Eight teams entered Week 3 at 0-2. One of them — the Falcons — avoided an 0-3 start. For the others, it becomes imperative to avoid starting the year with three straight losses.
In NFL history, only seven teams have made the playoffs after starting 0-3. The group includes the 2025 Texans, the 2018 Texans, the 1998 Bills, the 1995 Lions, the 1992 Chargers, the 1982 Buccaneers, and the 1981 Jets.
Only the ’92 Chargers made it to the postseason after starting 0-4.
It’s easier now than it once was, thanks to 17 regular-season games and seven playoff spots per conference. It’s still not easy.
For starters, plenty of teams that start 0-3 do so for a very good reason — they’re not very good. Those that are have a reduced margin for error over the final 14 games.
This year, one game features two 0-2 teams: the Texans at the Colts. The other winless teams are the Dolphins, the Titans, the Chargers, the Commanders, and the Buccaneers.
Bucs Clips
Vikings running back Aaron Jones worked his way up to a full practice on Friday and he’s set to play against the Buccaneers on Sunday.
Jones did not practice on Wednesday due to a knee injury and he was limited on Thursday, but the team did not give him any injury designation for the game. Jones has 35 carries for 145 yards and a touchdown so far this season.
Linebacker Jake Golday (ankle), running back DeeJay Dallas (toe), defensive lineman Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins (oblique), tackle Brian O’Neill (knee). and defensive lineman Jalen Redmond (elbow) also avoided injury designations.
Punter Brett Thorson (hamstring) and center Nick Samac (knee) have been ruled out. The Vikings signed Johnny Hekker to the practice squad this week and he will be elevated for Sunday’s game.
The Buccaneers will be missing a pair of rookie starters on defense when they face the Vikings on Sunday.
Head coach Todd Bowles said on Friday that first-round pick Rueben Bain has been ruled out with a groin injury and that second-rounder Josiah Trotter will miss the game with a shoulder injury.
Bain has gotten off to a slow start. He has one tackle through two games and has not provided the kind of pressure off the edge that the Bucs were hoping to get when they snapped him up in the first round.
Trotter has made more of an impact. The linebacker has 24 tackles, a sack and an interception return for a touchdown so far this season.
The Buccaneers are 0-2, capped by a 23-19 loss to the Browns in the Tampa Bay home opener. And the sluggish start is having an impact.
Via JoeBucsFan.com, Hall of Famer Ronde Barber said this week that the vibe in the building is not ideal.
“Look, the mood is not great,” Barber said on his WFLA show. ”There’s too many mistakes. There’s a lack of urgency, if you will, in my mind when I look at them going onto the field. There’s got to be a little bit of a sense of a defining characteristic of your team through Week 2. I don’t know what that is. It’s mistakes. It’s busts. It’s lack of execution.”
Barber believes the Bucs simply weren’t ready for the games that count.
“Week 2 can’t be the fifth preseason game,” Barber said. “At some point you have to start hitting your stride. And it doesn’t feel like they’re in their stride right now on either side of the ball.”
“I feel like for much of the secondary, especially the coverage unit, they’re so focused on what they’re trying to do that they don’t know how to do it now.”
Barber also singled out former Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone, who signed with the Bucs as a free agent.
“There’s some dynamic going on, whether it’s not understanding what his role is in the defense, not understanding angles, maybe not having enough tackles in the preseason, I don’t know what it is,” Barber said. ”Something is hamstringing this defense in critical moments.”
It puts even more pressure on the Buccaneers for Week 3, the second of three straight home games. The official attendance last week was 61,391 — nearly 8,000 below capacity. (Often, the actual attendance is lower than the reported number.)
By the time the game was over, the fans who stuck it out through the lengthy weather delay weren’t happy. Those who show up for the next game will be even saltier if the Bucs slip to 0-3.
That makes it a dangerous game for the Vikings, who have overachieved to get to 2-0. This is exactly the kind of game in which the team that has done better than expected can step into a pothole against a team that has done worse than expected.
Former NFL receiver Antonio Brown will not be going to prison for attempted murder.
Via David Fischer of the Associated Press, Brown plans to accept a plea deal. He’ll plead guilty to a lesser charge and serve no time.
Per the report, attorney Mark Eiglarsh said Brown plans to plead no contest to aggravated assault on September 30. He will be sentenced to probation and the adjudication will be withheld. That prevents Brown from being regarded as a convicted felon.
It means that Brown will be pleading no contest to a felony.
He originally faced up to 30 years in prison for an incident that occurred at a celebrity boxing match in May 2025. Brown allegedly grabbed a handgun from a security officer and fired two shots at a man who allegedly had attacked Brown.
Brown had left the country after the incident. He was eventually apprehended and returned to the U.S. to face the charges.
“This was not an easy decision,” Eiglarsh said in a statement issued Wednesday. “Antonio believes in his innocence. He believes strongly in his Stand Your Ground defense, and he believes he would ultimately prevail at trial. But when prosecutors put an offer on the table that transforms a potential decades-long prison sentence into a significantly reduced charge and probation, there was simply no way he could reasonably turn it down.”
Brown is eligible for enshrinement in the Hall of Fame in 2027. Off-field issues aren’t supposed to be considered. It remains to be seen how the newly reconfigured Hall of Fame voting panel will handle his candidacy.
