Has any NFL team made playoffs after 0-3 start? Bengals up against history as Joe Burrow and Co. struggle to get going

The 2024 NFL season began with a lot of optimism for the Cincinnati Bengals as they thought that Joe Burrow's return to fitness would make them playoff and Super Bowl contenders. There were good reasons to believe so since they had been in the title game in the 2021 season and finished with a winning record last year despite their starting quarterback being ruled out with a wrist injury.

But games are not played on paper and the football that the Bengals have served up on the field this season has not been good enough. Cincinnati is now 0-3 and their chances of reaching the playoffs are already hanging by a thread.

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Has an NFL team started 0-3 and made playoffs?

In the Super Bowl era, only five teams have ever come back from such a dire record to punch their ticket to the postseason. This ignores the 1982 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who made it to the playoffs with a 5-4 record after a strike-shortened year. For a full season, here are those who recovered from losing their first three games and their final positions.

• 1981 Jets: 10-5-1 (Wild Card entry)
• 1992 Chargers: 11-5 (Divisional champions)
• 1995 Lions: 10-6 (Wild Card entry)
• 1998 Bills: 10-6 (Wild Card entry)
• 2018 Texans: 11-5 (Divisional champions)

The Bengals began with a shock loss to the Patriots in Week 1. That could have been ruled out as an aberration but then they lost to the Chiefs in Week 2. That too could be rationalized by considering that Kansas City is the two-time defending Super Bowl champions.

But in Week 3, Cincinnati got hammered at home by the Washington Commanders, another team that the Bengals were favored to beat. The manner of the beating also made it a painful watch for their fans, as their defense completely collapsed in a 38-33 loss against an offense led by rookie Jayden Daniels.

Since the turn of the millennium, the Texans in 2018 remain the only team to have accomplished the feat of coming down from 0-3 down to make the playoffs. The Chargers are the only team in the above list who began 0-4 before appearing in postseason games. Therefore, not all hope is lost for the Bengals and Joe Burrow but they need to stop the bleeding soon and not leave it too late to salvage.

Jaguars in similar position to Bengals but Trevor Lawrence is no Joe Burrow

The Jacksonville Jaguars also lost on Monday Night Football to fall to a 0-3 record. But they are unlikely to make the postseason based on what we have seen so far, including in their latest 47-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

The difference in optimism comes down to the two quarterbacks. Both Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence were picked first overall, in 2020 and 2021 respectively, and the former still looks like the wiser choice. Despite the Bengals slipping to a 0-3 record, their quarterback has 746 yards for the season, five touchdowns, no interceptions, a completion percentage of over 70, and a 107.5 passer rating.

Even in the loss to the Commanders, Joe Burrow had 324 yards and three touchdowns and did not throw an interception, ending with a passer rating of 127.5. It was the defense that let him down and there is still some hope there after they managed to stop Patrick Mahomes in Week 2 from putting up mammoth numbers. It is just that Cincinnati fans have yet to see units on both sides of the ball click into gear in a single game.

The story of Trevor Lawrence is markedly different from Joe Burrow. The Jaguars quarterback has 560 yards in three games, which is less than an average of 200. He has two touchdowns and one interception in three games, his passer rating is 75.1, and his completion rate is just 52.8. Coupled with a defense that is struggling to stop opposition offenses, they look to be in bigger trouble than the Bengals.