Is There Any Hope Left for the NFL’s Five 0–3 Teams? Here’s What History Says

Three weeks into the NFL season, five teams find themselves in an uncomfortable position: They’re 0–3. The Texans, Titans, Dolphins, Chargers and Buccaneers all woke up Monday morning still winless, and will remain winless at the start of October.

It’s already difficult to overcome an 0–2 start to the year and go on to make the playoffs. Eight teams began the 2026 campaign 0–2, and three of those, the Colts, Commanders and Falcons, won their first game in Week 3. The five others, however, will have to try to turn their seasons around from the dreaded 0–3 start.

It’s not an easy feat to accomplish.

From 1980 to 2020, just six teams started 0–3 and made the postseason, according to Pro Football Talk. Those teams are:

1981 Jets
1982 Buccaneers*
1992 Chargers
1995 Lions
1998 Bills
2018 Texans

The 1981 Jets rebounded from an 0–3 start to go 10-5-1. The 1995 Lions began 3–6 before a seven-game winning streak carried them into the postseason. The 1982 Buccaneers were an odd case because of the strike season. They started 0–3, finished 5–4, and reached the postseason because 16 teams did so that year.

The 1992 Chargers are the lone 0–4 team to go on to make the playoffs and the only team on the list above to win a postseason game. Starter John Friesz sustained a season-ending injury during the preseason and Stan Humphries struggled in his first four games, throwing one touchdown and eight picks. They turned the season around after losing 27–0 to the Oilers in Week 4 and lost just one game the rest of the year.

Both the 1998 Bills and 2018 Texans lost three one-score games to start their seasons before they began winning. The ’98 Bills featured a quarterback change, with Doug Flutie coming in for Rob Johnson and leading a win streak and earning the job.

Outside of the ’82 Buccaneers, the five other teams notably all won 10 or 11 games after starting 0–3. This was not a modern NFC South–like situation where one of the teams won the division with a losing record.

Since 2021, when the NFL moved to a 14-team playoff bracket, just one of 25 teams has made the playoffs after starting the year 0–3: the 2025 Texans. The Texans are the only franchise that has made the postseason after starting 0–3 since the NFL moved to 32 teams in 2002, when they became the final team to join the league.

This could be an encouraging sign for the 2026 Texans, who are 0–3 for the second consecutive season. For the other teams, not so much. Obviously, this is a small sample size of five seasons, and in the years to come, more teams could go from 0–3 to the playoffs. Still, it’s not great for these five teams to hear that even with an expanded playoff bracket, just one team has pulled off the turnaround from 0–3 to the postseason.

For the Texans, they certainly have proved capable of rebounding from a poor start. They have started 0–2 or worse in three of four seasons under DeMeco Ryans and C.J. Stroud, and have made the postseason in every year under them so far. Last season, they began the year 3–5 before winning nine consecutive games heading into the postseason. While they have fallen short of their lofty preseason expectations, the Texans remain one of the league’s most talented teams, particularly on defense, and can compete with the best in the league if they don’t self-destruct.

The Titans and Dolphins, meanwhile, were not expected to compete this season. For them, the priority is to win some games, continue developing and improve morale.

The most concerning 0–3 records belong to the Chargers and Buccaneers, who have both completely fallen short of expectations. The Chargers have one of the toughest schedules ahead, yet shown no signs that they’ll stop shooting themselves in the foot. While the Buccaneers have the fortune of playing in the NFC South, it doesn’t appear that it will matter much. Tampa Bay has been a mess through three games, and is now expected to be without Baker Mayfield for three weeks due to a thumb injury.

Outside of the Texans, who still have a tough hole to climb themselves out of, the prognosis is looking grim for the league’s 0–3 teams.

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