Is the season already over for Giants, Dolphins and different 0-3 groups?
Sure, the NFL season is younger and we’re solely in the future into Fall. However simply three weeks in, 2025 is already just about over for the groups which have begun the 12 months 0-3. the stats: simply six groups have made the playoffs within the trendy period beginning 0-3, and simply a kind of — the 2018 Houston Texans — in all the millennium of the 2000s. The chances are sharply in opposition to any of the six 0-3 groups doing way more than posting a dropping document this season. So let’s take a fast take a look at how we acquired right here, and what their prospects could be going ahead.
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Houston Texans: Hey, them once more! The Texans have taken an enormous step backward as a result of C.J. Stroud hasn’t leveled up in his third 12 months. If you’re struggling in opposition to a misbegotten Jaguars staff, you’re in actual bother. Houston, as soon as a staff on the rise, is now trying like simply one other AFC South washout.
Miami Dolphins: Blame Sean McVay. For a quick second, hiring hoodie-wearing offensive geniuses was the go-to transfer for scrambling NFL franchises. But it surely turns on the market’s just one Sean McVay, and never each 30-something coordinator is a head coach in ready. Mike McDaniel and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa have each been unable to match their incoming hype, and the Dolphins are swimming in circles (sorry) because of this. Within the deep waters (sorry once more) of the AFC, they’ve acquired no probability.
New York Jets: If nothing else, the Dolphins can level on the Jets and say, “At the very least we’re not them.” All these wondrous plans for AFC East domination, all blown straight to hell. Justin Fields could be the reply, however already lacking time on account of harm is a priority. The Jets performed effectively sufficient Sunday to throw a scare into Tampa Bay, however not effectively sufficient to carry them down for a full 60 minutes. This franchise could be rotten to the bone, or simply plain ol’ cursed. Identical outcome, although.
New York Giants: Trapped in everlasting QB limbo. Russell Wilson performs effectively sufficient to dazzle however not effectively sufficient to win, and by this level the Giants don’t want any extra ethical victories or at-least-we-fought-hard almost-wins. Perhaps Jaxson Dart is the reply. Cam Skattebo is tremendously enjoyable to observe, however he’s about the one factor that’s watchable about this 12 months’s Giants trash hearth.
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New Orleans Saints: Woof. Unhealthy from each doable angle, and some we haven’t even seen but. You might play quarterback in addition to anybody in uniform. (Perhaps you must. How’s your arm feeling?) Little or no hope for this 12 months in New Orleans. However accepting the inevitability of your destiny is one of the simplest ways to fulfill it.
Tennessee Titans: All of us knew this could be a gradual simmer, so of all of the groups on this checklist, the Titans have the least to fret about. Lengthy-term, that’s. Quick-term, like this season? They’re a multitude. Cam Ward has proven the proverbial flashes, however with out a lot to work with round him. That’s the way you get doubled up by the Indianapolis Colts on your own home turf.
At the very least two of those groups will keep away from going 0-4, since Houston performs Tennessee and Miami performs the Jets subsequent week. In the meantime, the Saints draw the Payments and the Giants face the Chargers. Uh-oh.
Might any of those groups make the playoffs? Eh. Perhaps the Texans, in the event that they begin to play as much as their potential. Apart from Houston, no method. Hell, New Orleans is so dangerous it would get relegated again to the SEC.
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At the very least these groups’ entrance places of work can get a head begin on draft prep. One in every of them is already on the clock.
(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports activities illustration)
Again for the 2025 season, Requested & Answered gives up some key questions and resolving others. We begin with a query we will’t fairly imagine …
Requested: Are the Colts and Chargers … good?
It’s OK to confess that you just didn’t assume there was any method the Chargers would beat the Broncos on Sunday. Chargering is a strong, mystical pressure, one whose energy appears to withstand all makes an attempt to include it. And but … there was Justin Herbert, calmly and confidently leading his team to 10 points in the final three minutes of the game, with no mind-numbing penalties or game-wrecking errors. And similar to that, they’re 3-0.
