Earlier this week, we took a look at the implications of an 0-2 start for an NFL team’s playoff chances. The tl;dr (though you should read it): it’s far from ideal for the eight teams in that predicament. 

On the flip side of that coin, there are eight other teams who are unbeaten after two games. That’s a much stronger place to be in, of course, but how much stronger? Historically, about two-thirds of the teams that start 2-0 go on to qualify for the playoffs. That’s not as strong a predictor as the 85 percent rate of 0-2 teams that miss the playoffs but it’s still a pretty good correlation. 

That does leave a handful of these 2-0 teams as pretenders in contenders’ clothing waiting to be unmasked like a Scooby Doo villain in the next few months. Which ones? We have some guesses. Here’s the full list: 

1. Buffalo Bills
2. Cincinnati Bengals
3. Kansas City Chiefs
4. Las Vegas Raiders
5. Philadelphia Eagles
6. Minnesota Vikings
7. Seattle Seahawks
8. San Francisco 49ers

And here’s the verdict on each one. 

Bills

There’s a runaway leader for MVP through just two weeks of the season and it’s QB Josh Allen. In the span of five days, Allen scored nine touchdowns in two big wins over the Texans and Lions. He’s playing perhaps as well as he ever has, harnessing that elite physical talent with a growing mental command of the game. 

Whether or not the Bills can translate it into postseason success remains the big question, but it looks like they’re well on their way to having a chance to find out. The defense is working out some kinks under first-year DC Jim Leonhard, yet they’ve been able to generate an impressive amount of disruption against the two quarterbacks they’ve faced so far. 

Verdict: Contender

Bengals

The remade defense is the headliner for the Bengals’ 2-0 start. Cincinnati got the jump on the Bucs in Week 1, forcing and recovering four fumbles while harassing QB Baker Mayfield. They kept up the pressure on QB C.J. Stroud and the Texans in Week 2, sacking Stroud four times and dominating Houston’s rushing attack. The Texans’ running backs combined for 18 yards on 14 carries. 

Whatever question marks those opponents may have, those are legit strong performances from the Bengals’ defense, especially the manner in which they’ve had success. Cincinnati poured resources into the defensive line and is getting what it paid for with eight sacks in two games. Behemoth DT Dexter Lawrence looks rejuvenated and had a vintage performance against the Texans. Defense seems like it’s going to be a legitimate strength for the Bengals in 2026 — and oh yeah, they still have QB Joe Burrow and a vaunted cast of skill players on the other side of the ball. 

Verdict: Contender

Chiefs

It didn’t feel like anyone quite knew what to make of the Chiefs coming into this season with so many unknowns on both sides of the ball. How would QB Patrick Mahomes fare in his rapid return from a multi-ligament knee injury? How would HC Andy Reid and prodigal OC Eric Bieniemy adapt after the offense became stale the past few years? How would all the new and young faces on defense onboard to the system and professional football? 

So far, the answer to all of those questions has been overwhelmingly positive. The Chiefs dismantled the Broncos in Week 1, then stayed ahead of the Colts in a back-and-forth primetime affair in Week 2. Mahomes had a bit of rust to shake off his first game back but had a huge rushing touchdown, then shredded the Colts for nearly 400 yards and three touchdowns. Kansas City has more yards than anyone else through two games, with Reid and Bieniemy leaning hard on RB Kenneth Walker to give the Chiefs a dynamic, explosive element they haven’t had in a long, long time. The defense has also dramatically exceeded expectations. 

The schedule will give the Chiefs a chance to keep building momentum, too. They get the Dolphins and Raiders over the next two weeks before their bye, then come back to face a struggling Chargers squad. They could be undefeated going into back-to-back road games against the Seahawks and Broncos, which will be their two toughest tests yet. But even after that, they have a three-game stretch against the Jets, Falcons and Cardinals to get their wheels spinning again. 

It’s reasonable to think that Mahomes will only improve the further he gets from his injury, and that the young players the Chiefs are leaning on on both sides of the ball will also progress. That gives Kansas City a chance to be playing its best football in December and January when it matters most, and we’ve already seen that the Chiefs are pretty good. 