A 12-year veteran, Brown earned first-team All-Pro status in four straight seasons. He qualified for the Pro Bowl seven times.
Brown finished his career with 928 catches for 12,291 yards and 83 touchdowns. That puts him at 28th, 28th, and (with Travis Kelce’s next touchdown catch) 28th on the all-time list.
Which could make it hard to get him in, even without considering the off-field issues. Especially in light of the various disruptions he created for the Steelers, Raiders, Patriots, and Buccaneers.
Vikings running back Aaron Jones finished last Sunday’s win over the Bears with a brace on his knee and the issue was bothering him enough on Monday that he missed practice.
Jones ran 23 times for 105 yards in the 9-3 Vikings win and head coach Kevin O’Connell said that the team will we see how things play out over the next few days before making a call on Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers.
“He feels great. He’s bouncing around the building like normal, but it’s more so the knee,” O’Connell said at his press conference. “Just allowing that thing to turn over. He feels pretty good. We’ll just keep getting treatment around the clock and see if we can pick up his workload as the week goes on.”
Jordan Mason is on injured reserve and DeeJay Dallas was limited with a toe injury, which leaves sixth-round pick Demond Claiborne as the only healthy back on the active roster.
Linebacker Jake Golday (ankle) and punter Brett Thorson (right hamstring) also missed practice. Defensive lineman Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins (oblique), right tackle Brian O’Neill (knee), defensive lineman Jalen Redmond (elbow), and center Nick Samac (knee) were limited participants.
Buccaneers first-round pick Rueben Bain missed the team’s first practice of the week on Wednesday.
Bain suffered a groin injury in last Sunday’s loss to the Browns. The linebacker also dealt with a shoulder injury this summer and he has recorded one tackle on 76 snaps so far this season.
Linebackers Anthony Nelson (shin) and Josiah Trotter (shoulder) also missed practice on Wednesday. Bain and Nelson are join on the edges by Yaya Diaby, Al-Quadin Muhammad, David Walker, and Yasir Holmes.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield (illness), wide receiver Jalen McMillan (knee), and cornerback Jacob Parrish (back) were all listed as full participants ahead of Sunday’s game against the Vikings.
Kyler Murray is set to return to the starting lineup.
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell told reporters in his Monday press conference that Murray has cleared concussion protocol and is on schedule to play in the team’s matchup with the Buccaneers.
“Kyler has cleared the final phase of the protocol,” O’Connell said. “He’s doing great, he’ll be cleared, and he will start this week against Tampa Bay.”
Murray went down early in the Week 1 win over the Packers when he was hit while trying to slide on a scramble. He departed that contest having completed 3-of-5 passes for 18 yards with an interception.
Carson Wentz replaced Murray for the last two weeks. He was 11-of-20 for 143 yards in Sunday’s victory over the Bears. O’Connell praised how steady Wentz has been as a backup.
In five games last year for the Cardinals, Murray completed 68.3 percent of his throws for 962 yards with six touchdowns and three interceptions.
Also on the injury front, O’Connell said Ty Ingram-Dawkins (hip) is day-to-day and Brett Thorson has a hamstring issue.
The Buccaneers fell to 0-2 with Sunday’s loss to the Browns and the team is now 2-9 since opening last season with a 6-2 record.
During a press conference on Monday, head coach Todd Bowles said he wasn’t bothered by that longer view of the team’s lack of success because he only thinks about this season and the 15 games still in front of them. Given that perspective, Bowles was asked what the team’s mindset is as they turn toward their Week 3 game against the Vikings.
“Angrily optimistic,” Bowles said. “You’re always mad when you lose and you’re never satisfied that way, but you’re always optimistic for the things that you’ve done well and the next week as well.”
Bowles may not like the idea of including last year’s second half swoon in any evaluation of this team’s record, but it’s hard to draw a clear line when the team keeps producing the same kind of results and the full weight will be on Bowles’s shoulders until this year’s team shows that they can consistently win games.
After the schedule for the 2026 season was released in the spring, Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield said he had the team’s Week 2 game against the Browns circled.
Mayfield began his career with the Browns and was traded away after Cleveland opted to go with Deshaun Watson as their quarterback. Mayfield was fired up for the chance to hand his former team a loss, but things did not play out that way on Sunday in Tampa.
The Bucs had a 10-point lead in the third quarter, but gave it up before a lengthy weather delay late in the fourth quarter. The Bucs were driving when the delay began, but couldn’t finish the job and lost 23-19. After the game, Mayfield was asked if it was more painful because of who beat them.
“It just stings more because we’re 0-2,” Mayfield said.
The Bucs had four turnovers in their Week 1 loss to the Bengals, but they only turned the ball over once against the Browns. They had two drives end in the red zone without touchdowns, however, and a couple of second half drives that resulted in quick punts that kept the Browns in the game.
“Frustrated because it’s close,” Mayfield said. “You can feel it. You can see it. We’re moving the ball at times, and then just shooting ourselves in the foot. So, that makes it more frustrating when you know you’re right there.”
The Bucs will need to find a more consistent offensive approach in a hurry or Mayfield will be playing out the string before his new contract extension kicks in next year.
