost certainly the best it will have. Carolina beating Atlanta and Denver winning in Miami were the two misses, and the Chronicle would make both calls again. Here are the fourteen Week 4 games that had not kicked off.
Third issue, still no letters, so these are again the questions the Chronicle is confident somebody in this league is asking out loud. The real mailbag is open and it runs with your name on it.
Results are in from the Issue 2 poll — "Which 0-2 team makes their first mark?" — and thirteen ballots produced the most instructive split this column has run. Tampa Bay took the plurality with six votes (46%). The Chargers took four (31%). The Chiefs, Panthers and Jets drew one apiece (8% each). Five teams — the Raiders, Ravens, Browns, Vikings and Seahawks — did not receive a single vote between them. Then Week 3 happened, and the ballot split almost exactly in half. Three of the ten winless teams got off the mark, and the league had a vote on every one of them: the Chargers won by 22 in Las Vegas, the Chiefs got theirs at home on a Levi Brooks fumble return, and Carolina won in Atlanta on four Brandon Aubrey field goals. That is six of the thirteen ballots on a team that delivered. The other seven did not, and six of those seven were on the Buccaneers, who lost 42-21 at home and are 0-3 despite a 151.9 passer rating from Justin Herbert — the most star-crossed team in the league and, apparently, the most popular. The genuinely impressive part is the shutout. Nobody voted for the Raiders, Ravens, Browns, Vikings or Seahawks, and all five of them lost. The league's collective non-opinion went five-for-five, which is a better week than most of the people who filled out a ballot had, and a considerably better week than Tampa Bay had. Credit where it is owed: whoever put four votes on Los Angeles was reading the same Chargers box scores the Chronicle was.
This week's poll:
Eight teams are 3-0 — the Bengals, Texans, Broncos, Commanders, Packers, Saints, 49ers and Cardinals — and history says at least half of them are about to find out something uncomfortable. Which unbeaten is the first to lose two in a row? The Broncos, who have allowed more points than anybody else in this group? The Cardinals, who are 3-0 with the worst overall rating of the eight? The Texans, who have won by 13, 11 and four? The Saints, whose unbeaten run ended in Denver before this issue reached the newsstand? The Commanders, the Packers, the Bengals, the 49ers — or none of them, and this is simply what a great team looks like in September? Results in Issue 4.
Three weeks down, fourteen to go. A tight end tied a record that had stood since 2027, a quarterback threw 24 passes and completed 22 of them, a kicker hit one from 67 yards and another from 66 in the same afternoon, and a rookie in Denver is completing four out of every five throws on a team nobody picked. Eight teams have not lost. Eight teams have not won. The Chronicle has been doing this long enough to know that by Halloween those two lists will look nothing like they do today.
Press Row is still empty and the mailbag is still empty. Three issues is long enough for the desk to admit it is asking. Send something in — a quote, a question, a complaint about a pick. It runs with your name on it.
Until next week, the Chronicle stands with all 32.
— Jenna Tulls, Senior HFL Correspondent