Three weeks into the NFL season, it’s still early - unless you’re already staring at an 0-3 start and a pile of questions that won’t wait for December.
That’s the spot three head coaches find themselves in heading into Week 4: Jim Harbaugh in Los Angeles, Matt LaFleur in Green Bay and Todd Bowles in Tampa Bay. Different résumés, different situations, same basic problem. The losses are adding up fast.
Harbaugh has the strongest cushion of the group. His track record at Stanford, San Francisco, Michigan and now Los Angeles gives him credibility most coaches don’t get when the season starts to wobble. But the Chargers are 0-3 after Sunday’s 24-16 loss to Buffalo, and the weird part is they forced five turnovers and still walked away empty-handed.
That’s where the alarm bells get loud. Justin Herbert and the offense haven’t looked like a unit ready to challenge Kansas City in the AFC West, and Los Angeles is the division’s only winless team.
Harbaugh’s name still matters a lot. What matters more now is whether this version of Harbaugh can start producing results instead of leaning on everything he’s already accomplished.
LaFleur’s case is different, but no less uncomfortable. He’s been in Green Bay since 2019 and has stacked up regular-season wins, but the postseason has been a recurring dead end. He’s 3-6 in the playoffs, and last year’s trip ended with the Packers blowing a 21-3 halftime lead against Chicago.
Even the regular season isn’t offering much cover right now. Green Bay is 1-2 after getting hammered 35-14 by Atlanta at Lambeau Field, and that was the worst three-game start of LaFleur’s eight seasons with the team. The NFC North also doesn’t look like a division the Packers can just assume they’ll own.
That’s the tension in Green Bay: enough success to keep things from feeling disastrous, not enough to feel satisfying. The Packers have invested in Jordan Love and given LaFleur years to build around him. If this season keeps drifting toward mediocrity, the question becomes unavoidable - is LaFleur still the coach who can get them somewhere they haven’t been since 2010?
Bowles may have the toughest road of all. Tampa Bay is 0-3 after Sunday’s loss to Minnesota, and things got even worse when Baker Mayfield suffered a dislocated thumb that will keep him out for at least three weeks.
The Buccaneers already made their quarterback decision for the long haul. Mayfield got a lucrative extension this offseason, so the organization has clearly chosen who it wants running the offense going forward. That doesn’t guarantee the same patience for the coach.
If the losses keep stacking up, Tampa Bay can’t assume Bowles gets the same security. If the team believes Mayfield is the quarterback but the current staff isn’t getting enough out of him or the roster around him, a coaching change becomes the most obvious move left.
For Bowles, the margin for error is already thin. Now he has to manage a winless start without his starting quarterback.
In Other News...
Packers Captains Just Weighed In As Matt LaFleur Heat Builds
With the Packers sitting at 1-2 and trying to steady themselves before a Week Four meeting with the Buccaneers, the conversation around Green Bay has shifted quickly from expectations to urgency. Protection issues up front and another late-game stumble have put Matt LaFleur under an uncomfortable spotlight, but some of the locker rooms most visible voices tried to push back on the idea that the season is veering off course.
Xavier McKinney and Tucker Kraft both expressed confidence in LaFleur, saying the team trusts its coach and believes it can still improve. They also acknowledged the frustration that followed the Week Three loss, which has only sharpened the pressure outside the building, but inside the locker room the emphasis remains on getting the details cleaned up and finding a way to turn the season around before the noise grows louder. [Read more 🡒]
Tucker Kraft Tries To Walk Back A Frustrating Packers Moment
Tucker Kraft spent the days after the Packers loss to the Falcons trying to straighten out a postgame moment that landed poorly with part of the fan base. The tight end said his frustration was really aimed at the way the game unfolded, not at Green Bay supporters, and he admitted his wording could have been better after emotions spilled over in the aftermath.
Krafts clarification matters because the Packers are already under scrutiny for the product they put on the field, and the last thing the team needed was added noise around a defensive comment directed at its own crowd. He pointed to Christian Watsons response as a better example of how to handle the situation, a small but telling sign that Green Bays players know the line between venting frustration and turning it inward. [Read more 🡒]
Jordan Love Now Has To Answer For A Packers Offensive Mess
Jordan Loves first three weeks have been a mix of promising numbers and obvious frustration, the kind of start that makes it hard to separate the quarterback from the offense around him. He has thrown for 844 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions, but the production has come with uneven efficiency and eight sacks, while Green Bay has had to work through injuries up front and a rushing attack that has not done enough to steady things.
Brent Sobleskis Week 3 grade of a D for Love against Atlanta only adds to the pressure on a unit that has looked out of sync at times. For the Packers, the bigger question now is not just whether Love can keep stacking up touchdowns, but whether he can keep answering for an offense that has too often made his job harder than it should be. [Read more 🡒]