As the 2025 NFL season winds down, it’s already clear which teams will have put together the most disappointing seasons across the league. While every team enters a new season with a different level of pressure and expectations, there’s no debate that the fanbases of these five squads expected much more.
While there’s an argument the Chiefs showed signs of a decline last year, they did open up the 2025 season on the heels of their third-straight Super Bowl appearance. But the issues, most notably dropped passes and a lack of receiver depth, that forced Kansas City to win 11 close games during the 2024 regular season were even more pronounced this year.
And now after Patrick Mahomes’ ACL tear, there’s no telling how much worse they will look in the final weeks and if they can even contend before he returns next season.
Three constants of the world remain: death, taxes and the Bengals not living up to preseason hype. For the second consecutive year, Cincinnati endured a rough start to the season thanks to an injury to star quarterback Joe Burrow.
Unlike last season when the Bengals made a playoff push all the way until the final day of the season, Burrow and company put up one of their worst performances in a 24-0 Week 15 loss to the Ravens, officially eliminating the now 4-10 Bengals from playoff contention with several games to go.
