Eight NFL Teams On The Brink Of Disaster

This is the point in the NFL season where reality starts to set in — hard. Every single team and fanbase was optimistic in August and early September, but October is just around the corner and the Reaper has been culling dreams. 

Hope is still alive for some teams but for many, it’s already been hammered into a flicker by the brutal competitive nature of the NFL regular season, to the point where not even the promise of next season is any comfort. This article is about those teams, the worst of the worst. Are things really as bad as they seem? Is there light in the darkness? Or is that just a freight train coming around a bend in the tunnel… 

Bears/Broncos battling for dubious supremacy

The NFL schedulemakers have blessed us this coming week. You might be thinking of the early season heavyweight bout between the AFC-leading Dolphins and the perennial powerhouse Bills, but we have another game where bragging rights are on the line. The Chicago Bears versus the Denver Broncos. Loser gets the title of most miserable franchise in football — at least for a week. 

Let’s set the stage. In the visiting corner is a Broncos team that has been mired in irrelevancy for years since winning the Super Bowl in 2015. They gave up the farm for QB Russell Wilson last year believing he’d be the missing piece to push them back into contention, only for Wilson to turn into one of the biggest lemons an NFL team has ever traded for. The 2022 season was a disaster, highlighted by the foibles of first-year HC Nathaniel Hackett and Wilson’s shocking decline. 

In comes former Saints HC Sean Payton, fresh off of a year in a cushy FOX analyst job and ready to save football in Denver like he did in New Orleans. Payton arrived with his trademark arrogance and swagger, humbling the veteran Wilson who needed Payton’s touch to resurrect his career and taking potshots at the former coaching staff. He was the missing piece the Broncos needed to turn things around. 

Three games into Payton’s tenure, the Broncos are 0-3 compared to Hackett’s 2-1 in his first three weeks. They lost to a rebuilding Raiders squad, squandered a 21-3 lead against the Commanders and just became the first team in the Super Bowl era to allow 70 points in a blowout loss to the Dolphins. Embarrassing doesn’t even begin to describe it. 

In the other corner is a Bears franchise that may have just had one of the worst weeks in franchise history. A short summary: 

• Coming off a loss to drop to 0-2, starting QB Justin Fields says on Wednesday he feels like he’s playing too robotic and needs to cut it loose. When asked why, his first response was to mention the coaching. 
• Fields comes back to the pressroom to attempt to clarify his comments once they start spreading like wildfire on social media but the damage is done. 
• Bears DC Alan Williams, on leave for personal reasons already, resigns on Wednesday. There are a lot of wild rumors swirling around Williams and his departure. But what has been confirmed is that inappropriate activity led to his resignation and HR was involved. 
• Chicago puts starting LT Braxton Jones on injured reserve, possibly for the season, adding to an already unstable offensive line. 
• $100,000 of equipment is burgled from Soldier Field on Wednesday night. 
• On Thursday, a clip starts to circulate of WR D.J. Moore, the crown jewel addition of this offseason for the Bears, agreeing with an opposing player who says the team isn’t using him right. This is after WR Chase Claypool, another major trade addition, is nearly benched for a shocking lack of effort in Week 1. 
• Bears GM Ryan Poles addresses the media on Thursday to say that everything is fine and they are handling the adversity. (If the GM is addressing the media in an unscheduled press conference in Week 3, dear reader, things are not fine.) 
• The actual game comes around, and the Bears are obliterated by the Chiefs. The score is 34-0 at the half and finishes 41-10. All the same problems that have plagued the Bears all season (poor play by Fields, the offensive line, his receivers and the defense) are on display. FOX ditches the national broadcast of the game and cuts to the Cowboys game for a big chunk of the country. Taylor Swift is in attendance to see Chiefs TE Travis Kelce play, and that’s not even enough to keep the cameras around. Noted Bears fan and Athletic writer Robert Mays sums up the embarrassment. 

Now these two titans of misery get to face off to avoid sinking even lower. One way or another, one of these teams has to win — we’re setting aside the real possibility of a tie which would just ratchet things up another level entirely. Winning can cure a lot of ills, for a week at least. But the challenge is that both of these franchises are facing much bigger problems than a bad week or month. 

The Broncos have the horses to win on Sunday and probably the week after against the Jets. Payton has gotten Wilson to play better and the offense is a lot more productive than at any point under Hackett. Still, there’s nothing Payton can do to turn back the clock for Wilson, who isn’t quite as dangerous outside the pocket as he used to be. He has his work cut out for him just coaching out the turnovers and penalties plaguing his offense. 

