- How damaging is an 0-2 start? Nearly 88% of teams that have started that way since 1990 have missed postseason.
- But what happened last season that might offer added hope to 2025’s winless clubs?
- And what did Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes say following his first 0-2 start?
Panic mode. Desperation time. A proverbial cold sweat. Tightened … well, ya know. All euphemisms synonymous with the dreaded 0-2 start in the NFL – recently anyway.
Turns out, maybe what coaches, players and fans should be doing is taking a beat and resetting − all isn’t necessarily lost.
How Zen is Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who just lost his opening two games for the first time since 2014 – his second year in K.C. and the only instance since he’s been with the franchise that it didn’t make the playoffs?
“I trust this group. I mean, this group’s a good group – got good leadership and they’ll stay together,” Reid said Monday, a day after the Chiefs lost their Super Bowl 59 rematch with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Sure, it’s easier to remain on an even keel when you’ve reached five of the past six Super Bowls and won three of them.
Added Reid: “(T)hey’ll work hard on cleaning things up, there’s nobody more aware of it than the guys, and we’ll make sure we get back to the drawing board.”
It’s almost as if he doesn’t know (or care) that, since the playoff field expanded to 12 teams in 1990, only three teams – the 1993 Cowboys, 2001 Patriots and 2007 Giants, all legendary in their own right – of the 288, or 1.04%, that have begun 0-2 over that period have won the Super Bowl.
“It’s just the little things,” Ryans said Tuesday, following his team’s last-second loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
“We talk about technique, we talk about decision-making, we’re talking about tackling. We talk about all the little things that we control, that we can fix. I’m excited to see what it looks like moving forward.”
The deck is most definitely stacked against Houston, Kansas City and the eight other currently winless clubs. Since 1990, just 12.2% of 0-2 teams have rebounded to qualify for postseason. Just 6.6% have come back to secure a division.
Yet the 17-game regular-season schedule, which took effect in 2021, and 14-team playoff field first introduced in 2020 both provide an increased margin for error. That was certainly the case last season, when three of the nine teams that started 0-2 wound up in the Super Bowl tournament. Two (Rams, Ravens) won their divisions and got as far as the divisional round of the postseason.
The weight of the historical data is daunting, suggesting just one of this year’s 0-2 squads will overcome its circumstances to endure into in Week 19. But last year’s snapshot is proof that more teams surely can.
Let’s rank all 10 by their postseason viability from least likely to most:
10. Cleveland Browns
They looked competitive in a Week 1 loss to the Bengals but decidedly weren’t in Sunday’s 24-point defeat at Baltimore. In addition to being mired in a highly competitive division, it stands to reason that the Browns will eventually turn to rookie QBs Dillon Gabriel and/or Shedeur Sanders in order to assess where they are organizationally at the position ahead of the 2026 draft, when Cleveland is scheduled to have two first-round picks. Lastly, history is an even bigger barrier to this franchise. Of the 16 previous times the Browns started 0-2 since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, only the 1980 “Kardiac Kids” led by MVP Brian Sipe persevered to make the postseason.
9. New York Giants
Despite finishing 3-14 last year, the G-Men, who have several young and talented players on their roster, nevertheless wound up with the league’s hardest schedule (based on opponents’ collective 2024 winning percentage, .574). Unlike the Browns, New York appears to have its quarterback of the future, 2025 first-rounder Jaxson Dart, and might be obliged to look for a spark and start him at some point given how well he played in the preseason. But Russell Wilson, who had a vintage performance in Sunday’s loss to Dallas, just bought himself more playing time, for whatever it’s worth amid this murders’ row of a lineup he and his team must face, including the equally desperate Chiefs in Week 3. And a note for the historians: Since those magical 2007 Giants started 0-2 before ruining the Patriots’ perfect season in Super Bowl 42, Big Blue has lost its first two games in 10 subsequent seasons, including 2025 … and failed to reach postseason in all of them to date.
8. New Orleans Saints
They seem a little high? Fair. But let’s acknowledge that they have established, proud players on the roster, and both of their losses have been by one score. The Saints also – seemingly – play in a more forgiving division than the Giants or Browns. But, yeah, New Orleans also doesn’t have a quarterback in the building who’s ever won an NFL game. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is the 24th time the Saints have started 0-2 in their 59-season history. Perhaps surprisingly, this is the first time it’s happened in the post-Drew Brees era.
7. Tennessee Titans
Cam Ward is a wild card, figuratively and literally given his heretofore daredevil playing style. But is he really going to join the likes of John Elway and Andrew Luck as the only quarterbacks drafted No. 1 overall to lead their teams to the playoffs as rookies since the merger? Is a team that’s gone 3-16 under coach Brian Callahan suddenly going to catch fire? Since relocating to Tennessee in 1997, the Titans haven’t successfully rallied from their six previous 0-2 starts. Still, if Ward and Co. can survive the season’s first half, the schedule does look manageable, with a heavy serving of games in Nashville, following a Week 10 bye.
