Players to Watch in Week 3 of the NFL season:
Patrick Mahomes and Ryan Fitzpatrick
They attempt to continue their blazing starts against the San Francisco 49ers and Pittsburgh Steelers. Mahomes has 10 touchdown passes in the first two games and is the youngest quarterback at age 22 to have six in a game. If he gets three more against the 49ers, he’ll be the first quarterback to have 13 in the first three games. Peyton Manning had 12 in the first three in 2013 in Denver. Fitzpatrick can become the first quarterback to throw for at least four touchdowns and 400 yards in a three-game span. If Fitzpatrick does it against the Steelers on Monday night, he’ll certainly start next Sunday against Chicago, although Jameis Winston returns from his suspension next Tuesday.
Drew Brees
Brees has 6,287 career completions and needs 14 more against Atlanta to surpass Brett Favre for most completions in a career. Favre retired with 6,300. He also can become the only quarterback with at least 30 attempts to have a completion percentage of 80 % or higher in three consecutive games. Peyton Manning did it in two consecutive games in 2013.
Andrew Luck
The Indianapolis quarterback needs 424 passing yards to join Dan Marino (74) and Matthew Stafford (71) as the only quarterbacks to throw for 20,000 yards in 75 games or fewer. Luck, who was injured all last season, has a tough task in Philadelphia.
Carson Wentz
Wentz has been cleared to play after suffering a torn ACL last year, and the Eagles are wasting no time in putting him back in the lineup against Indianapolis. But he may be rusty after missing the entire preseason. They might have been better off giving Nick Foles a third start and going with Wentz at halftime if Foles struggled. They obviously want to get Wentz back in the flow even if he’s not 100 percent, which he probably isn’t.
Jared Golf vs. Philip Rivers
In the first game since these two teams moved to Los Angeles last year, Goff, who has a 102.5 quarterback rating, duels Rivers, who has a 119.6 rating, at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The two teams last met in 2014, when the Rams were in St. Louis and the Chargers in San Diego, and the Rams won, 20-17. The Rams are 2-0 and the Chargers are 1-1. It’s not much of a rivalry, though, because the Chargers haven’t been embraced by Los Angeles fans, and even the Rams, despite their history in Los Angeles, haven’t won over the fans in a big way.