NFL Week 3 winners, losers: Commanders spring season's biggest upset, Baker Mayfield becomes latest injured QB

Plus, Deshaun Watson might have earned himself a longer leash as the Browns' starting quarterback

Sep 27, 2026 at 6:18 pm ET • 8 min read

Conventional wisdom suggests the Houston Texans were among the biggest losers from Week 3 of the 2026 NFL season. When teams lose divisional games to drop to 0-3, there are generally not many redeeming factors to generate optimism for the rest of the year. But maybe the Texans have the league right where they want it. This team lost its first three games a season ago and managed to roll into the AFC divisional round, after all.

Instead, a couple of offensive coordinators stand in the group of this week's most unfortunate parties. Mike McDaniel and Brian Daboll had days to forget in their teams' losses. League-wide quarterback health is a loser, too, with Baker Mayfield becoming the latest starter to sustain a potentially significant ailment.

For every loser, there is a winner. And in the case of the Washington Commanders, the most surprising victory of the season is plenty enough to put them in the Week 3 winner's circle.

Here are the teams, players and coaches who produced the best and worst performances in the third week of the campaign.

Winner: Commanders

The biggest upset of the young season belongs to the Commanders. Very little about their matchup with the Seattle Seahawks suggested they would come out on top, but they overcame the roster gap between themselves and the reigning Super Bowl champions, the return of Sam Darnold to Seattle's lineup, the absence of Jayden Daniels and miserable weather conditions to pull off a 33-31 stunner.

Vintage Marcus Mariota came out on the game-sealing play when he converted a critical third down with his legs. He was excellent before that key run, too. Mariota passed for three touchdowns in his first start of the year and linked up with nine different receivers. Washington's defense was just as impactful in the upset, even if the 31 points it allowed suggests otherwise. The unit limited the Seahawks to a meager 44 rushing yards and forced three turnovers, including a pivotal pick six by Kain Medrano late in the fourth quarter.

The Commanders may not win many games during Daniels' absence (and their 0-2 start even with him in the starting lineup indicates they could be in for a long year regardless), but this victory is one they can hang their hats on all year.

Loser: Quarterback health

Among the most prevalent storylines from Weeks 1-3 is the onslaught of quarterback injuries across the league. From the preseason through Week 3, six starting quarterbacks missed time due to injuries. A seventh might soon join them, as Tampa Bay Buccaneers signal-caller Baker Mayfield dislocated the thumb on his throwing hand late in the 23-16 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Mayfield's hand made contact with a defender on a fourth-and-13 throw inside the final two minutes of the defeat, and he sat the rest of the contest with an injury that appeared to cause him a tremendous amount of pain. Further testing will determine the extent of the dislocation and whether there are other injuries to his hand, but it is reasonable to envision the Buccaneers turning to backup Jalon Daniels (an undrafted rookie) in Week 4.

Loser: Drake Maye

How Drake Maye would follow his MVP runner-up campaign was of much intrigue entering the 2026 season because, on one hand, his supporting cast is even better than it was a year ago, and on the other, the New England Patriots' schedule is far more difficult. Three games in, it appears that the more daunting slate will produce a year of regression.

Maye threw two interceptions and lost a fumble in Sunday's 35-6 blowout loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The three turnovers brought his season total to seven. In contrast, he was responsible for only 11 turnovers all of last year. The Patriots are off to a 1-2 start, and the offense was atrocious in the two losses with a combined 16 points and five Maye interceptions.

How much of this is a product of Maye's No. 1 receiver, A.J. Brown, being unavailable for nearly the entire stretch is to be determined. Brown will miss at least two more games as he remains on injured reserve, so Maye will have to try and bounce back without that safety net. There are a handful of shaky or flat-out bad defenses on the upcoming slate, so perhaps that will aid in the third-year quarterback's attempt to climb out of the mud.

Winner: Brazilian NFL fans

The first NFL game in Rio de Janeiro could not have been much more entertaining. Anyone in Brazil who watched American football for the first time on Sunday might have become a fan for life, because that was quite the introduction to the sport from the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys. The Ravens' 34-31 win immediately went down as an all-time great international game in league history.

