NFL Winners and Losers: Caleb Williams produces career-best performance as AJ Brown ignites season for Philadelphia Eagles

Caleb Williams delivers the best performance of his NFL career, Michael Penix Jr endures a nightmare day and Isaiah Rodgers sinks the Joe Burrow-less Cincinnati Bengals. Here are some of the winners and losers from Sunday...

Winners

AJ Brown

Boos turned into sarcastic cheers from Philadelphia Eagles fans as Jalen Hurts threw a long-awaited completion to star wide receiver AJ Brown on Sunday. The Eagles passing attack has stuttered through the opening weeks of the season and were hobbling once more in the face of a Jared Verse and Byron Young-led Los Angeles Rams defense that limited the hosts to 33 total yards in the first half. But with their comeback victory - capped by a last-gasp blocked field goal turned into a touchdown by Jordan Davis - came a reminder that Brown remains one of the best in the league and a focal point to Nick Sirianni's offense.

Brown has surpassed 1,000 receiving yards in five of six seasons since entering the league, but entered Week Three having caught just one target for eight yards in Week One against Dallas followed by five catches for 27 yards in the win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Eagles supporters have been banging the drum for more involvement, and their calls were answered as he put up six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown as a momentum-swinging feature to Philly's 19-point comeback. Brown was behind one of the biggest plays of the day with eight minutes left and the Eagles trailing 26-21 as he bullied Darious Williams on a comeback route to wrestle the ball in his favour and convert on third-and-10 to shift his team out of their own red zone. It was one of multiple mammoth chain-moving plays from Smith, igniting a drive culminating in DeVonta Smith's four-yard go-ahead touchdown catch to make it 27-26. He continues to be a contested catch nightmare and typifies this Eagles team's ability to flick the switch in a flash.

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Caleb Williams

Would it be completely wrong and unfair to chime in with the Dallas Cowboys jokes? By now it feels customary to affiliation with the NFL. Plus, the Micah Parsons trade is not going away any time soon for Jerry Jones.

Quarterback Caleb Williams delivered the most accomplished, complete, clinical performance of his young career to lead the Chicago Bears to a 31-14 win over the Cowboys. It would mark Williams' first career game in the NFL without taking a sack, having been sacked a league-high 68 times for 466 yards in his rookie season. Sure, a major tick in the win column for the Bears offensive line, but another damning indictment of the Cowboys pass rush in life without Parsons. Pressure was non-existent, but this was about Williams. The former No 1 overall pick finished 19 of 28 passing for 298 yards and four touchdowns with a passer rating of 142.6 amid the most promising signs yet of his development in unison with first-year head coach Ben Johnson. The flea-flicker touchdown pass to Luther Burden III was a small but exciting window into the vision for blending Johnson's creativity - cultivated in Detroit - with the downfield arm strength of Williams, who offers his head coach a different menu of skills to that of Jared Goff.

Question marks over the trajectory of Williams were beginning to gather unwelcome, perhaps premature, momentum such were the expectations that awaited as he came out of college touted as the next Patrick Mahomes. With glimpses of playmaking spark has come iffy accuracy and rash decision-making at times, but Williams played smart, clean and aggressive on Sunday in his most meaningful step yet.

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Isaiah Rodgers and nostalgia fans

Carson Wentz, Marcus Mariota and Tyrod Taylor all started at quarterback for their respective teams this week, filling in for their respective injured starters J.J. McCarthy, Jayden Daniels and Justin Fields. What year is it again?

Mariota completed 15 of 21 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown while rushing six times for 40 yards and a score in Washington's 41-24 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, marking the 2015 second overall pick's first start since Week 13 of the 2022 season. Taylor, in year 15 in the NFL, meanwhile went 26 of 36 for 197 yards, two touchdowns and one interception as well as rushing for 48 yards from eight carries in the Jets' 29-27 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, his first start since the final game of the 2023 campaign with the New York Giants. Coincidentally, now-Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield made his NFL debut with the Cleveland Browns after replacing Taylor in Week Three against the Jets in 2018.

But the headline came at U.S. Bank Stadium as Wentz threw 14 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns without an interception to help guide the Minnesota Vikings to a 48-10 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. In doing so Wentz, the second overall pick in 2016, extended his NFL record of making at least one start for six different teams in a six-year period. It was both the latest glowing reflection of Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell as one of the NFL's smartest, adaptive and skilled offensive minds in football, while casting a worrying shadow over Cincinnati's own backup quarterback situation. Having lost Joe Burrow for three months to turf toe, the Bengals saw Jake Browning throw two interceptions while Ja'Marr Chase was held to just 50 yards.

