Ranking the NFL's 0-2 Teams: Who Still Has Playoff Hope?
A look at winless teams including the Texans, Buccaneers, Colts, Chargers, Falcons and Dolphins, and which still have a realistic path back into contention.
Several NFL teams opened the season without a win, prompting an early assessment of which winless clubs still have a realistic path to the playoffs and which may already be facing a long season.
Teams Looking to Turn It Around
Among the winless teams, the Houston Texans face questions about whether they can once again rebound from a slow start, a pattern the franchise has dealt with in the past. Similarly, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Chargers are each being evaluated for whether their rosters and schedules give them a genuine chance to get back on track.
Tougher Outlooks
Other winless teams, including the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins, face tougher questions about whether their seasons are already trending toward a rebuilding or evaluation year rather than playoff contention.
An 0-2 start does not eliminate a team from playoff contention this early in the season, but it does significantly narrow the margin for error going forward, particularly in a competitive conference landscape.
How these teams respond in the coming weeks will offer a clearer signal of which winless starts were simply a rough opening stretch and which reflect deeper, more structural issues.
Sources
- Ranking the 0-2 NFL teams: Which still have playoff hope, and which could be in for long seasons? — ESPN
EGazette summarizes reporting from multiple sources; follow the links for the originals.
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