6. New York Jets
They haven’t made the playoffs since 2010 regardless of circumstances − and this is the NYJ’s fifth 0-2 start over the past nine seasons. After an encouraging Week 1 loss to Pittsburgh, the Jets were blown out by Buffalo and lost QB Justin Fields to the concussion protocol. Perhaps veteran QB2 Tyrod Taylor can stabilize the situation. Perhaps rookie coach Aaron Glenn, a Bill Parcells protégé, can spark an unexpected heater … which would be appropriate given Parcells was the last coach to dig this team out of an 0-2 hole, the 1998 squad advancing all the way to the AFC title game. But come on, it’s the Jets.
5. Miami Dolphins
Yes, this spot feels grossly optimistic for these seemingly drowning fish, er, mammals. They sound bad. They look bad. No AFC team has allowed more points (66) or has a worse point differential (-31). No coach in the league appears to be on a hotter seat than Mike McDaniel. But let’s also grant him deserved credit given Miami reached the playoffs in two of his first three seasons and had a top-six offense league-wide in both of those years. And while durability is always a concern with QB Tua Tagovailoa, he’s also an established and efficient Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback operating in a division that only seems to have one imposing team … albeit a Buffalo squad set to host the Fins on Thursday night and threatening to push them into an 0-3 grave.
4. Chicago Bears
This also feels like a glass that’s close to 75% full for a team that clearly seems to remain in hibernation. Second-year QB Caleb Williams continues to struggle to live up to his astronomical pre-draft hype from a year ago. In fairness to him, this is two offensive systems in two years, and rookie coach Ben Johnson’s playbook is far more demanding. Also, with so much scrutiny on Williams, it’s easy to gloss over the fact that the Bears are the only team that’s allowed more points (79) or been outscored by a wider margin (34 points) than Miami. And a 2025 postseason trip was always going to be a high bar given Chicago was the only team in its division that didn’t go to the playoffs last season. Yet hope for positive and sudden growth remains – if Williams starts grasping Johnson’s system, which produced spectacular results in Detroit during the previous three seasons, and if the defense starts clicking under new coordinator Dennis Allen. There’s certainly no shortage of talent on this roster.
3. Carolina Panthers
They showed the same fight in the second half of Sunday’s near-miss loss at Arizona that they displayed during the second half of last season. Both of their defeats have come on the road, and Carolina plays in a division that hasn’t set a high bar for success in recent years. Still, the Panthers must survive a battered offensive line and still suspect defense. Also, history. They’ve now started 0-2 14 times in their 31-season history – nearly half of them – but have surmounted that obstacle into a playoff berth just once.
2. Houston Texans
After Ryans’ charges started 0-2 two years ago, the Texans won 11 of their next 16 games, including a victory in the wild-card round of the playoffs. Many key players from that group remain, notably QB C.J. Stroud, WR Nico Collins, DE Will Anderson Jr. and CB Derek Stingley Jr. This year’s edition is winless – but the losses came by a combined six points to teams (Rams, Bucs) that were division winners in 2024. Yes, there might be a level of discomfort given how the AFC South rival Indianapolis Colts have broken from the starting gate … and maybe more so given this retooled offense has scored a league-low 28 points. But let’s give a squad that’s reached the divisional round of the past two postseasons, features a potentially dominant defense and has a dynamic young HC-QB combo the grace period it’s earned.
1. Kansas City Chiefs
Duh. Yep, it’s uncharted territory as it pertains to the past decade, K.C. trying to win its 10th consecutive AFC West crown. Yes, this marks the first time QB Patrick Mahomes has started 0-2 or lost three consecutive NFL games when you factor in the blowout loss to Philly in Super Bowl 59. Yes, TE Travis Kelce continues to look like a declining player, whose admittedly poor route discipline during the Week 1 loss in Brazil is responsible for the shoulder injury that’s limited dynamic WR Xavier Worthy to three snaps this season.
But … these are the dynastic Chiefs. They’ve lost close contests to the Chargers and Eagles, who are shaping up as two of the league’s top teams. Week 3 brings a date with the Giants, the Chiefs favored to win by nearly a touchdown on the road and likely to have Worthy back. Suspended WR Rashee Rice will return next month. Still, the Chiefs aren’t awash in wiggle room, the schedule set to serve up the Ravens, Lions, Commanders and Bills … before the Week 10 bye.
“We played two good football teams and made mistakes in big moments – stuff that we’re not used to doing,” Mahomes said after Sunday’s loss. “But I think we’re coming together as a team, man. I mean, when you deal with adversity it’s about how you deal with it and obviously, this isn’t how we wanted to start. But how are we going to respond? So, I’m excited for the next few weeks to see who wants to be challenged and how we can get back and really get after it.
“Obviously, we’ve never been 0-2, but we’ve had times where we’ve dealt with challenges before and lost games. I think the guys that we have in this locker room will go back to work with that mindset of, ‘We’re going to continue to work even harder,’ so that when we step on that field this next time, we can find a way to win in those big moments, like we haven’t in these first two weeks.”
This post appeared first on USA TODAY
