The NFL’s 6 biggest disappointments so far

It seems like every year we hit the halfway point of the NFL season and say, “This is the scariest season we’ve ever seen.” Soccer has been blessed with incredible parity in recent years, leading to the league fully embracing the idea that it can happen week-to-week. This means it crushes spectacular finale performances as well as disappointing ones.

It is the desperate situations that we focus on today. In the year The events of the 2027 season that shattered our past beliefs and will help shape this year’s football narrative. In fact, many of these will probably come as a shock to the teams as well, as organizations scramble to find answers before it’s too late. When the dust settles, we can look back and say that these elements defined the season.

Sitting at 5-4, the Rams are a mediocre football team. Nothing more, nothing less. What makes this mind boggling is how confident it is. We all were. That Sean McVay’s team would be the dominant force in football. Sure, we can point out that Myles Garrett was hurt for most of the first half of the season, but that doesn’t explain how we got to Week 9 and Los Angeles could only beat the hapless Chiefs by one point.

It all got off on the wrong foot when McVay had a horrendous miscalculation in how to approach the season opener against the 49ers in Australia. Now it looks like the Rams have never shaken off that rust. Matthew Stafford took a big step after his MVP-winning 2026 season. He threw nine interceptions for 17 passes — his highest total since the 2021 season. He is projected to throw for 30 touchdowns this year, down from 16 a year ago. We didn’t expect Stafford to match that 2026 total, but there was a slump that crippled the Rams’ offense.

Moreover, we cheered for Los Angeles on the other side of the ball before The addition of Myles Garrett is because Trent McDuffie was a great addition to the secondary. McDuffie was good individually, but the rest of the defense didn’t show much of an impact. The Rams are fractionally better than their no-name second-ranked scoring defense a year ago, 20.1 points per game, rising to 20.4 in 2026.

Los Angeles is sadly inconsistent. One week they beat the Bills, the next they lose to the Cardinals. While playing one of the softest schedules in the NFL right now. As long as San Francisco continues to win, they will have to contend for a wild card spot after midseason.

Staying in Los Angeles we can identify the most disappointing player of the year in Justin Herbert. It goes without saying that the 0-8 Chargers are the worst team in the NFL, but we have the most baffling reform we’ve seen at quarterback for no reason.

The main traits that Herbert has shown since entering the league in 2020 are process, decision-making and the ability to take care of the football. Through 2026, he has thrown a total of 58 interceptions in his career, averaging 9.6 per season. It’s week nine, and Herbert is already at 11 interceptions and on pace for 24 — more than 2023, 2024 and 2025. These aren’t 50/50 picks either, with Herbert making horrendous reads, dropping the ball into opponents’ arms with deep passes and failing to read the defense together.

It is impossible to understand what happened, because everything is meaningless. We could postulate that Herbert wasn’t comfortable with Mike McDaniel’s offense or that he was repeatedly asked to return to games – but even those explanations don’t fully explain what happened. One of the reasons McDaniel’s hiring looked like a home run for Herbert and the Chargers is because Tua Tagovailoa asked him to take care of the ball and devised a way to get players open and use their accuracy. The same should have worked perfectly with Herbert, but instead he turned into a pumpkin before Halloween.

It’s been a very disappointing season for a player so far.

No. 3: Indianapolis Colts

The Colts are trading away their best players following a 2-7 start to the season. Head coach Shane Steichen will be gone after this year and the team will be left with an empty shell that needs to be rebuilt – but without a 1st round draft pick, the Jets owe him as part of their trade for Saus Gardner a year ago.

Indianapolis was one of the biggest surprises in the NFL at this time last year. They sat at 8-2 in the second week of November, seemed destined to win the AFC South, and everything was coming up roses. Instead, it turned into an abysmal disaster, with none of the team’s moves yielding results, Daniel Jones struggling, Saus Gardner in one of the worst trades in recent memory, and everything falling apart. The only upside the Colts have is Jonathan Taylor, who could be traded before the deadline.

One move that hasn’t been discussed enough is the Colts’ decision to sign Michael Pittman Jr.’s Alec Pierce to a big contract. Indianapolis liked Pierce’s big-play ability and felt they could easily replace Pittman.

Pierce has been injured for many years, but even before that he was playing mediocre football. It hasn’t been as explosive for the Steelers as Pittman, but Pierce’s decision to pay big money seems to be coming back to bite them.

This team went from competing in the AFC South to being one of the worst teams in all of football.

I’m on record as being the best at Vikings this year. He said they were sleeping more than any other team in the league before the season started.. Minnesota now sits at 6-2 with only two losses to notable teams in Detroit and Buffalo – even then the only reason they struggled was because of bad quarterback play.

There was a time when it looked like adding Kyler Murray at center could be the injection this offense desperately needed, but that just didn’t happen. Murray is playing terrible, ineffective football — to the point where he can’t do the one thing he came to Minnesota to achieve: Get Justin Jefferson the ball.

The Vikings have big problems at quarterback because none of their bets have paid off. Murray is extremely disappointing at this point in his career, feeling like a high-level backup to a former No. 1 pick. Meanwhile, the decision to run away from JJ McCarthy may also backfire, as he moves forward with the Giants. This adds a double dose of frustration when Murray has played poorly, and has damaged the structure of the team because of their trust in him.

Number 5: Houston Texans defense

Can Texans please get some dang consistency? We saw one of the league’s best defenses fall short in the playoffs last season because of C.J. Stroud. Now the offense is playing fantastically, and the defense (which really hasn’t changed) is playing like crap.

In every single area, Texans have taken a step back from 2025.

Every player on defense has embarrassed this team so inconsistently. Will Anderson and Aziz Al-Shayer were the only players to support the top end of the bargain, while everyone else was mediocre. Derrick Stingley Jr. is allowing a 95.5 passer rating this season, a dramatic drop from a year ago — and now it looks like the Texans’ offense is struggling and needs a shot to win.

Number 6: Philadelphia Eagles

Only the eagles will drink it. There is no way to sugarcoat it. While it’s true that Jalen Harts injury has put a damper on things, the Eagles were mediocre before that happened. This was a team that was slated to make an easy run to the NFC East championship, maybe with the Cowboys to contend with — and that’s what it actually was.

Instead, they’ve been kicked in the face for too long, preventing them from playing effectively this season. Rotten from top to bottom, the only question is whether or not Philadelphia has the guts to make some of the tough choices needed in the offseason to get this team back on track.