Sadly, the annual tradition of “Mercury” Morris popping champagne when the final undefeated NFL team suffers its first loss of the season cannot happen again. Morris, a star on the 1972 Miami Dolphins team that remains the last to run the table, passed away on Saturday.
There are five remaining undefeated teams in the NFL after three weeks. Many fans can understand that regular division contenders Buffalo and Kansas City got off to hot starts; the Chiefs, led by star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, are repeat Super Bowl champions and the Bills have one of the best quarterbacks in the league in their own right in Josh Allen.
But the other three unbeaten teams also have something in common. It’s their redemption stories at the quarterback position. And those quarterbacks are intertwined in more ways than their remarkable stories.
The Vikings, Steelers and Seahawks don’t have players with the resumés of Mahomes or Allen. But they’re still among the ranks of the unblemished in the NFL in large part because of the guys whose careers they have helped to resurrect.
Seattle changed offensive coordinators in the offseason with Shane Waldron going to the Chicago Bears, but they took journeyman Geno Smith and turned him into a Pro Bowl quarterback while Russell Wilson was fading into the background. After spending four years with the Jets and then bouncing from the Giants to the Chargers before a full year out of the league (2019), Smith landed in Seattle in 2020, appeared in five games over his first two seasons and then became something we hadn’t seen before.
Smith won the Comeback Player of the Year, was named to his first Pro Bowl and finished in the top 10 in MVP voting in 2022—a list of accolades that were unthinkable based on the first six years of his career.
He’s completing almost 75 percent of his pass attempts and his 7.6 yards per attempt are the highest of his four years in Seattle.
Ironically, the quarterback who replaced Smith with the Jets is also off to the best start of his career. Sam Darnold was drafted to take the job from Smith in 2018 and it never worked for him in New York; he was 13-25 as a Jets starting quarterback.
Darnold left New York and spent two years in Carolina, then one in San Francisco before signing with the Vikings. The plan was for Darnold to start the season but ultimately hand the keys to first-round pick JJ McCarthy. But a knee injury ended McCarthy’s rookie season before it began, and the Vikings were left to ride with Darnold.
In three games, Darnold leads the NFL with eight touchdown passes. For context, Darnold hasn’t thrown more than nine in a full season since 2019, when he threw 19 for the Jets. Now 27, Darnold is playing comfortable football in a system that is built for him to succeed. His 67.9 completion percentage is easily the best of his career; he’s never completed better than 62 percent of his passes in a season.
The other undefeated quarterback wasn’t supposed to be a starting quarterback to start the year. When the Steelers traded for Justin Fields, they had already signed Wilson—whom, again, Smith replaced in Seattle—to be their starter. Fields was there to provide competition, support and insurance if Wilson got hurt.
Well, Wilson got hurt before the regular season began. And the Steelers handed the ball to Fields, whose disappointing career start in Chicago left many Bears fans wishing he had been given a longer look and others happy to move on to No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams this year.
Like Darnold in Minnesota, Fields isn’t being asked to do anything too special. And he’s executing their game plan incredibly well thus far. After winning only 10 of his first 38 starts in the NFL, Fields is 3-0 and has the best completion percentage of his career (73.3). His previous career best was 61.4 percent last year.
Fields has also run for 90 yards and a touchdown, helping a struggling Pittsburgh run game with his versatility out of the backfield. Now, whenever Wilson comes back from his calf injury, the Steelers are going to have a tough decision to make—one they didn’t expect when they started training camp with the two options.
Three quarterbacks whose careers were, at best, in a questionable spot before they landed in their current location. And the three teams that took chances on them are reaping the rewards of good game planning and better execution to remain undefeated.
