Why Giants, Jets, Texans and Dolphins might have just been unofficially eliminated from NFL playoff race

If you're the fan of an 0-3 team, we have some bad news for you

The first month of the NFL season isn't even over yet and it looks like a few teams out there might already be eliminated from postseason contention. At least from an unofficial standpoint. With that, they're now going to have to defy NFL history if they want to somehow bounce back to make the playoffs. 

Starting 0-3 is the kiss of death in the NFL and six teams have reached that mark this year: The Miami Dolphins, the Houston Texans, the New York Jets, the Tennessee Titans, the New York Giants and the New Orleans Saints. Those six teams haven't officially been eliminated from the NFL playoff race, but they might as well be, because we almost never see teams recover from an 0-3 record to make the playoffs. 

Since the NFL schedule was expanded to 17 games in 2021, NO team has lost their first three games and rebounded to make the postseason. There have been 13 teams that have started 0-3 over the past four years and out of that group, only two teams have even finished with a winning record: The 2021 Colts and 2024 Bengals both finished 9-8, but didn't make the playoffs. 

When it comes to this year's 0-3 teams, two of them had high hopes for the season (Miami and Houston) while the other four (Jets, Titans, Saints and Giants) weren't expected to do much. 

The problem with starting 0-3 is that you leave yourself with no margin for error. If any of these teams want to have a shot at the postseason, they'll likely have to go 10-4 over their final 14 games, which is a tall task. 

For instance, let's look at the Dolphins. They still have to play the Chargers (Week 6), Ravens (Week 9) and Commanders (Week 10) along with another game against the Bills that will come in Week 11. If they were to lose those four, they'd have to go 10-0 on the rest of their schedule. 

On the Texans' end, they still have games left against the Ravens (Week 5), Seahawks (Week 7), 49ers (Week 8), Broncos (Week 9), Bills (Week 12), Chiefs (Week 14), Chargers (Week 17) and Colts (Week 18). 

Although getting to the playoffs after an 0-3 start is unlikely, it has been done. Since the NFL expanded to 12 playoff teams in 1990, there have been 165 teams that have started 0-3 and exactly four of them went on to make the playoffs, which means 2.4% of teams have pulled off the miracle feat. The group of four is the 1992 Chargers, 1995 Lions, 1998 Bills, 2018 Texans. However, no team has pulled off the feat since the NFL expanded the playoffs to 14 teams in 2020. 

The Texans have done it once, so maybe they can do it again. 

As a matter of fact, out of the four 0-3 teams that have made the postseason since 1990, the Texans are the only one that have pulled off the feat this century. That Texans team lost each their first three games by seven points or less, so they were just a few plays away from starting 3-0. They also played in a very winnable AFC South division. 

Out of our four 0-3 teams this year, the Texans are the only one that has lost each game by one score. 

One team that won't be starting 0-3 this year is the Kansas City Chiefs. The reigning AFC champs were 0-2 heading into Week 3, but they were able to avoid the dreaded 0-3 start by beating the Giants, 22-9, on Sunday night.