It's Week 3 of the NFL season. Is it too early to hit the panic button? Of course not.
The Miami Dolphins put up 70 points on Sunday, the Green Bay Packers had the comeback of the year, and the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Ugly Bowl on primetime television. There was plenty to write home about with this week's NFL slate, much of it good.
Of course, it can't all be positive. Several teams disappointed in Week 3 — some to such an egregious extent that we can't help but recommend a full teardown. It's mighty soon to get existential about the future of your team, but if you cheer for one of these five organizations... you're probably on the right track.
No. 5 NFL team who should blow up: Las Vegas Raiders
The Las Vegas Raiders hired Josh McDaniels last January. The team went 6-11 in his first year on the sidelines, wasting a Pro Bowl campaign from Derek Carr and the explosive playmaking talent of Davante Adams. The former Patriots offensive guru was billed as Bill Belichick's hard-to-get disciple, but he looks strikingly like the mediocre head coach who only lasted two years with the Denver Broncos in his first go-around as the man in charge back in 2009.
Well, hopefully, fans didn't talk themselves into a better outlook in 2023. The front office downgraded the QB position from Carr to the perennially middling Jimmy Garoppolo, no doubt hoping his years of experience playing for McDaniels in New England would translate to winning football in Sin City.
The Raiders are 1-2 after an embarrassing Sunday night loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Vegas had a chance to tie the game on fourth down late in the final quarter, but with his team down eight, McDaniels opted to kick the field goal instead — placing inordinate and unearned trust in his defense to get the stop. His defense did get the stop, but with 12 seconds on the game clock, barely enough time for Jimmy G to throw the worst pass you will ever see.
Las Vegas' problems extend beyond McDaniels, but he is the foundation upon which the Raiders' crumbling empire is built. Tom Brady is set to take over minority ownership soon, so there's a good chance McDaniels has too many higher-up advocates to get the boot. That doesn't mean the Raiders should not seriously consider canning him and embracing a youth movement.
What is the honest-to-god point of spending the entire season with Garoppolo as your starting QB? Fourth-round pick Aidan O'Connell looked good in training camp...
No. 4 NFL team who should blow it up: Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings went 13-4 last season and won the NFC North. Then the New York Giants beat them in the wild card round, sending the entire season up in smoke. The Vikings were always a ticking time bomb, as evidenced by the team's reluctance to pay Kirk Cousins. Still, going into the season, Minnesota was widely proclaimed as the favorite to win the division again.
Don't look now, but the Vikings are 0-3. The schedule gets tricky from here — Carolina in Week 4 and Chicago in Week 6 are chalk wins, but Kansas City in Week 5 and San Francisco in Week 7 feel like chalk losses. If the Vikings approach the midway point of the season 2-5, that would be a difficult hole to climb out of.
On the surface, Minnesota still has the offensive firepower to turn its season around. Cousins is a tried and true gunslinger who will continue to air it out to his top targets. Rookie Jordan Addison looks great and we all know what Justin Jefferson brings to the table. Alexander Mattison bounced back from a shaky first two weeks on Sunday, accumulating 125 yards from scrimmage.
The Vikings have ostensibly lost to three quality teams: the Eagles in Week 2 and the high-powered Chargers in Week 3. There could be some minor quibbles about qualifying the Week 1 Bucs as "good," but Tampa is 2-0 with a chance to make it three straight on Monday night. The Vikings could be victims of the schedule gods as much as anything else.
No matter how you slice it, though, the Vikings face a severe deficit in the NFC North standings with Detroit and Green Bay both jumping out to 2-1 starts. Cousins' free agency looms large on the horizon and there's no reason to believe the team will re-sign him. If the Vikings trade the veteran signal-caller, that would essentially be an admittance of failure.
It's hard for a team with so much quality talent to bite the bullet and rebuild. Justin Jefferson and T.J. Hockenson are some of the best at their respective positions. Danielle Hunter is a force on the D-line. And yet, the Vikings feel destined for mediocrity this season. There's no reason to stick around in no-man's land when the direction of the franchise is clear. Cousins is halfway out the door. He will take this era of Minnesota football with him.
Embrace the change. Skol!
No. 3 NFL team who should blow it up: Tennessee Titans
Mike Vrabel's reign as the unchallenged king of Tennessee football is coming to an end. The Titans are 1-2 with a couple of stomach-churning losses. Week 3 may be the straw that breaks the camel's back — the Cleveland Browns marched up and down the field at will, strutting over the Titans' overly permeable defense while shutting the offense down in every respect.
