Heading into the season, teams like the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Rams, and Baltimore Ravens believed they could be Super Bowl contenders if things went their way, but for one reason or another, they find themselves on the back foot through the first eight weeks of the season. They’ve got some ground to make up if the season is going to end how they wanted it to, and for some of them, a turnaround seems likely, but for others, all hope for this season is lost.

Today, I’ve identified six teams that thought they’d be a lock to make the playoffs this year, but are finding themselves with some work to do, and I went through and ranked how worried they should be for the rest of the season. And no, I didn’t include the Los Angeles Chargers because I think we’d all give them a 10 on the panic meter.

Baltimore Ravens (4-4)

After a 4- start to the season, the Baltimore Ravens are in some trouble. Lamar Jackson got hurt and missed three weeks, but the Ravens were still 4-3 by the time he returned and still had a clear path to the playoffs. But then disaster struck.

On his first play back, Jackson injured his right thumb on a defender’s helmet/ arm. He left the game immediately, and it was quickly determined that he would need surgery to repair it, so the Ravens placed him on injured reserve. He will miss at least four games, but this could end up being a season-ending injury.

To make matters worse, Tyler Huntley, who has been widely regarded as one of the better backups in football, has now been ruled out for the year with a turf toe injury, leaving Joe Fagnano as Baltimore’s QB1. He too is injured, dealing with an ankle issue, but he’s still expected to start on Thursday night against Jacksonville. The Ravens will likely take an L on TNF and fall to 4-5, and will almost certainly try to make a move for a quarterback before the trade deadline next week.

Even if the Ravens make a trade for someone like Joe Flacco or some other quarterback, their season is over. There’s no coming back from this.

Dallas Cowboys (3-5)

After a season where Dallas had one of the best offenses in football, but missed the playoffs due to a historically bad defense, the Cowboys retained pretty much everyone offensively and made drastic changes to their defensive coaching staff and depth chart, but they’ve found themselves in pretty much the same place as last year.

Through eight games, Dallas is 3-5 and ranks seventh in points per game and 27th in points per game allowed. Their offense has regressed a bit, and their defense has improved a bit, but they’re still two games under .500 with losses to the Cardinals and the Baker Mayfield-less Buccaneers. They easily could be 5-3 if they just won the games they were supposed to, but they can’t close.

This roster isn’t bad. They have great players on offense, and their defense also has some studs with guys like Quinnen Williams, Joey Porter Jr., and Caleb Downs, but they just can’t put it together. I am very concerned about this team, but the fact that they play in the NFC East and could win their division with eight or nine wins makes me a bit more optimistic for them than Baltimore.

Philadelphia Eagles (2-6)

Yeah, Philly is cooked. Jalen Hurts is out for the year; they lost their franchise RT to retirement, traded their center, and their defense, which has some great players, is playing completely uninspired right now.

Add on the fact that the Eagles still have to face Pittsburgh, Seattle, Houston, and San Francisco, as well as three more divisional games, and there’s no reason to believe they can turn things around. They might win one or two more games all year.

And this isn’t just a 2026 problem. They are going to have to go into full rebuild mode before they get back to winning football games consistently.

Houston Texans (2-5)

The Houston Texans entered the season with Super Bowl aspirations, but after seven games, things are looking very grim. They’re 2-5, and their defense, which everyone hyped up as the best in the league, ranks 19th in PPG allowed, while their offense faces many of the same problems that have plagued them in the past. This is exactly what you’d expect last year’s team, which made the AFC Divisional round, to look like if they didn’t have a top-two defense in football.

Despite all of that, I still have some hope, and here’s why. First of all, their schedule to start the year wasn’t nice. They have played four teams that are currently over .500, but over their final 10 games, they will play just three teams that are currently above .500. They have to play the Packers, Steelers, and Jaguars (who they’ve already beaten), but they also have the Chargers, Browns, Colts, Ravens, Commanders, Eagles, and Titans left on their schedule, all of which are winnable games.

It is a very steep hill to climb, and to just give themselves a chance, they have to go 7-3 to end the year, but if anyone is going to turn it around, it’s going to be Houston. If this defense can get back to last year’s level, they could be dancing again this year.

Los Angeles Rams (4-4)

The Los Angeles Rams got off to a very sluggish start. They went to Australia and were blown out by the 49ers before beating the Giants, but then dropped three of four to the Broncos, Bills and Cardinals. That was a brutal stretch of schedule, and it won’t get much easier, but they’re already starting to roll.

The Rams have won their last two games by a combined 29 points, and should be able to get to 6-4 with wins over the Cardinals and Commanders before they get a brutal three-game stretch against the Packers, Chiefs and 49ers. Even if they can win one of those games, they’ll likely be 7-6 with two games against Seattle, one against Dallas, and one against Tampa Bay left. They can easily win three of those, finish 10-7 and get into the playoffs, and they’ve proven that once they’re in the dance, it’s hard to knock them out.

I’m really not worried about the Rams at all. They’ve got the talent, and once Myles Garrett, Davante Adams, Kobie Turner, and others are back, they’ll be just fine.

Carolina Panthers (3-4)

The Carolina Panthers didn’t have Super Bowl aspirations this year – well, maybe they did, but they weren’t realistic – but they certainly thought it would be a cakewalk to the playoffs playing in the NFC South. The Saints have struggled out of the gate, the Falcons have been hit or miss, and the Buccaneers were 1-4 with an injured quarterback.

This was their division to take, especially after their hot start, but they have now dropped back-to-back games, fallen to 3-4, with the hardest remaining schedule.

The Panthers still have to play the Broncos, Vikings, Bengals, Steelers, and Seahawks, while also having to play the Saints twice, and the Buccaneers and Falcons one more time. All of a sudden, the division that looked like it was going to be theirs for the taking is getting a whole lot harder to win. If I had to make a bet today, I’d say they miss the playoffs.

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