5 NFL Teams Whose Seasons Are Already on the Line Entering Week 2

Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season has only just reached its conclusion, but already nearly half of the teams in the league have a blemish on their record.

While a loss in the season opener isn't particularly damning—seven Super Bowl-winning squads in the last 25 years took an L in the initial game of their championship campaign—the pressure is on as it becomes far more difficult to recover from an 0-2 start.

Some teams are built to withstand rough patches. Veteran-laden squads with strong coaching staffs, quality quarterbacks and talented defenses can handle a string of losses out of the gate and still recover—the 1993 Cowboys, 2001 Patriots and 2007 Giants all managed to lift the Lombardi Trophy following back-to-back defeats to open the season—but most won't be able to.

With that in mind, here are five squads that will effectively be out of the Super Bowl running if they lose again in Week 2.

Miami Dolphins

AP Photo/Zach Bolinger

Tua Tagovailoa

It seemed everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Miami Dolphins in Week 1.

Although they entered a road matchup with the Indianapolis Colts as a slight underdog, they went on to get blown out 33-8.

While it's too early to say Miami won't be able to recover from this embarrassing result against a Daniel Jones-led squad, the clock is ticking and the pressure is on.

Head coach Mike McDaniel has gone from one of the league's bright young minds to having real potential to be relieved of his duties before the season even finishes.

After going 11-6 while overseeing the league's top offensive unit in 2023, the Dolphins regressed to 8-9 last year and missed the playoffs entirely.

Given all the issues from 2024—the rumors McDaniel had lost the locker room, Tyreek Hill's riff with Tua Tagovailoa and drama in the finale, and Bradley Chubb openly admitting the team's talk about changing its culture was just hot air—things weren't looking great for Miami heading into 2025.

That uphill battle appears even more arduous in wake of such utter destruction in what should have been a winnable opener.

Dolphins legend Larry Csonka perfectly summed up his former club's Week 1 outing:

If Miami can't get back to .500 in Week 2 against the New England Patriots—a team reeling from its own disheartening Week 1 defeat—it will be time to stick a fork in it.

Seattle Seahawks

AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson

Sam Darnold

The Seahawks had a puzzling offseason, one that initially seemed to be the start of a rebuilding effort before the front office reversed course and started bringing in pricy veterans such as Sam Darnold and Cooper Kupp with an eye towards contending.

The lack of clear direction was apparent in Seattle's first game in several years without the triumvirate of Geno Smith, DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.

While the defense stepped up and limited the shorthanded San Francisco 49ers offense to just 17 points, the offense was only able to muster 14 points on the day.

Darnold didn't play as poorly as he did during the 2024 regular-season finale and subsequent Wild Card Round loss, but he looked far from the player who led the Minnesota Vikings to 14 victories in his first 16 starts before going on to sign a $100 million contract this offseason.

Kupp didn't resemble the Triple Crown-winning receiver he once was, either. The 32-year-old was limited to a pedestrian two catches for 15 yards on his meager three targets.

With the ground game averaging a bleak 3.2 yards per carry and Darnold mustering just 150 yards on a 16-of-23 passing performance, the Seahawks couldn't sustain drives and lost the time of possession battle by over 15 minutes.

While there's still hope for better days after the Seattle defense kept a Christian McCaffrey-led backfield in check and recorded a pair of interceptions on Brock Purdy, this offense was concerningly bad.

If this group comes out flat against the Pittsburgh Steelers next week, it will mark the beginning of the end for the Darnold era.

New England Patriots

AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper

Drake Maye

The Patriots had a dream offseason, one in which they appeared to plug nearly every hole with a series of shrewd draft picks and free-agent acquisitions.

Given those moves, it wasn't a surprise that The Athletic's Jeff Howe reported the new Mike Vrabel-led regime has a "strong internal belief" in young quarterback Drake Maye.

Despite the hope that Maye would take a leap in Year 2 following a Pro Bowl rookie campaign and that all the offseason changes would be enough to snap a four-year playoff drought, things didn't look all that much different for the Pats in Week 1.

While the team scored on its second offensive possession, New England ultimately sputtered out in a 20-13 defeat to the Las Vegas Raiders.

Maye completed 30-of-46 passes for 287 yards and connected with DeMario Douglas on his lone touchdown strike, but he also threw a costly interception early in the second half (while his side held a three-point lead) and made several poor decisions throughout the contest.

