Is it too early to panic in the NFL? These teams don’t want to find out

When the Cleveland Browns, the Tennessee Titans and the Atlanta Falcons opened the new NFL season 0-1 last week, it wasn’t a surprise. Each is considered far likelier to contend for the league’s worst record than a playoff berth.

Yet entering the season’s second week, it might be time for some other members of the 0-1 club to be feeling panic.

The so-far winless Los Angeles Rams and Chargers, New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos all entered the season with justified playoff ambitions — plans that would be further jeopardized by starting 0-2. Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, only 11% of 0-2 teams have gone on to make the postseason. The expansion of the playoff format to 14 teams in 2020 has made rebounding slightly easier; since then, 16% of 0-2 teams have gone on to make the postseason, including three each of the last two seasons.

But a stumble to open September whittles away a team’s margin for error. Baltimore missed last season’s playoffs when its field goal missed in the season finale, circumstances that might have been avoided had the Ravens not started 1-5. Kansas City stumbled to an…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business