Are the Colts and Chargers … good?

Is the season already over for Giants, Dolphins and other 0-3 teams?

Yes, the NFL season is young and we’re only one day into Fall. But just three weeks in, 2025 is already pretty much over for the teams that have begun the year 0-3. You know the stats: just six teams have made the playoffs in the modern era starting 0-3, and just one of those — the 2018 Houston Texans — in the entire millennium of the 2000s. The odds are sharply against any of the six 0-3 teams doing much more than posting a losing record this season. So let’s take a quick look at how we got here, and what their prospects might be going forward.

Houston Texans: Hey, them again! The Texans have taken a massive step backward because C.J. Stroud hasn’t leveled up in his third year. When you’re struggling against a misbegotten Jaguars team, you’re in real trouble. Houston, once a team on the rise, is now looking like just another AFC South washout.

Miami Dolphins: Blame Sean McVay. For a brief moment, hiring hoodie-wearing offensive geniuses was the go-to move for scrambling NFL franchises. But it turns out that there’s only one Sean McVay, and not every 30-something coordinator is a head coach in waiting. Mike McDaniel and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa have both been unable to match their incoming hype, and the Dolphins are swimming in circles (sorry) as a result. In the deep waters (sorry again) of the AFC, they’ve got no chance.

New York Jets: If nothing else, the Dolphins can point at the Jets and say, “At least we’re not them.” All those wondrous plans for AFC East domination, all blown straight to hell. Justin Fields might be the answer, but already missing time due to injury is a concern. The Jets played well enough Sunday to throw a scare into Tampa Bay, but not well enough to hold them down for a full 60 minutes. This franchise might be rotten to the bone, or just plain ol’ cursed. Same result, though.

New York Giants: Trapped in eternal QB limbo. Russell Wilson plays well enough to dazzle but not well enough to win, and by this point the Giants don’t need any more moral victories or at-least-we-fought-hard almost-wins. Maybe Jaxson Dart is the answer. Cam Skattebo is tremendously fun to watch, but he’s about the only thing that’s watchable about this year’s Giants trash fire.

New Orleans Saints: Woof. Bad from every possible angle, and a few we haven’t even seen yet. You could play quarterback as well as anyone in uniform. (Maybe you should. How’s your arm feeling?) Very little hope for this year in New Orleans. But accepting the inevitability of your fate is the best way to meet it.

Tennessee Titans: We all knew this would be a slow simmer, so of all the teams on this list, the Titans have the least to worry about. Long-term, that is. Short-term, like this season? They’re a mess. Cam Ward has shown the proverbial flashes, but without much to work with around him. That’s how you get doubled up by the Indianapolis Colts on your home turf.

At least two of these teams will avoid going 0-4, since Houston plays Tennessee and Miami plays the Jets next week. Meanwhile, the Saints draw the Bills and the Giants face the Chargers. Uh-oh.

Could any of these teams make the playoffs? Eh. Maybe the Texans, if they start to play up to their potential. Other than Houston, no way. Hell, New Orleans is so bad it might get relegated back to the SEC.

At least these teams’ front offices can get a head start on draft prep. One of them is already on the clock.

Back for the 2025 season, Asked & Answered offers up some key questions and resolving others. We start with a question we can’t quite believe …

Asked: Are the Colts and Chargers … good?

It’s OK to admit that you didn’t think there was any way the Chargers would beat the Broncos on Sunday. Chargering is a powerful, mystical force, one whose power seems to resist all attempts to contain it. And yet … 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 mistakes. And just like that, they’re 3-0. 

Also 3-0: the Colts, who have somehow found the unlikeliest of treasures in the Giants’ trash. Daniel Jones is actually starting to live up to his badass nickname of Indiana Jones, and given that the bar for success in the AFC South is about shin-high, the Colts are in great position to reclaim a bit of dignity this season.

Asked: Does Cleveland have a slow-developing quarterback problem?

Look, we understand if you don’t want to take the Cleveland Browns seriously. Generations of franchise futility taint the perception of this team on a DNA level. But look a little closer. The Browns beat the Packers, everybody’s trendy team-of-the-moment, with a smothering defensive effort and juuuuuust enough offense. Which brings up a key point for Cleveland: How long will the Browns waste a literal league-leading defense with watery, lukewarm quarterback play? Should the Browns keep running out Joe Flacco, or should they see what they have in Dillon Gabriel and/or Shedeur Sanders? With next year’s draft predicted to be one of those deep quarterback ones, every team that might possibly be interested in a QB (read: at least 20 of the 32 teams) ought to be seeing whether their answer is still in college, or perhaps already on their roster.

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Answered: When you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks

Until further notice — which may never come — it’s impossible to believe in the Atlanta Falcons. One week after throwing down a defensive monster of a game against Minnesota in prime time, the Falcons absolutely gagged against what was, on paper, a far less talented Carolina team. You don’t lose 30-0 unless every single part of your game plan is flawed and failing you, starting with the quarterback position. Michael Penix Jr. completed only half of the 36 passes he threw, for 172 yards and no touchdowns but two crucial interceptions. And then Kirk Cousins dropped in long enough to throw seven passes, completing five of them for 29 yards. Riveting. The Falcons’ unconventional QB stacking plan looked like it was on the virtue of paying off (well, not for Cousins, except monetarily). But Sunday’s loss was the kind that makes all progress seem like a mirage.

Answered: Kicker is the most treacherous position in sports

Imagine if we deemed a quarterback a failure for not throwing a touchdown every pass, or a running back a bust if he didn’t rumble into the end zone on every touch. Crazy, right? And yet that’s the standard field goal kickers must meet. Every time they enter the game, they’re expected to put points on the board. (Well, not kickoffs, but you get what we mean.) The Browns, Bucs, Chargers and 49ers all won on last-second field goals, with Tampa Bay and San Francisco flipping defeat to victory on the toe of their kicker. That’s a lot of pressure to put on one dude’s leg! It’s why there’s such turnover in the sport, why no job is ever safe for very long. (Well, except for Brandon Aubrey. That dude is the lone bright spot for the Cowboys.)

The downside of kickers being automatic from half a mile away is that on the rare moments they miss, the drama compounds and the tension vaults to the roof of the stadium. Just ask Atlanta’s Parker Romo, who kicked Younghoe Koo out of a job last week and proceeded to miss two field goals in Atlanta’s loss to Carolina. Perfection or doom is a hell of a way to go through a career, but that’s where we’re at with field goal kickers.

Asked: Is this whole season just a setup for an Eagles-Bucs NFC championship?

Some franchises, like that 0-3 cadre up above, always find a way to lose. Others, like the Eagles and Buccaneers, somehow always find a way to win. Tampa Bay in particular now has three game-winning drives in its first three games, a record for living dangerously. The Eagles, meanwhile, fell behind the Rams 26-7 and then proceeded to score 26 straight points of their own to win thanks to a blocked field goal. Sure, you need some help from some misbegotten opponents — the Bucs were playing the Jets, and Sean McVay’s game management did the Rams no favors — but there’s still an organizational core of competence, authenticity, calm and resilience in these two teams that most other teams lack. These two are headed for an NFC title game, and it’ll come down to the final seconds. Count on it.