On defense, the problems run deeper. The Broncos can definitely play better on that side of the ball and they are adjusting to a new scheme under DC Vance Joseph. Injuries haven’t helped and penalties have been an issue, too. However this side of the ball has been neglected in terms of resource allocation with all of the Broncos’ big offseason additions. They’ve traded away draft picks that could have been defensive contributors, dealt away OLB Bradley Chubb at the deadline last year instead of extending him and dedicated most of their free agency dollars to the offense this past offseason. 

So even if more wins are coming, it feels like there’s a hard ceiling on this 2023 Broncos squad with fatal flaws that won’t be addressed until 2024. Even then, the Broncos are missing a second-round pick and have work to do to get under the cap. Wilson’s contract still looms as a potential albatross holding Denver back from building a team that overall can be successful. For as challenging as the rest of this season could be for the Broncos, next offseason might be even trickier. It would not be a surprise to see Payton completely overhaul this roster. 

The outlook might not be much better for the Bears. A big goal this season was to evaluate Fields and hope he took a step forward with a better supporting cast. That has not happened. Fields has 14 more games to play the Bears out of a top pick and put himself in their long-term plans but there have been precious few signs of progress on his tape so far this year. 

The stakes aren’t just high for Fields. Bears HC Matt Eberflus needs to show signs of progress over the rest of this season. If the Bears are picking in the top five, which is their current trajectory, it’s hard to see him holding onto his job. Poles might have a bit of a longer leash since teams tend to give general managers more time but he and Eberflus were hired together. Right now it’s hard to say Poles has definitively done a better job to deserve to stay if Eberflus gets fired. No team wants to do a clean sweep after just two years, but Bears ownership might have their hand forced at this rate. 

Whoever is in charge of the Bears’ offseason will have plenty of assets to work with. Chicago should have more cap space to spend than just about any other team and in addition to their own first-round pick, they own Carolina’s which is looking at the moment like it will also be a high one. But Poles had a pretty similar hand this past year and right now the Bears have precious little to show for it. At least in Denver, Payton has a long, established record of production to lend confidence that eventually he’ll be able to figure things out to an extent. The Bears have been mired in mediocrity for a long, long time, and starting over again would offer no guarantees of success. 

Jets stuck in a hell of their own making

I understand that the Jets had no good options once starting QB Aaron Rodgers went down with a torn Achilles. We outlined all of them a couple of weeks ago after Rodgers went down, and why it would make sense for QB Zach Wilson to start for a few weeks. But it was just as obvious then as it is now after basically three games that Wilson is not a functional NFL quarterback. The Jets should have known that and started making backup plans, like getting in someone else who could start learning the system to eventually be a legitimate alternative to Wilson. 

Now the Jets’ season looks like it’s spiraling. They lost to the Patriots for the 15th straight time, and if they were going to break the streak, now was a great time against an 0-2 New England squad. Next up are the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football and that could get ugly. The Broncos game is winnable but then the Jets get the Eagles and the relief of the bye week. 

I still would be surprised if Wilson is the starting quarterback after the bye because I don’t think the Jets will win a game between now and then. As much as New York has tried to project confidence in Wilson and will him into having success, reality is going to set in sooner or later. Jets HC Robert Saleh cracked a bit for the first time this week, deferring a question about signing a quarterback to GM Joe Douglas when the week before he said there were no plans to do so. Now it looks like veteran QB Trevor Siemian will be coming in to at least give the Jets a third option on the practice squad. Whether it’s current backup Tim Boyle, Siemian or someone else, the Jets have to make a change at quarterback if for no other reason than trotting Wilson out there time after time is just untenable. 

All of this could have been avoided. Losing Rodgers just minutes into his Jets debut was an all-time bad break that New York had little control over. The decision not to have a more experienced alternative to Wilson behind their 39-year-old starter? That’s all on the Jets. If Wilson has to start more games because the Jets dragged their feet on bringing in an alternative out of worry for his already fragile confidence, that’s on them too. 

Wilson is the biggest problem with this team, but it’s far from the only one. The offensive line is struggling, both in pass protection and opening up holes in the run game. Betting on 38-year-old LT Duane Brown to stay healthy predictably busted with the veteran now on injured reserve. Hackett, the new offensive coordinator, still looks overmatched as a play-caller. Additions like RB Dalvin Cook, WR Randall Cobb and WR Mecole Hardman have been flops so far (Hardman has inexplicably barely played). And the defense hasn’t been nearly as good as New York’s high internal expectations, even if they’re probably being asked to carry too much of the load to make up for an inept offense. 

