Which 0–2 NFL Team Will Still Make the Playoffs?

Forget the Dolphins, but could the Broncos, Panthers, or Jaguars turn things around and make a playoff run? Plus, Week 3 picks!

TWELVE PERCENT! Just 12% of NFL teams that start 0–2 rebound to make the playoffs. That’s one in every eight teams. It’s not great, but it’s a lot better than 0%. We tend to leave 0–2 teams for dead, but 12% means one of them should flip the script and make the playoffs almost every year.

Sure enough, last year the Texans and Seahawks started 0–2 but made the playoffs anyway, just like I predicted. In 2017, the Saints rebounded from 0–2 to become a Super Bowl favorite (I picked the 0–16 Browns… oops?). In 2016, Miami turned 0–2 into a playoff run. Seattle and Houston did it in 2015 too, and Indianapolis and Carolina did it the two years before that. That’s six straight seasons at least one 0–2 team has made the playoffs.

There are nine 0–2 teams, 10 if you count the 0–1–1 Cardinals. History and math tell us one of these teams will make the playoffs. But how? Is there a key player that could help turn things around? Does the schedule open up going forward? Do they play in an easy division or in the inferior AFC? Making the playoffs after an 0–2 start is not about what is but what could be…