Verdict: Contenders

Raiders

Las Vegas had a manageable early-season schedule but they still qualify as a surprise 2-0 squad. After handling the Dolphins in Week 1, who are in a to-the-studs rebuild, the Raiders were supposed to be the get-right game for the Chargers in Week 2, who had huge preseason expectations. Instead, they prevailed by two scores, pouring it on in the fourth quarter with multiple forced turnovers and a safety. 

In the early goings of the season, it’s been the defense that has been the biggest pleasant surprise for the Raiders. They dedicated a lot of resources to fixing that side of the ball between free agency and the draft, adding LBs Quay Walker and Nakobe Dean, DE Kwity Paye and nickel corner Taron Johnson as new veteran starters. That was in addition to retaining guys like CB Eric Stokes, DE Malcolm Koonce and, of course, DE Maxx Crosby. That group has been outstanding and the Raiders have eight sacks through two weeks. 

On offense, veteran QB Kirk Cousins has been about what the team has expected and showed a much better command of the deep ball in Week 2, tossing three touchdowns. The offensive line has been dramatically improved from last year when it impeded basic functionality as an offense, and RB Ashton Jeanty looks like a special back. The Raiders are 2-0 despite not having TE Brock Bowers available, which is amazing considering how thin their skill group is viewed as. 

Unfortunately, I have serious doubts about how sustainable all of this is. The teams the Raiders have played so far have combined to go 0-4 with a scoring differential of -60. You can only play who’s on your schedule, but that should generate a massive grain of salt or two when forecasting the Raiders for the rest of the season. Upcoming games against the Saints and Chiefs should be much more telling barometers for how the Las Vegas rebuild is progressing. 

Verdict: Pretender

Eagles

Just win, baby. That’s what the Eagles do in September under HC Nick Sirianni, who added two more victories to move to 14-4 through his six seasons. At 0.777, that’s noticeably better than his career regular-season winning percentage of .701. 

That doesn’t stop concerns in Philadelphia when the Eagles don’t win by as many points as fans and media think they should. They have survived scares the past two weeks. The Commanders were one play away from a tying two-point conversion at the end of regulation, while the Eagles needed a game-winning drive and touchdown pass with nine seconds left from QB Jalen Hurts to prevail 24-20 over the Titans on a blistering day in Nashville. 

Both Washington and Tennessee are 0-2 and weren’t particularly competitive against the other teams they faced. So are those concerns legitimate? The Eagles defense has been good, but a step or two below the top-five unit many people were expecting given the talent and the continuity under DC Vic Fangio. The offense was undergoing a huge metamorphosis under new OC Sean Mannion, and while the early returns on Hurts in that system have been positive, the rushing attack has been inefficient and the offensive line is dealing with additional turmoil due to injuries. 

There’s reason to believe all of those issues will improve with time. There’s too much talent on defense for that side of the ball not to find its level eventually. Meanwhile, time on task is a huge factor for the scheme Mannion is implementing, especially in the run game since it’s quite different from what the Eagles have been running for essentially the past decade, if not longer. 

Some better opponents are incoming, although the Eagles look like they’ll catch the Bears on their third-string quarterback in a game that could have big postseason seeding implications down the line. Over the next month, we should get a much better read on this 2026 Eagles team, but for now I remain relatively optimistic about the talent the organization has assembled. 

Verdict: Contender

Vikings

So far this season has been an ode to Vikings DC Brian Flores and the potency of the unique system he’s cooked up in Minnesota. The Vikings are 2-0 despite ranking 32nd in total offense, losing QB Kyler Murray after just a handful of snaps and playing two of their top division rivals. Flores deserves the lion’s share of the credit with a defense that’s designed to make the opposing quarterback feel pressure every single snap and second-guess every single decision. 

In Week 1, the Vikings went from down 22-10 to winning 39-22 because of an onslaught from the defense, sacking Packers QB Jordan Love four times and forcing a pair of turnovers. In Week 2, Minnesota held a Bears offense coming off a nearly 60-point outburst in Week 1 to just three measly points (with the help of monsoon conditions), generating another four sacks and two turnovers. At 2-0, the Vikings sit in sole possession of first place in the NFC North. 

To hang on to it, they’ll need more from the offense, and Murray is expected to make his return from the concussion protocol this week. There are still questions about how well he’ll gel with HC Kevin O’Connell and his offense, but I think the past two weeks should have made it abundantly clear that he’s more talented than Wentz and a better option for where this team wants to go. Even if the offense is average or worse, it might not matter — as long as Flores’ defense can keep playing as well as it is. 

That will be easier said than done, as there are a few pitfalls the Vikings could run into over the next few months (injuries, teams having time to better dissect the tape and develop schematic counterpunches). It’s hard not to like the Vikings’ chances given the headwinds the rest of the NFC North is dealing with. The Lions’ defense is a MASH unit, Bears QB Caleb Williams is hurt and the Packers have major questions on both sides of the ball. But none of those teams are going to just lie down and take it for the rest of the season, either. 

Verdict: Pretender

Seahawks

The defending Super Bowl champions rolled over the Cardinals 31-7 in Week 2, which was a good follow-up for them from a shaky Week 1 and took some air out of the idea that Arizona might be way better than expected. Two big strengths have carried over from last year for Seattle — the defense is still one of the best units in football with talent at all three levels and continuity under HC Mike Macdonald; and WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba remains one of the most effective wideouts in football. He has four touchdowns in two games despite catching passes from backup QB Drew Lock. 

The Seahawks have been able to absorb the loss of starting QB Sam Darnold to a mysterious glute injury better than a lot of other teams might have. Lock has been a big part of that, as he’s been efficient through two games. The Seahawks are in a spot with upcoming games against the Commanders and Chargers where they don’t have to rush Darnold back, as Lock is probably good enough to keep them rolling against two teams that are currently winless and relatively toothless on defense. 

Past that, though, and I might start to have some questions about this Seahawks team. I don’t think the defense has been particularly challenged yet. In Week 1, they got three absolute gifts from Patriots QB Drake Maye for interceptions and New England was still in position to tie or take the lead before Maye’s final error. You can say the same about the Seahawks offense, as they only scored 13 against New England and the turnovers helped set some of those points up. 

I’m not quite ready to go all the way out on a limb and call the Seahawks pretenders. But I will be very interested in this four-game stretch next month — vs the 49ers, on the road in Denver on Thursday night, home against the Chiefs on Sunday night and home against the Bears the following Monday. That will tell me more about the Seahawks than anything I’ve seen so far. 

Verdict: ?

49ers

The 49ers are 2-0 and have made short work of two opponents. They took apart the Dolphins in Week 2, with one of QB Brock Purdy’s best games as a pro. In Week 1, they had the better travel plans compared to the Rams for the trip to Australia and won handily, too. Currently San Francisco has the best scoring differential in the NFL at +42. 

That said, I have some concerns. Attrition is already eating away at the 49ers. It’s Week 3 and there are quotes from HC Kyle Shanahan about having only eight slots to bring players off of injured reserve for the season and more than eight candidates for short-term IR. Other players like WR Mike Evans are being managed during the week to stay on top of issues. 

Shanahan has been dialed in as usual with his play-calling, so it doesn’t seem like there are ill effects from his July concussion, something I was worried about last month. However, it’s still not clear how much the 49ers improved some of the issues from last year (pass protection, lack of a pass rush) because they haven’t been tested. The defensive line in particular might be an issue, especially because many of the 49ers’ injuries so far have been clustered in that position group. 

The Week 1 win against the Rams was undoubtedly impressive, especially because of how physically dominant the 49ers were. But there’s no getting around the mitigating factors at hand for that game. Miami didn’t offer much of a challenge, and I’m not sure the Cardinals in Week 3 will either. Even if San Francisco is in a good spot now, I have concerns about where they’ll be in a few weeks when the schedule toughens up and there are more injuries to deal with. 

Verdict: Pretender