All of these would have still been issues had Rodgers stayed healthy, which is why the Jets’ brain trust shouldn’t automatically get a pass for this season just because they lost what they thought would be the missing piece. Maybe Rodgers would have papered over some deficits, or maybe things would have gone similar to how they went in Denver, Indianapolis and Los Angeles last year. If Saleh and Douglas keep their jobs after this season, the pressure will be enormous in 2024, even with a hopeful return from Rodgers. 

Panthers panic?

For as bad as the past several years have been in Carolina, at 0-3 this year’s squad is off to the worst start the franchise has seen since 2010, the only other time they’ve earned the No. 1 pick. Two of those losses have come against NFC South opponents, which is particularly galling for fans, like myself, who thought Carolina had a legitimate chance to steal the division. No. 1 pick Bryce Young has not hit the ground running quite like the other two quarterbacks taken in the first round have and has already missed one game due to injury. 

Add it all up and you can start to understand why the Panthers fanbase has been so cranky. It doesn’t matter that even rosy prognosticators like myself foresaw this team starting the season slow (though maybe not this slow). It doesn’t matter that it usually takes time for a new coaching staff and rookie quarterback to settle into a groove. It doesn’t matter that two or three games are far too early to reach a verdict on any rookie quarterback, or that Young made it longer before getting dinged up than either Texans QB C.J. Stroud, Colts QB Anthony Richardson or even Titans QB Will Levis. 

It has been a long time since this fanbase has seen a winner, and all the hope sold this offseason has only made them more impatient. 

It’s too early to panic about Young, but it has been unsettling to hear all the praise about his mental command of the professional game during the summer and then watch as quite frankly the first two games looked a little big for him at times. He’s not being helped by his pass-catchers or protection and I’m confident better days are ahead but I do understand some of the consternation. 

The challenge is it will probably get worse before it gets better. Carolina faces the fellow 0-3 Vikings this week in a game where both sides are desperate for a win. Given how allergic Minnesota is to playing in non-close games, it’s possible the Panthers could steal one. But on paper the Vikings are much better, and so are the Lions and Dolphins. An 0-6 record heading into the bye week is a very real possibility. 

The good news is that the schedule eases up considerably after the break. Panthers HC Frank Reich has always gotten his teams to play better later in the season than earlier. He and the all-star coaching staff the team assembled this offseason have a lot to work on, though. The Panthers are one of the most penalized teams in football. Their band-aid receiving corps struggles to create separation or threaten defenses down the field. The offensive line has seemingly regressed, though injuries to both starting guards from 2022 have hurt. The defense has been a bright spot but attrition is starting to set in on that side of the ball with major injuries to LB Shaq Thompson and CB Jaycee Horn.

Playoffs are realistically out of the question at this point. Just six teams since 1978 have started 0-3 and rebounded to make the playoffs. The goal should be building as much momentum as possible toward 2024, which includes figuring out an identity on offense around Young and finding players who can be a part of the team’s future. Guys like WR Adam Thielen, RB Miles Sanders and TE Hayden Hurst are realistically locked in because of their contracts for at least another year, so ideally Reich and the staff can figure out ways to work around their limitations with an eye toward additions that fix weak points. 

The other challenge is the Panthers will have to be smart with how they allocate resources next offseason, smarter than they have been so far. Their first-round pick will belong to Chicago thanks to the trade for Young, and that will really sting if it ends up being a top-five or top-10 pick. They’re in a decent spot with the cap but have to pay star OLB Brian Burns and free agency can be a risky avenue to address positions like wide receiver. Other needs include potentially interior offensive line, tight end, edge rusher, linebacker, cornerback and safety. 

The bottom line is as much as it sucks, it’s going to take more time before the Panthers are relevant again, and the season has already done a lot to threaten the hope that was built up this past offseason. 

Dreams to nightmares for the Giants

Last year was a charmed season for the Giants in a number of ways. In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, HC Brian Daboll worked his magic to revitalize QB Daniel Jones’ career and New York gritted their way into the playoffs and won a game despite a real talent deficiency. 

Following that up was always going to be a challenge for Daboll and GM Joe Schoen after they took over a fixer-upper. But still, the results in 2023 are far more embarrassing than even some of the worst-case scenarios. The Cowboys punked them 40-0 in Week 1, then New York fell behind 20-0 against a Cardinals team everybody thought was tanking before rallying to win in the second half (to be fair, Arizona has far exceeded expectations and took down the Cowboys in Week 3). In Week 3, the Giants were dismantled by a 49ers squad that’s expected to contend for a Super Bowl. 

