Five weeks into the NFL season, we can officially write off four teams. By “write off,” we mean teams that are going nowhere. Their fans should be more concerned with draft position than anything their teams might accomplish this season.
We understand how demoralizing it is to concede a season before mid-October. It is, nonetheless, the reality for certain franchises.
Let’s start with two teams that aren’t tanking, per se, but weren’t exactly built to contend this season. The Miami Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals are about as bad as expected, despite the latter managing an early-season win.
The positive is that both teams have stockpiled young talent while positioning themselves for a high draft pick. Miami’s rookie class is impressive, including Kadyn Proctor, Chris Johnson, Jacob Rodriguez, Caleb Douglas, and Chris Bell. Arizona has the best tight end in football in Trey McBride, while Jeremiah Love, albeit injured, has generational upside.
Unfortunately, the 2027 quarterback class doesn’t appear nearly as promising as anticipated. Arch Manning, to this point, hardly resembles the prospect analysts projected him to become.
Elsewhere, the Tennessee Titans might be worse than both the Dolphins and Cardinals. That’s particularly concerning because Tennessee spent the offseason actively trying to improve its roster and coaching staff.
Through Week 5, the Titans rank last in the NFL in both scoring and total offense, averaging just 11.6 points and 246.4 yards per game.
The winless Titans shouldn’t be expected to win many games this season.
After five weeks, we can also write off the Los Angeles Chargers, who entered the season with nearly the same Super Bowl odds as the Kansas City Chiefs. A team coached by Jim Harbaugh and quarterbacked by Justin Herbert should not be this inept. And yet, they are.
At 0-5, with games remaining against the Rams, Ravens, Chiefs twice, 49ers, and Patriots, it’s difficult to find many wins left on the schedule.
A midseason parting with offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel now seems more plausible than a late-season surge toward the playoffs. The Chargers’ season, at least in terms of meaningful aspirations, is over.
Based strictly on their play, the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers should join this list. Both teams have won just one game and have deficiencies on both sides of the ball. Despite relatively high expectations entering the season, the Saints have a minus-33 point differential.
Neither team figures to be much of a factor in the postseason, if it gets there at all. However, both remain just one game out of first place in the perpetually mediocre NFC South.
Likewise, the 1-3-1 Washington Commanders remain viable playoff threats largely because of the lackluster state of the rest of the NFC East.
Granted, it’s hard to take seriously a team that did that in overtime on Sunday
The 2-3 New York Jets are the final team worth discussing. As WWE commentator Michael Cole told OutKick last week, the Jets remain poorly coached and overmatched in the trenches. In all likelihood, they are probably a bottom-10 team in the NFL–again.
But we can’t, in good faith, write off a team that sits just one game behind the Patriots and Bills, who play the Rams on Monday night, in the AFC East.
We suspect the Jets will join this list by the end of October. For now, however, they’ve played well enough — including competitive games against the Lions and Packers — to keep the light on for a few more weeks.
So, through Week 5, the Dolphins, Cardinals, Titans, and Chargers are the only four teams we’re officially declaring “season over.”
The rest of the fan bases should at least have hope, even for just a short while longer.
