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The 2020 NFL regular season is quickly coming to a close as Week 15 will end on Monday evening as the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals square off. With teams clinching postseason berths, division titles and even vying for position toward the bottom of the standings, it is pretty clear as to where each of the league's 32 franchises stands in terms of how well the 2020-21 campaign has gone for them.
Like every other season in the history of the NFL, there have been a ton of surprises — some pleasant and some not so pleasant. As teams that encountered surprisingly productive seasons still playing meaningful football well into December, the teams that have encountered significantly less fortune in 2020-21 can already begin to safely hang their heads.
New York Jets
The New York Jets' NFL campaign went from bad to worse in Week 15 as the lowly AFC East franchise won its first game of the season on the road against the Los Angeles Rams.
Despite accomplishing quite the impressive feat as the Rams were previously trending in a very positive direction, the 1-14 Jets just still can't seem to do anything right lately as New York may have very well cost itself the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
As it stands today, the Jacksonville Jaguars, another franchise in need of a major turnaround, remain in line to pick at No. 1. While the Jets' NFL season was already a major disappointment as New York was initially slated to perhaps make some noise in the AFC this time around, things simply took yet another negative turn against the Rams. Even when good things happen for this team in 2020, it is still somehow a negative.
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys didn't even receive the chance to truly compete this NFL year: Quarterback Dak Prescott almost immediately went down with a season-ending knee injury. With several different quarterbacks taking over under center since then, coupled with a slew of other injury trouble throughout the team's roster, the Cowboys will not even sniff the .500 mark in 2020.
While Dallas can still technically reach the postseason this NFL season due to the fact that the NFC East division is currently trending toward a historically terrible season, this team was initially expected to do some pretty big things under the direction of the aforementioned Prescott. Adding to the woes in Dallas, former Pro Bowl running back Ezekiel Elliott has been a non-factor this year — which may still somehow be an understatement. Unfortunately, the injury to Prescott was simply too much for the now 5-9 Cowboys to overcome as the severity of such a setback clearly took all of the air out of Dallas' sails.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are an absolute mess at the present moment. There is really no other way to put it at this point in the season as Philadelphia currently sits in dead last place in the atrocious NFC East division. With the Eagles currently 4-9-1, in the midst of a major quarterback controversy and anything remotely close to success in 2020 well out of reach, Philadelphia is arguably the most disappointing team in the entire NFL this season.
Still just a few seasons removed from being Super Bowl Champions with quarterback Carson Wentz not too long ago serving as a frontrunner for a NFL MVP Award, it has since all gone downhill in the “City of Brotherly Love.” It remains to be seen as to how this whole situation ultimately plays outs, but there is definitely one thing that the Eagles can be thankful for in 2020 — no fans in the stands to boo their hearts out.
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Los Angeles Chargers
The Los Angeles Chargers have actually been surprisingly entertaining in 2020-21 while the emergence of rookie quarterback and 2020 first round NFL Draft pick Justin Herbert has been quite the sight to see. However, there is one very simple reason that Los Angeles is on this list and that would be the ineptitude of Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn, who has single-handedly lost his team multiple games this season due to his repeated mismanagement of the clock.
With Los Angeles being competitive literally all season long despite an underwhelming 5-9 record, the Chargers have lost seven games by eight points or fewer. When the game is on the line and manipulating the clock matters most, the aforementioned Lynn just can't seem to get it right and has seemingly not made the correct call late in the game once this season. If the Chargers have managed to squeak out a win late in an NFL game, it can be attributed to the stellar play of Herbert and certainly not the lack of awareness from Lynn.
The Chargers have even become frustrating for those NFL watchers who aren't fans of the team as Herbert can definitely turn into something special with the right coaching staff around him moving forward. The 2020 Chargers are perhaps more mind-boggling than disappointing but Lynn alone no doubt deserves a spot on this list.
New England Patriots, an NFL powerhouse derailed
Although this was to be somewhat expected following the departure of current Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, the New England Patriots have encountered very little NFL success in 2020. Even when New England has managed to win some games here and there, it has come in ugly fashion with quarterback Cam Newton struggling mightily along the way.
Even though Newton has been impressive with his feet at times in the 2020 NFL season, his inability to throw the football alongside the fact that the Patriots do now have many talented weapons on the offensive side of the football has proved to be too much to overcome for head coach Bill Belichick and company.
Luckily for the Patriots, though, New England barely spent any money on Newton and are only tied to his for the 2020 NFL campaign. At 6-8 on the season and currently hoping just to finish with an even .500 record, the Patriots have officially missed out on the postseason for the first time in 11 seasons. Not only that, but the rival Buffalo Bills just ended quite the drought en route to capturing an AFC East divisional crown only to add to the disappointment in New England.
