NFL Week 3 losers: Dolphins season heading off rails, Cowboys snake-bitten

With most of the Week 3 NFL schedule in the books, it’s time to take a look at some of the biggest losers from around the league on Sunday.

Mike McCarthy, head coach, Dallas Cowboys

Cowboys fans were already calling for McCarthy’s job before the season even started and after the team’s 1-2 start, that demand has only intensified. Dallas fell behind 21-3 in the second quarter and had to stage a furious comeback in the second half to even get within striking distance of a lead.

Quarterback Dak Prescott nearly pulled it off, too. The Cowboys’ clear lack of a run game has made life harder on Prescott and so has the team’s patchwork offensive line, which allowed 19 pressures, 13 hurries and six sacks entering Sunday’s game, per Pro Football Focus. If the Cowboys aren’t in the playoff race by midseason, McCarthy could be out of a job.

Dak Prescott, QB, Dallas Cowboys

Prescott is here not because of his personal performance but because he’s the unfortunate victim of bad coaching and bad GMing. McCarthy and Jerry Jones failed Prescott this offseason with their free-agent approach, or lack thereof. After back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher Tony Pollard bolted to the Tennessee Titans, the Cowboys replaced him with a pair of past-their-prime runners in Ezekiel Elliott and Dalvin Cook. 

The franchise also took its sweet time signing CeeDee Lamb to a contract extension — prompting him to miss all of training camp — and his rust has shown through the first three games of 2024. It’s clear Jones is putting the Cowboys success this season solely on Prescott’s shoulders, which is ostensibly unfair given the lack of talent around him.

Russell Wilson, QB, Pittsburgh Steelers

Any hope Wilson had of getting the Steelers’ starting job back took a gut punch on Sunday after Justin Fields’ head-turning performance. While Wilson has been nursing an injury, Fields has led Pittsburgh to a 3-0 start and first place in the AFC North.

Fields had his best game of the season in Sunday’s 20-10 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, completing 25-of-32 passes for 245 yards and two total touchdowns (one rushing, one passing) and the team played arguably its most complete game of the year. As long as Fields keeps leading the Steelers to wins, Wilson can expect to keep the bench warm.

Bryce Young, QB, Carolina Panthers

How can Young be a loser when he didn’t even play? Well, Andy Dalton’s breakout performance — 319 yards, three touchdowns, 36-22 win over the Las Vegas Raiders — proved that the problem very well may be Young after all.

When the former No. 1 overall pick was benched last week, many said his receivers and offensive line weren’t good enough, which is why Young consistently produced poor numbers when he played. But in Sunday’s win, Dalton was sacked just twice, Diontae Johnson had his first 100-yard game since joining the Panthers and three other WRs had multiple catches. So maybe Young is a puzzle piece that just doesn’t fit in Carolina.

Everyone, Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins are a mess right now. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is on injured reserve and his backup Skylar Thompson left Sunday’s 24-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks after suffering a chest injury. Miami likely won’t win many games if Tim Boyle is its QB1.

The Dolphins have a strong stable of running backs, but the problem is they can’t use them like they’d like if they’re always playing from behind, and if they’re down to their third QB, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle — arguably their two best offensive players — likely aren’t making an impact on the field, either. Until the Dolphins get a legitimate starting QB, they can be penciled in for this list every week.

Caleb Williams, QB, Chicago Bears

While Williams actually had a decent performance in Sunday’s 21-16 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, the rest of his team didn’t do much to help him out. Receiver Rome Odunze (six receptions, 112 yards, one touchdown) and tight end Cole Kmet (10 receptions, 97 yards, one touchdown) weren’t the problem, it was actually Chicago’s lack of a run game and spotty offensive line play.

Roschon Johnson, D’Andre Swift and Khalil Herbert combined for just 59 yards on 25 carries, while the offensive line let Indy sack Williams four times and pressure him on seemingly most of his dropbacks. Williams has shown steady progression from Week 1 to Week 3, he just needs the rest of the team to catch up to what he’s doing.

Bill Callahan, offensive line coach, Tennessee Titans

Callahan was brought in by his son Brian (the Titans first-year head coach) to fix the team’s offensive line woes and so far he’s failed to meet expectations. Quarterback Will Levis was sacked eight times in Sunday’s 30-14 loss to the Green Bay Packers and through three games the young signal-caller has taken 12 sacks.

It feels like Levis is running for his life on every dropback and Nicholas Petit-Frere might just be one of the worst right tackles in the NFL. If the Titans want Levis to make it through the season, they need to consider making a change at RT and Callahan needs to coach up his group better than what he’s been doing.

Jim Schwartz, defensive coordinator, Cleveland Browns

Week 3 was supposed to be an easy win for the Browns. They were facing the Daniel Jones-led New York Giants offense and it was supposed to be a matchup Cleveland’s defense could feast on.

Instead, Jones threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns, rookie WR Malik Nabers had eight catches for 78 yards and two touchdowns — including one Odell Beckham Jr.-like circus catch in the end zone — and New York put up 340 yards of total offense while controlling time of possession (33:56 to 26:04) and making Schwartz look like a rookie play-caller.