A walk-off field goal. Two lead changes and a tie in the fourth quarter. Last-minute penalty drama. Superstar players doing superstar things. It was legitimately the perfect game from a "how can we make this the most exciting game for neutral viewers" perspective.

Plus, how fitting is it that in a soccer country, the game-winning play came from the Ravens' kicker? Tyler Loop made a whole lot of soccer-loving Brazilians proud with his gargantuan boot at the buzzer.

Winner: Deshaun Watson

After the first game of the Cleveland Browns' season, it seemed as though Deshaun Watson was on a collision course with the bench. Not only did he save his job with a bounce-back effort in last week's win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he might have earned himself a considerably longer leash in Sunday's comeback triumph against the Carolina Panthers.

It was by no means a star-caliber effort for Watson, but he logged a pair of touchdown passes in what was always a close game in Week 3. The second of those scoring plays showed that Watson still has a few ounces of clutch in him. He hit Harold Fannin Jr. in the end zone for the second time with the fourth-quarter strike and converted a two-point conversion to give the Browns a decisive lead with 1:48 to play.

Loser: 49ers' injury luck

The San Francisco 49ers are 3-0 and already hold two NFC West wins. The second of those divisional triumphs came with a cost, though. The 49ers lost wide receiver Mike Evans and tackle Trent Williams for the game in their 36-30 win over the Arizona Cardinals, and that is not to mention Nick Bosa's injury in practice leading up to the contest. This team is all too familiar with its best players sitting on the bench and finding itself in tough situations as a result, and when it surrendered 17 fourth-quarter points, there was an eerie feeling that the Week 3 game could go south a la last year's injury-impacted losses.

The positive news for the 49ers is that Evans and Williams appear to have avoided serious injuries. Evans has a rib strain, and Williams sat the rest of the game with a neck stinger. It remains to be seen whether either of them will miss more than part of one game. Bosa, on the other hand, is expected to miss multiple weeks with the calf injury he suffered in practice.

Loser: Mike McDaniel and the Chargers' offense

Things are just not working for the Los Angeles Chargers, specifically on offense. The team is 0-3, and it has not scored more than 16 points in a game. That is against two bottom-dwelling opponents and a Buffalo Bills defense that surrendered exactly 31 points in both of its first two games. Sunday's 24-16 loss in upstate New York was another example of how a highly touted offensive coordinator hire is not delivering the expected results for the Chargers.

Mike McDaniel and his offense had every opportunity to put up a big number on the Bills. Los Angeles forced five turnovers but turned those extra possessions into only 10 points. It then blew that 10-0 first-quarter lead by halftime. Not many teams will hold Josh Allen and the Bills to just three touchdowns, and they have to be able to capitalize in order to beat the Super Bowl hopefuls. The Chargers could not do so, and it comes back to an offense that cannot seem to kick it into gear.

Winner: Colts

Either the Indianapolis Colts or Houston Texans were going to come out of Week 3 with an 0-3 record. With seconds to play, it looked like the Colts would be that unfortunate team to drop into a deep early-season hole. But Daniel Jones moved the ball onto the plus side of the 50-yard line, set up a 53-yard field goal attempt and watched as Spencer Shrader sent it through the uprights to seal a 19-17 win.

The start of the year was always going to be a grind for Indianapolis with matchups against the Texans, Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens creating a three-game gauntlet. What lies ahead is far more manageable, and that the Colts already have one win in their pocket could help put them in a respectable position by the middle of the season.

Loser: Brian Daboll's search for revenge

The Tennessee Titans look like early contenders for the No. 1 pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. A third consecutive loss to open the year, a 12-7 defeat at the hands of the New York Giants, is another dreadful blemish on what seems destined to be a lost season. The Titans held an injury-riddled Giants team to four field goals and still could not do enough on the other side of the ball to win. The nail in the coffin was a game-sealing interception Cam Ward threw in the end zone to wrap up a 23-for-36, 181-yard day.

Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll failed to get revenge against the team that fired him last year. Not only that, but the putrid performance his unit put forth only gave New York reason to believe it made the right decision. At least Robert Saleh's defense did its job by holding the Giants out of the end zone, but that is a low bar considering a late-career Jameis Winston led the opposing offense.