Ryan Tannehill mustered 104 yards through the air and Derrick Henry was a non-factor on the ground (11 carries for 20 yards). Henry's sharp decline has been an underrated storyline through three weeks. As Nick Suss of the Tennesseean notes, the Titans' only scoring drive on Sunday featured a net offensive gain of -9 yards.
The Titans offense is basically kaput. Tannehill has made his living as the perfectly adequate game manager-type who gets ranked No. 15 every time the annual QB rankings are put out. His standing is falling fast, however, and he simply doesn't have the weaponry to stay afloat. DeAndre Hopkins has been a nice boon, but he's well past his prime. With Hopkins on the decline and Henry no longer looking like the one-man bedrock of old, it's fair to suggest a teardown in Tennessee.
Vrabel isn't necessarily the man to blame, but his hard-nosed defensive reputation has been conspicuously absent from the Titans' on-field product for a while. If the Titans can't get enough stops to prop up a decaying offense, there's really no hope — even in a mostly uninspiring AFC South.
It is past time for the Titans to pull the plug on the Tannehill era and start fresh. Malik Willis and Will Levis are waiting patiently in the wings. Both have the talent to supplant their veteran captain and one day become quality NFL starters.
The Tennessee rebuild is a matter of when, not if.
No. 2 NFL team who should blow it up: Denver Broncos
L - O - L.
The Denver Broncos were on the wrong end of the Miami Dolphins' historic 70-point game Sunday afternoon. Sean Payton talked during the week about the importance of tackling in space and his game plan for Mike McDaniel's unique offense, only to watch the Denver defense get obliterated on almost every snap.
All summer, Payton was hailed as this saintly figure sent from the football gods to save Denver from NFL purgatory. The Broncos' 2022 season under Nathaniel Hackett featured all-time bad vibes as Russell Wilson completely fell apart, along with the offense around him. Payton is the QB whisperer, the man who captained Drew Brees to a Super Bowl. He was supposed to fix the offense, to fix Wilson.
Well, it's only Week 3. Maybe Payton has more tricks up his sleeve, but he's running out of time. The Broncos look like one of the worst teams in football, sitting 0-3 despite a very clear preseason mandate to win football games. Payton is getting paid north of $17 million annually to right the ship, but right now that ship is at the bottom of the ocean.
Wilson looks as lost as ever. It would be too simple to call him 'bad' — his numbers are fine — but he is completely average, devoid of the mobility and athletic playmaking punch that once defined his Pro Bowl turns in Seattle. Then there's the vaunted Denver defense, the foundation upon which the Broncos' 2016 Super Bowl victory was built. The Broncos are supposed to be hardline stoppers. Hardline stoppers don't give up 70 points, even to the Dolphins.
The Broncos are a mess, plain and simple. There's no correcting course with the current core. If the front office can somehow cut ties with Wilson, that is step No. 1. Step No. 2 might be finding a new coach, but that's challenging given the financial fallout. The front office may have to settle for finding Payton a better roster instead.
No. 1 NFL team who should blow it up: Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are the worst team in football, bar none. Well, maybe bar the Broncos. But it's really rough in Chicagoland right now. Justin Fields and company were stormed off the field Sunday afternoon, losing 41-10 to the reigning NFL champs. While Travis Kelce was dancing in the end zone and flirting with Taylor Swift, Chicago was haphazardly tossing Fields back into a 38-point game after he sustained a head injury.
Those two franchises are on vastly different ends of the spectrum.
Chicago finished last season 3-14 with the opportunity to select Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, or Anthony Richardson with the No. 1 pick. Instead, the Bears traded back to No. 10 for a lineman and called it a day. The arrival of D.J. Moore at wide receiver was supposed to unlock Justin Fields and justify the sacrifice, but it's hard to maximize your star wideout when the QB can't get the ball 10 yards downfield in a straight line.
Fields has been flat-out terrible through three weeks. He mustered 99 total passing yards on Sunday, continuing his trend of completely butchering the pitch-and-catch game. Chicago hasn't been able to make up the difference on the ground either. No Bears RB has more than 40 rushing yards in a single game this season.
The offensive line is a dumpster fire, Matt Eberflus sits on the hottest seat in the NFL, and the Bears' defense — much like the Broncos — is coasting on reputation, not actual impact. Giving up 41 points to the Chiefs isn't quite as bad as 70 to the Dolphins, but it still ain't great. Especially when the Chiefs have been struggling to break 20 for a couple of weeks.
The Bears are lost. The Fields experiment is not working and it's clear the franchise needs a hard reset. The front office, the coaching staff, the personnel — it all needs to change. The Bears like to project lofty organizational standards, but there's a lot standing between Chicago and success at the moment.