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Additionally 3-0: the Colts, who’ve by some means discovered the unlikeliest of treasures within the Giants’ trash. Daniel Jones is definitely beginning to stay as much as his badass nickname of Indiana Jones, and on condition that the bar for achievement within the AFC South is about shin-high, the Colts are in nice place to reclaim a little bit of dignity this season.
Requested: Does Cleveland have a slow-developing quarterback drawback?
Look, we perceive when you don’t wish to take the Cleveland Browns severely. Generations of franchise futility taint the notion of this staff on a DNA stage. However look a bit nearer. The Browns beat the Packers, everyone’s stylish team-of-the-moment, with a smothering defensive effort and juuuuuust sufficient offense. Which brings up a key level for Cleveland: How lengthy will the Browns waste a literal league-leading protection with watery, lukewarm quarterback play? Ought to the Browns preserve operating out Joe Flacco, or ought to they see what they’ve in Dillon Gabriel and/or Shedeur Sanders? With subsequent 12 months’s draft predicted to be a kind of deep quarterback ones, each staff which may probably be all in favour of a QB (learn: at the least 20 of the 32 groups) must be seeing whether or not their reply continues to be in school, or maybe already on their roster.
Issues acquired so dangerous for the Falcons in opposition to the lowly Panthers that Michael Penix Jr. acquired benched in favor of Kirk Cousins. (John Byrum/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos)
(Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos)
Answered: When you’ve two quarterbacks, you don’t have any quarterbacks
Till additional discover — which can by no means come — it’s unimaginable to imagine within the Atlanta Falcons. One week after throwing down a defensive monster of a sport in opposition to Minnesota in prime time, the Falcons completely gagged in opposition to what was, on paper, a far much less gifted Carolina staff. You don’t lose 30-0 until each single a part of your sport plan is flawed and failing you, beginning with the quarterback place. Michael Penix Jr. accomplished solely half of the 36 passes he threw, for 172 yards and no touchdowns however two essential interceptions. After which Kirk Cousins dropped in lengthy sufficient to throw seven passes, finishing 5 of them for 29 yards. Riveting. The Falcons’ unconventional QB stacking plan regarded prefer it was on the advantage of paying off (effectively, not for Cousins, besides monetarily). However Sunday’s loss was the sort that makes all progress appear to be a mirage.
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Answered: Kicker is essentially the most treacherous place in sports activities
Think about if we deemed a quarterback a failure for not throwing a landing each cross, or a operating again a bust if he didn’t rumble into the tip zone on each contact. Loopy, proper? And but that’s the usual subject purpose kickers should meet. Each time they enter the sport, they’re anticipated to place factors on the board. (Nicely, not kickoffs, however you get what we imply.) The Browns, Bucs, Chargers and 49ers all gained on last-second subject targets, with Tampa Bay and San Francisco flipping defeat to victory on the toe of their kicker. That’s a number of stress to placed on one dude’s leg! It’s why there’s such turnover within the sport, why no job is ever secure for very lengthy. (Nicely, apart from Brandon Aubrey. That dude is the lone brilliant spot for the Cowboys.)
The draw back of kickers being automated from half a mile away is that on the uncommon moments they miss, the drama compounds and the stress vaults to the roof of the stadium. Simply ask Atlanta’s Parker Romo, who kicked Younghoe Koo out of a job final week and proceeded to overlook two subject targets in Atlanta’s loss to Carolina. Perfection or doom is a hell of a method to undergo a profession, however that’s the place we’re at with subject purpose kickers.
Requested: Is that this complete season only a setup for an Eagles-Bucs NFC championship?
Some franchises, like that 0-3 cadre up above, at all times discover a method to lose. Others, just like the Eagles and Buccaneers, by some means at all times discover a method to win. Tampa Bay specifically now has three game-winning drives in its first three video games, a document for residing dangerously. The Eagles, in the meantime, fell behind the Rams 26-7 after which proceeded to attain 26 straight factors of their very own to win due to a blocked field goal. Positive, you want some assist from some misbegotten opponents — the Bucs had been taking part in the Jets, and Sean McVay’s sport administration did the Rams no favors — however there’s nonetheless an organizational core of competence, authenticity, calm and resilience in these two groups that almost all different groups lack. These two are headed for an NFC title sport, and it’ll come all the way down to the ultimate seconds. Rely on it.
