After three weeks of regular-season action, there are still five NFL teams that have yet to score their first win of the year.
While few are surprised to see the Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans on that list, the rest of the group comes as a surprise. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Chargers, and Houston Texans all had legitimate playoff hopes coming into the 2026 campaign, but history says their chances of making a postseason run after an 0-3 start aren’t great.
The Dolphins and Titans feel destined to push for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, but those other three winless teams have enough talent to bounce back and overcome their slow starts to make a playoff push down the stretch if certain things fall their way starting in Week 4.
Here’s how the Bucs, Chargers and Texans can still rebound and score a spot in the postseason:
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
You would think that after losing their home opener to Deshaun Watson and the Cleveland Browns, things couldn’t get much worse for the Bucs. But at the end of Sunday’s 23-16 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, they also lost Baker Mayfield to a dislocated thumb on his throwing hand, which will put him out for at least three weeks (per head coach Todd Bowles).
There are a ton of problems for this team right now. The defense looked better Sunday (even without their top two rookies in Rueben Bain Jr. and Josiah Trotter, both of whom were out with injuries), but they also played a Vikings offense that didn’t have Justin Jefferson for most of the game. On the other side of the ball, things are pretty bleak, especially without Mayfield in the lineup for the foreseeable future. The offensive line was expected to be one of the league’s best, but they’ve struggled to protect Mayfield without drawing penalties. Losing Mike Evans has made life much more difficult for the remaining receivers, and Zac Robinson’s scheme doesn’t appear to be doing them many favors.
Their only hope to turn things around will be a defense that continues to improve and hold teams under 20 points per game, and in the short-term, maybe rookie undrafted free agent Jalon Daniels can provide a spark to the offense with Mayfield out of commission. It’s a tall task to believe this team can shift their momentum without their starting quarterback, but this team is talented enough to get back in the playoff picture by the end of the year, if only because their division should remain extremely winnable all season long.
Los Angeles Chargers
Throughout the entire offseason, hopes were high that Mike McDaniel could unlock Justin Herbert’s full potential and generate the kind of offense that would allow the Chargers to challenge the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC West title. Instead, they’re off to an 0-3 start, and despite the loss of defensive coordinator Jesse Minter to the Baltimore Ravens’ head-coaching spot, it’s been Herbert and the offense holding them back to start the year.
I detailed Herbert’s struggles after a third straight stinker Sunday against the Buffalo Bills, but suffice to say his impressive physical traits simply haven’t been enough to overcome poor decision-making and consistency on his part, and costly mistakes from the rest of his supporting cast. The Chargers lost Sunday despite their defense forcing five takeaways, which just seems impossible.
The good news? This defense is playing well enough to win games, and Herbert still has the talent to be the 5,000-yard passer he was a few years ago. If this team can just polish their execution in critical moments, they can easily flip the script and overcome this slow start with a strong finish. The question will be, with the rest of the division looking so strong out of the gate (the rest of the AFC West is a combined 8-1), will it be enough to matter now that they’ve put themselves in a three-game hole out of the gate?
Houston Texans
Every NFL team wants to play “complementary football,” but the Texans have been doing the opposite so far this season. Their defense disappeared in a Week 1 shootout loss to the Buffalo Bills, but reappeared to no avail thanks to an offense that mustered just 23 total points over the past two weeks. They have the NFL’s fourth-worst rushing attack so far this season, and the offensive line is still struggling to allow C.J. Stroud to take full advantage of their playmakers.
They’ve been without their top wide receiver in Nico Collins, and his return should obviously elevate the passing game and make boxes softer for the ground game to find some room once he’s back in the lineup at full strength. But the blocking has to improve if the Texans want their offense to go anywhere this season, instead of wasting one of the league’s best defenses for another year. The good news? Only two teams since 2000 have made the playoffs after starting 0-3, and both of them were the Houston Texans (2018, 2025).
I still believe DeMeco Ryans is one of the best head coaches in the game, and his defense is good enough to carry his team to the playoffs if they can get even above-average play out of Stroud and the offense. Getting Collins back will be a huge boost, but things have to get handled in the trenches. If that happens, there’s no reason why Houston can’t go on a midseason run that puts them in position to make a playoff push down the stretch.