Stefon Diggs, one of New England's marquee offseason pickups, posted a middling 6/57 receiving line on his seven targets. Will Campbell, the team's choice at No. 4 overall in the 2025 draft, held up well against Maxx Crosby early on before he allowed two sacks and was whistled for a pair of false starts in the second half.

Unfortunately for the Patriots, Tom Brady isn't walking through that door.

New England invested a No. 3 overall pick in Maye two years ago and will have to bring him along if the organization wishes to compete for championships again.

If the Patriots get off to an 0-2 start by falling to a Miami Dolphins squad that appeared downright incompetent on opening day, it's hard to see the young signal-caller having enough confidence and talent to right the ship.

New York Giants

AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough

Russell Wilson

The New York Giants stumbled out of the gate yet again, losing 21-6 to the Washington Commanders.

It's become a sadly familiar sight for Big Blue fans, as they've now watched their team lose 13 times in the last 15 season openers. The two victories in that span came by a combined two points.

As the score suggests, the G-Men failed to show any spark on offense against their NFC East rivals. While former Giants quarterback Daniel Jones spent his Sunday afternoon cooking for the Indianapolis Colts, current New York signal-caller Russell Wilson simply looked cooked.

Wilson completed just 17 of his 37 throws for 168 yards. While the 36-year-old deserves some credit for avoiding turnovers and taking just two sacks despite being under siege from a relentless Commanders pass-rushing unit for the duration of the game, it's clear the veteran quarterback isn't the answer under center.

The performance was so lackluster that Brian Daboll—who almost instantly committed to Wilson as the team's starter upon signing him—wouldn't confirm initially that the 10-time Pro Bowler would retain his role in Week 2.

Wilson is reportedly starting against the Dallas Cowboys.

Daboll has a tough decision ahead of him. First-rounder Jaxson Dart flashed his potential throughout the preseason, but he may not be ready to face the herculean challenge of succeeding behind a roughshod O-line that conceded a near-50 percent pressure rate on Sunday.

Putting the Ole Miss product in too early and allowing him to be battered could shake the rookie's confidence, but it's also the best shot the head coach has of retaining his position.

With Daboll's job on the line following an abysmal 3-14 campaign, it wouldn't be a shock to see Dart enter the lineup if and when the team falls behind to Dallas in Week 2.

Whether the rookie is ready remains to be seen, but a poor showing in that bitter divisional rivalry contest will tank this season before the second half of September even begins.

Carolina Panthers

AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack

Bryce Young

The Panthers had plenty of reason to be optimistic about the 2025 NFL season.

They managed to shrug off last year's brutal 1-7 start by finishing a far more respectable 4-5 in the back half of the campaign and even saw regular glimpses of the talent that made Bryce Young the No. 1 overall pick in 2023.

While any hopes of contending for the franchise's first postseason berth since 2017 may not have been the most realistic, the rebuilding team didn't seem to be trending toward an unsightly 26-10 defeat to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the opener, either.

Carolina quickly fell back into old habits. Young completed a concerning 18-of-35 passing attempts for 154 yards and had just one touchdown against two interceptions. The ground game was slightly better—collectively putting up 113 yards on 25 attempts—but it was far from enough to carry the squad.

The defense couldn't get any stops when it needed them most, conceding an average of 6.3 yards per carry to a Jacksonville platoon that had more questions than most swirling around it this offseason.

Jags QB Trevor Lawrence was average at best—completing 19-of-31 passes for 178 yards and a score while also throwing an interception—but he avoided being sacked and managed the game well enough to not bungle his side's elite rushing performance.

After losing his third consecutive season opener, Young didn't seemed too concerned about the result.

"Obviously no one likes to lose, but it's Week 1," he said (per the AP via ESPN). "We're going to watch it (Monday). We're going to wear it. We're going to see where we can grow, and after that, we're going to flush it."

While it's a reasonable take, the Panthers may wind up spending a lot of time trying to flush bad losses this season. The next could come after a tough clash against a legitimate Arizona Cardinals squad in Week 2, a team built around a strong ground game and ferocious defense that adeptly handled the New Orleans Saints in the opener.

If Arizona gets its second consecutive NFC South victory to open the year, the Panthers will fall into an 0-2 hole that will be insurmountable for this young squad.