A word, too, for Isaiah Rodgers and his historic performance. The Vikings cornerback returned an interception 87 yards for a touchdown as well as forcing two fumbles, the second of which he returned for a 66 yard touchdown on a rampant day for Brian Flores' defense.

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Losers

Anthony Richardson and others...

The Daniel Jones turning into Peyton Manning joke was funny in Week One. It exceeded its short shelf-life expectations in Week Two. Now in Week Three, it's beginning to make people uneasy. He might also be turning into a Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson hybrid. Too far? Okay, too far. Regardless, the newly-re-nicknamed 'Indiana Jones' is becoming the early story of the season after leading the Indianapolis Colts to their first 3-0 start since 2009 following their 41-20 win over the Tennessee Titans. Jones, cast aside by the New York Giants last season, finished the game 18 of 25 for 288 yards and a touchdown and is still yet to turn the ball over this season - a major downfall during his time with Big Blue.

At first there was the question as to whether Jones was feeding off a newbie spike in confidence fuelled by smart coaching and an offensive line substantially better than the crumbling mess he played behind in New York, but then he out-manoeuvred the blitz packages of Vance Joseph and the Denver Broncos. On Sunday there were flashes of a needle-moving playmaker: one occasion seeing him spin away from pressure to create 17 yards out of nothing, another seeing him climb the pocket with poise before launching a deep-shot jump-ball to Alec Pierce.

Few could have envisioned a scenario in which former fourth overall pick Anthony Richardson was coming in at quarterback late in a game for the Colts having seen Jones already cement the victory. Richardson is one of the most athletically-gifted quarterbacks to ever enter the NFL, blessed with the ability to drop jaws with certain throws and burdened by the accuracy issues to incite hair-pulling with others. While Jones' lightning start puts his future in doubt, it could yet prove another damning reflection of Giants mediocrity as Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen nurse the hot seat. What's more, Sam Darnold's comeback year with the Minnesota Vikings is a nod to the unforeseen contract dilemma Indianapolis might well face should Jones continue at this rate. It feels harsh to call Richardson a loser, but this situation does him few favours.

Houston's problems on offense

It wasn't so long ago the league was heralding CJ Stroud as the next premier contributor to a fierce AFC arm's race, having propelled the Houston Texans ahead of schedule after arriving as the second overall pick in 2023. And while Stroud isn't about to shirk those projections overnight, he is now piloting an offense that appears to be broken.

Houston managed just 119 yards of offense while punting five times, missing a field goal and surrendering an interception through the first three quarters of Sunday's 17-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Only when Trevor Lawrence threw a sloppy interception did they appear to come to life when Stroud connected with Nico Collins for a 50-yard touchdown on the ensuing play. Stroud finished the game 25 of 38 for 204 yards, his strike to Collins and two interceptions, and now has a passer rating of 76.9 through the first three weeks of the campaign. Concerns over the offensive line heading into the campaign are proving to be justified, the running game is a non-factor, passes are being dropped and Stroud is making mistakes.

With the Colts cruising in the AFC South, there is early worry for DeMeco Ryans and the Texans.

Michael Penix Jr and the Falcons

Is there a more confusing team in the NFL than the Atlanta Falcons? They are a footballing-enigma, littered with talent on offense and capable of denting the best on their day, while also being prone to irrelevance at times. On Monday they put J.J. McCarthy in hell while blunting Brian Flores' prized defense to beat Kevin O'Connell's well-drilled Minnesota Vikings; on Sunday they fell to a 30-0 blowout defeat to what might be the worst team in the league in the Carolina Panthers. They cannot seem to get it right.

Atlanta signed Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180m contract in free agency in 2024 with the belief he could unlock a loaded armoury of pass-catching and backfield weapons capable of fuelling perennial contention. He could not, and was ultimately benched for Michael Penix Jr. Just when you thought you had seen the last of him, Cousins re-entered the fold on Sunday when Penix Jr was benched after completing just 18 of 36 passing for 172 yards and two interceptions. A team with Bijan Robinson, Drake London, Darnell Mooney and Kyle Pitts could not score a touchdown.

"The game was out of hand," Morris said of the decision to bench Penix. "You know, you move on. Keep him out of harm's way. Keep our guys out of harm's way. Took a couple players out. The game was out of hand. They got us."

John Parker Romo also missed two field goals in the same week that saw the Falcons cut long-time kicker Younghoe Koo. Probably summed it up.

Watch the Minnesota Vikings face the Pittsburgh Steelers at Croke Park in Dublin, live on Sky Sports NFL on Sunday September 28; Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW.