Whose season is already over?

Is anyone’s season over already? I’m going to run through the teams in the NFL that are 0-3 after Week 3 of the 2026 season and see if we can put the nail in the coffin early. Through last season, only two teams this century had started 0-3 and still made the playoffs. Both were Texans teams.

Miami Dolphins (0-3, -50 point differential)

12.0 points per game. Tied for last with the Pats (LOL, the Pats). Oof. I will raise my hands and say that the Dolphins are so bad that they have not made their way onto any of my 6 screens that I watch games on for more than a few minutes, so I have not watched much. But I’m not sure I have been missing out. They have lost all 3 games by double digits, though they did have the ball down 4 in the fourth quarter against the Chiefs.

Malik Willis is 27th in ESPN’s QBR with a 40.2. Also not good. De’Von Achane is out for the year. Not good. Someone please find something positive to say about the Dolphins, because I don’t have anything.

The Fins don’t have the luxury of a last-place schedule, and the one team that was worse than them last year in the division, the Jets, looks significantly improved. I am looking through their schedule, and I genuinely don’t think they are going to be favored in a single game for the rest of the season. That is a long way of saying…

Verdict: Season’s over.

Los Angeles Chargers (0-3, -32 point differential)

Losses to both the Cardinals and Raiders? I did not have that on my bingo card. It is hard to decide who the biggest disappointment in the NFL is: the Chargers or another team on this list, the Texans. I just said Malik Willis is 27th in ESPN’s QBR. But you know who is worse? Justin Herbert, at 29th with a 27.4. As you would expect with that putrid quarterback play, the Chargers are 29th in scoring at 14.7 points per game. Mike McDungeons and Dragons seems to have lost his offensive touch. The Chargers couldn’t even put up more than 16 points on a Bills defense that gave up 30+ in each of the previous 2 weeks. Yikes.

The only reason to have faith in the Chargers is if you forget the first 3 games happened and reset to preseason expectations. Harbaugh, Herbert, Hampton, McConkey, McDaniel. Both tackles healthy? That’s 10 wins, right? Well, maybe not. I wanted to say the season isn’t over, but here is the problem. Look at their next 4 games:

• @ Seattle
• vs Denver
• @ Kansas City
• @ Los Angeles Rams (after the Week 7 bye)

Best-case scenario feels like 2-2, which would put them at 2-5. Good luck getting out of that hole. Especially in a division with two 3-0 teams and the other at 2-1.

Verdict: Season’s over.

Tennessee Titans (0-3, -22 point differential)

A blowout loss to the Jets, a competitive loss to the middling Eagles, and a close loss to the Jaxson Dart-less Giants? The offense has put up 10, 20, and 7 points, respectively. Not good. Cam Ward looks more lost in the regular season than he did in the preseason (which is saying something). Fourth overall pick Carnell Tate has 123 receiving yards through 3 games. The offense as a whole is 31st in yards per game at 249.3. Robert Saleh looks like he did when he was coaching the Jets: confused.

There are 2 potential saving graces for the Titans. First, their division looks bad. The Texans are also 0-3, and the Colts are only 1-2 because they beat the Texans. The Jags beat up on two seemingly bad teams in the Browns and Patriots, so I won’t declare them the runaway winner yet (though I think they are the clear favorites in the division).

Second, the Titans’ defense has actually been good. They have allowed 23, 24, and 12 points. Not bad. Their 315.3 yards allowed per game puts them at 10th in the NFL. The Titans have a last-place schedule, which sounds good until you realize they got blown out by the Jets, who were a last-place team last year.

I am grasping at straws here. The defense doesn’t matter if you can’t score, and I think the Colts and Texans are a step above the Titans, so those will not be easy wins. Even with the easy schedule, it’s hard to win games when you can’t score.

Verdict: Season’s over.

Houston Texans (0-3, -21 point differential)

Houston looked alright in their Week 1 loss to Buffalo. You figured you could chalk up the points given up to facing Josh Allen. The defense fixed things in Week 2, holding Cincy to 20 points. Problem is, the offense only had 6. Losing to the winless Colts in Week 3 is a new low. Stroud has a 56.3 QBR, 20th among qualifying QBs. Their 18.0 points per game is tied for 24th.

The defense is still looking pretty good, so there is some hope there. The division, as previously mentioned with the Titans, doesn’t look impossible. The next 4 games are manageable:

• vs Dallas
• @ Tennessee
• vs Jacksonville (in London)
• vs New York Giants

3-1 is in reach. That puts them at 3-4 and not completely out of it.

Verdict: Still alive.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-3, -17 point differential)

Finishing up the list of teams without a win is Tampa. They lost a somewhat fluky, turnover-ridden game to Cincy, but followed it up with a loss at home to Deshaun Watson. That loss would be more acceptable if it were 2018. It’s 2026. Then they outdid themselves with another home loss, this time to Kyler Murray and the Vikings. More bad news: Baker Mayfield is expected to miss at least 3 weeks with a dislocated thumb.

On the bright side, the division they are in looks awful. The Falcons and Panthers look like basement dwellers. The Saints look competent, but are still 1-2. The next 5 games are manageable:

• vs Green Bay
• @ Dallas
• vs Pittsburgh
• @ Carolina
• vs Atlanta

Can Jalon Daniels go 1-2 in the first 3, then Baker come back in time to win the next 2 and get Tampa to 3-5? I think that is possible. In this dreadful division, that should keep them right in the thick of things.

Verdict: Still alive.