While this offseason for the Giants was about closing the gap between themselves and the top teams in the NFC, the first few weeks of the season have made it clear that gap still exists. In a way, that’s fine. It would have been just as remarkable for the team to have closed that gap this year as their surprise playoff berth in Year 1 under Daboll and Schoen was last year. 

But the ways in which the Giants have failed to measure up in 2023 are what’s causing some concern. The offensive line, despite years of work, remains a big pain point. Last year, Daboll was able to conceal that deficiency with his scheme and Jones deserves a lot of credit for remaining composed and still making enough plays under duress — or at least not making as many mistakes as he had earlier in his career. That earned him a major extension that the Giants gave not so much for what he did in 2022 but for the potential that he could keep improving and get to a point where he could elevate the rest of the offense when more was asked of him. 

The early returns say Jones is not ready for that yet. He already has four interceptions after throwing only five all of last season. He’s been sacked 12 times in three games and his sack percentage of 11 percent is notably higher than last year’s 8.5 percent. New York went out and traded for TE Darren Waller to be a No. 1 receiving threat for Jones, but Jones has struggled to put balls on frame to the 6-6 Waller. 

There are plenty of other concerns — the defense remains a work in progress at corner and linebacker while OLB Kayvon Thibodeaux is on his way to a sophomore slump — but the issues with Jones loom over everything. One of the worst mistakes a team can make is paying franchise quarterback money to a middling player. It drags the offense down and impacts the ability of the team to build around that player and cover for their deficiencies. If that’s indeed what the Giants just did, Daboll and Schoen made their rebuilding job considerably harder. 

The terminally rebuilding Raiders

A lot of the teams we’ve talked about so far are here because they failed to meet expectations. No one expected much from the Raiders this year, and so their struggles have arguably gone a little more under the radar. But it’s worth examining where this franchise is now because it does not offer a lot of hope about where they’re headed. 

So far the theme of the Josh McDaniels/Dave Ziegler era in Las Vegas has been trying to straddle the line between rebuilding and competing, as well as predictably emphasizing the New England system and past connections to it. The Raiders made big moves last year expecting to compete in the AFC West, then fell flat on their face. This year, McDaniels and Ziegler made it a point to stress in their messaging that this was a multi-year rebuild. But they still went out and spent on veterans like QB Jimmy Garoppolo and WR Jakobi Meyers while electing not to trade WR Davante Adams for what would have been valuable draft capital. It’s clear the two men hoped to under-promise and over-deliver.

So far, that hasn’t happened as the Raiders have started out 1-2 and have been down multiple scores in both losses. Garoppolo leads the NFL with six interceptions and Adams, who didn’t sound happy at one point this offseason, is starting to grumble again. The defense was the focus of a lot of offseason additions but looks like a guppy in the shark pool yet again. The offensive line can’t block for RB Josh Jacobs, who is averaging one yard before contact per attempt — fourth-worst among 48 qualifying ball-carriers in the league. Some sources have that number even lower.

McDaniels also hurt his team’s already slim chances at victory against the Steelers when he elected to kick a field goal down eight, reasoning that he would have needed another possession anyway to score a touchdown and win. The thing is, the Raiders were already a lot closer to the end zone than they would have been even if they’d successfully stopped the Steelers on the ensuing possession. It’s just the latest decision in a string of them that has not inspired much confidence in McDaniels since he was hired. 

That’s why the Raiders belong on this list. Things don’t look good and the people in charge have not shown that they should necessarily be trusted with making the correct decisions to make things better. 

Vikings paying for whatever deal they made in exchange for 2022

In 2022, the Vikings were 11-0 in close games, including a miracle win against the Bills and the largest comeback in NFL history against the Colts. 

In 2023, the Vikings are 0-3 in close games and can’t stop fumbling. Minnesota leads the NFL with nine turnovers and seven of them have been lost fumbles. For as lucky as the Vikings were last year, they have been inversely unlucky so far in 2023. 

