Every NFL season come with its share of pain and suffering, and sometimes that extends to the fan bases. For some it’s another down year. For others, it’s watching high expectations sink slowly onto the horizon as the losses pile up.
This year some of the failures have been especially poignant. The most prominent ones have been in the AFC, a conference where everyone is basically chasing Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. It takes a special kind of masochist to give your heart and soul to some of these franchises, so let’s take a closer look at some of the prize winners.
Aaron Rodgers and the Jets lead the disappointment list
The Jets failures this year seem incredibly inevitable now, but if you think back to the anticipation in New York when the Aaron Rodgers trade went down, it’s nothing short of mind boggling to think of what’s happened since.
A devastating injury. A fired coach. A motley pack of ex-Packers who have become deck chairs on the Titanic, along with a displaced coordinator who can’t call plays. Every setback has a J-E-T-S feel to it, and the most amazing part is that there are still nine games left, which means there’s plenty of time for things to get worse.
Now we have a loss to the hapless Pats, which is genuinely hard to do. Rodgers has once again entered the zone of darkness, and it doesn’t look like he’s coming out any time soon. Look out below.
Cleveland Browns and the Deshaun Watson debacle
Browns fans knew Deshaun Watson’s legal problems weren’t going away, but they at least figured he’d lead them back to respectability on the field. Now Watson is gone for the season, and his devastating contract isn’t going anywhere.
At least Cleveland has the Jameis Winson experience to savor. It will be special, as Sunday’s shocking win over the Ravens showed. But some of those dropped interceptions will start to stick, and they’ll be accompanied by ridiculous fumbles at the worst possible times. When your season comes down to watching the Winston roller coaster, though, you know you’ve hit a truly unique kind of rock bottom.
Jacksonville Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence
Some of the Jags struggles seemed surmountable, but the bottom has fallen out here, too. The good news is that Jacksonville has come back from the dead before. The bad news is they’re not playing anything like a team that can do that, and it feels like the biggest question here is when Doug Pederson will get fired. If owner Shad Khan sees more deterioration in Trevor Lawrence, he likely won’t hesitate to make a move given the way he put Pederson on the hot seat going into the season.
The Cincinnati Bengals have Joe Burrow whistling in the dark
It was disappointing when the Bengals got off to their usual slow start, but this time they may not rebound. Their defense has been awful, and there’s no there there when it comes to Cincinnati’s running game. Joe Burrow has been whistling in the dark with his ten-win plan, but right now it feels like late December football could become meaningless in Cincinnati.
Miami Dolphins and the Tua debacle
The Dolphins have been exposed, to say the least. They had no backup quarterback plan when Tua Tagovailoa suffered his latest concussion, and they’re sitting at the bottom of the AFC East with the lowly Pats and Jets. They might mount a comeback of sorts now that Tua’s back, but is this really a team that can go 7-2 to get over .500? Sure doesn’t feel like it at the moment.
Can the San Francisco 49ers overcome their injury malaise?
Most of the NFC disappointments are still hanging around the .500 mark, but we’ll pick the 49ers as the one team that wasn’t supposed to be here. They probably have the best shot at turning things around if Christian McCaffrey finally plays at a high level, but there are no guarantees here given the incredible range of injuries San Francisco has suffered.