A matchup with the 0-3 Panthers this week is a great opportunity to get into the win column but Minnesota has incredibly long playoff odds at 0-3 and little margin for error the rest of the way. Odds are they will not be making a repeat playoff appearance, and that’s where things start to get tricky. When GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and HC Kevin O’Connell took over, they elected not to do a complete rebuild and instead have been gradually tweaking the team over the past two offseasons while preserving the ability to compete for a playoff spot. They face a huge crossroads this coming offseason with QB Kirk Cousins, however, who is entering the final year of his contract and has a clear path to unrestricted free agency in 2024. 

Cousins is still playing at a high level and has not been the issue through the team’s first three games. If he keeps this up, he’ll have a strong market for his services in the offseason. The Vikings should be competitive in that bidding war if they want to be, as Cousins is a creature of habit and would likely prefer to stay in Minnesota, all else being equal. But Minnesota has already expressed some hesitancy to commit to Cousins as a 35-year-old veteran. They might not have a lot of quality options which will impact how they approach things next offseason, but that has to be considered. 

Despite their record, the Vikings likely aren’t bad enough to bottom out and get a top pick. Trading up is expensive in terms of draft capital and is far from a guarantee of success. But if Minnesota keeps Cousins, it will dramatically impact how much money they have to allocate to the rest of the roster. Star DE Danielle Hunter is in a contract year and it could be hard to keep both him and Cousins. They still need to pay WR Justin Jefferson, too. There are tricky times ahead for the Vikings and it will be fascinating to see how they navigate them. 

Jaguars: “Oh no, we suck again?” 

Jacksonville was one of the preseason darlings for a lot of analysts looking for a team to take a big step forward in 2023. Sportswriting legend Peter King even predicted the Jaguars would take the No. 1 seed in the AFC, which he admitted was going out on a bit of a limb. 

Well so far the Jaguars are 1-2 and are struggling to live up to everyone’s heightened expectations. Losing to the Chiefs is one thing — although eventually the Jaguars are going to have to get through Kansas City. Losing by 20 points to a Texans squad that was supposed to be rebuilding has the alarm bells ringing in Jacksonville. They were supposed to run away with the AFC South, but so far it’s the Colts in first place in the division. 

A lot of the optimism centered around an offense led by HC Doug Pederson and QB Trevor Lawrence with a decent offensive line and great skill position talent, including WR Calvin Ridley, TE Evan Engram, RB Travis Etienne and WR Christian Kirk, among others. But so far, the Jaguars have been mediocre to bad on that side of the ball. They’re 16th in yards and 21st in scoring, but 29th in EPA per play. On third and fourth down, their struggles are even more pronounced. 

So what’s the issue? The Jaguars have been plagued by drops and mistakes. Pederson and some of the players have admitted the outside expectations have had them trying to do too much at times instead of simply executing the offense. The loss to Houston was also exacerbated by horrific special teams. Jacksonville allowed a field goal to be blocked and let FB Andrew Beck return a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown. 

There’s still plenty of time for the Jaguars to snap out of it and play like people expected them to, but it’s a disappointing start to what was supposed to be a big season. 

Quick hits: 

• 15 of 32 teams have losing records right now, including the Cardinals, Texans and Rams. But all three of those squads are arguably outperforming expectations right now, so they avoid the dumpster fire category for now. 
• The Titans and Patriots are also 1-2, but Titans HC Mike Vrabel has his team playing hard despite some clear talent deficiencies in some areas. The Patriots got a win against the Jets to stave off catastrophe but the game was probably closer than it should have been…
• The Bengals and Chargers got clutch wins to avoid dropping to 0-3, which definitely would have been cause for alarm. Cincinnati has big issues with QB Joe Burrow’s calf injury, while the Chargers are banged up (again) and a sieve on defense (again). The good news is the schedule offers an opportunity to get back to 2-2 and keep the season alive. 
• These teams all have winning records now but are on the watch list for things going south: 
  • Saints: Even before QB Derek Carr got hurt, the offense was struggling.
  • Falcons: A 2-0 start papered over the fact that QB Desmond Ridder has been bad. Atlanta won’t be able to hide that if the losses mount. 
  • Commanders: Reality smacked Washington and QB Sam Howell in the face against the Bills. Howell was sacked nine times and threw four interceptions. 
  • Browns: Starting QB Deshaun Watson had his best game as a Brown, completing 27 of 33 pass attempts and staving off concern for a week about the $230 million the team guaranteed him.
  • Bucs: Back to earth against the Eagles after a 2-0 start, and QB Baker Mayfield’s turnover streak was broken. 
  • Steelers: The Raiders broke the Steelers’ offensive slump but they can’t play Las Vegas every week. The minus-14-point score differential is concerning despite the 2-1 record.