The back nine of the 2025 NFL regular season begins on Thursday night with the surging Denver Broncos taking on the lowly Las Vegas Raiders. We’ve had no shortage of great surprises through the first half of the season. Who would’ve predicted the Indianapolis Colts at 7-2 with Daniel Jones (last game notwithstanding) playing like one of the best quarterbacks in the league? Or the Chicago Bears clawing their way to 5-3 after an 0-2 start? Can you believe the Carolina Panthers are 5-4 after shocking the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field?
Of course, there are also surprises of the negative variety. The league invested heavily in the Washington Commanders based on national television appearances and it’s looking like a regrettable choice. We’re used to seeing the Baltimore Ravens competing for the No. 1 seed, but they’re just hoping to make the playoffs. The Houston Texans look like they’re on the precipice of collapse despite boasting one of the league’s best defenses.
SB Nation’s NFL staff sat at the roundtable to hand out some midseason “awards” centered around the NFL’s most disappointing teams and units at the midway point.
Most disappointing offense
Mookie Alexander: Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons have invested a TON of first-round draft capital on the offensive side of the ball, including Kyle Pitts, Drake London, Bijan Robinson, and Michael Penix Jr. And yet, they’re 28th in points scored, 23rd on third-down conversions, and 22nd in the red zone. Inexplicably, Atlanta is last in play-action rate under heavily criticized offensive coordinator Zac Robinson. Penix’s first full season as a starter has shown promise but not consistency, the rushing attack has completely dropped off after dominating the Buffalo Bills, and the offensive line is struggling due to injuries. It only figures that Atlanta’s defense finally improves just in time for the offense to somehow be worse than the Kirk Cousins disaster of last year.
Jeanna Kelley: Atlanta Falcons. I didn’t have the highest hopes for the Falcons offense this season – Michael Penix is talented, but inexperienced; Bijan Robinson is one of the league’s best, but he’s one guy; and Drake London and Kyle Pitts should be great, but I had concerns about how they’d be used by OC Zac Robinson. The pistol isn’t the best fit for Penix’s style of play, and opponents have repeatedly said the Falcons offense is predictable, and yet Zac Robinson is obsessed with doing the same thing over and over again despite no change in the results. I’m not writing off Penix or anything – but the Falcons are going to need a change at OC if they want this offense to take a step forward.
Jared Mueller: Minnesota Vikings – When you have WRs Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, TE TJ Hockenson, and RB Aaron Jones, it almost doesn’t matter who is playing quarterback. A quality offensive line on top of that and injuries are not enough to explain how a Top 12 offense is now in the bottom third halfway through the season.
Mark Schofield: Houston Texans – They’ve dealt with some injuries, and now they will be without C.J. Stroud for at least one week, but this is a unit that is now below league average in both Expected Points Added per Rush and Expected Points Added per Dropback. Houston is also averaging 21 points per game, which is the exact same as the … New York Jets.
Most disappointing defense
Mookie Alexander: Baltimore Ravens. I know they’re playing better as of late, but they have dug themselves such a massive hole that a top seed is out of the question and they have little room for error if they want to make the playoffs. It’s unfathomable to see a John Harbaugh team give up 160 points over four losses, which is what happened over their 1-4 start. The loss of Nnamdi Madubuike to a neck injury undoubtedly was a big blow to Baltimore, but injuries alone can’t explain the early season debacles.
Jared Mueller: Pittsburgh Steelers. I had no expectations for the Bengals defense going into the season, but the Steelers were expected to be led by their unit while Aaron Rodgers tried to reinvent himself with his third team. Instead, Pittsburgh is holding things together despite its defense giving up the third-most yards per game so far this year. On top of that, the Steelers are spending $163 million of their cap space on that side of the ball. The return on investment is terrible, as is their defense.
Jeanna Kelley: Cincinnati Bengals. Did I expect the Bengals defense to be great? No. But am I stunned at exactly how bad they are? Yes. Through Week 9, they’re dead last in total yards allowed and total touchdowns allowed; they’re the second-worst pass defense in the league, and statistically the worst run defense in the league. It’s a rough season for Bengals fans across the board thanks to Joe Burrow’s injury, but Joe Flacco’s holding it down fine since the Bengals traded for him. But there’s not much hope for this Bengals team this season with this putrid defense.
Mark Schofield: Dallas Cowboys. Sure, trading Micah Parsons right before the season began did not help. But this is a bad, bad group. They gave up 37 points to Russell Wilson! 27 points last week to Jacoby Brissett! Yes the Bengals defense is bad, but Dallas is right there with them when you look at Expected Points Allowed against both the pass and the run. They’re also giving up 30.8 points per game – second only to Cincinnati – and offenses have converted 52.6% of third downs against them this season, the worst mark in the league.
Most disappointing overall team
Mookie Alexander: Washington Commanders. What a brutal regression for Washington. Yes, they won a lot of close games last year and made the NFC Championship in unexpected fashion, but the crash has been heavier than I think even skeptics expected. Jayden Daniels’ third separate injury may put an end to his second season, Terry McLaurin’s drama-filled offseason has become an injury-laden regular season, and Deebo Samuel is averaging less than 10 yards per reception. The defense was bad last year and hasn’t improved at all this year. It’s been 33 years since Washington last made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, and that drought will continue.
Jared Mueller: Baltimore Ravens. Before Lamar Jackson got hurt, the Ravens had just one victory, to the lowly Cleveland Browns. One of the Super Bowl favorites did have a tough schedule with the Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs but, based on expectations, should have been better with and without Jackson. Baltimore is lucky that the AFC North is putrid and they will likely go from the disappointing list to a surprise playoff team this year.
Jeanna Kelley: Washington Commanders. In the immortal words of Tyra Banks, we were rooting for you! We were all rooting for you! How dare you?! After last season’s playoff run, I was extremely high on this Commanders team, and I was especially happy for Commanders fans, who survived the Dan Snyder years and deserve happiness. I really thought they’d make some noise this season, and it’s just not their year.
Mark Schofield: Washington Commanders. First off, look at all four responses here. See why sports fans here in the DMV are somewhat miserable these days? Even the Capitals are in last place in the Metropolitan Division right now.
More to the point, while the Ravens could still fight back, the Commanders have taken a big step back this year, and Jayden Daniels is likely done for the season. Winter came early in the nation’s capital, at least when it came to the local football team.
Most disappointing offseason
Mookie Alexander: Washington Commanders. This “all-in” offseason hasn’t worked. The Deebo Samuel trade has been underwhelming. They traded four draft picks for Laremy Tunsil, who’s been good but the offensive line as a whole has been lackluster. Did anyone even remember Washington signing Von Miller? Too many of Washington’s big moves were centered around aging talent, and now the oldest team in the league has a major offseason reckoning to come, with only two draft picks in the top 150 at their disposal in 2026..
Jared Mueller: Tennessee Titans – Cam Ward and? The Titans had a ton of salary cap space and the best they could come up with was Dan Moore, Dre’mont Jones, Tyler Lockett, Kevin Zeitler and Van Jefferson? Lockett was granted his request to be released and Jones was traded while Moore (who wasn’t that good in Pittsburgh) is a replacement-level starter. After Ward, only Elic Ayomanor is being productive this season, with 26 receptions for 323 yards and two touchdowns. A limited offseason basically wasted Ward’s rookie season and led to the firing of Brian Callahan (keeping Callahan was another poor offseason decision). Ward has to hope and pray that the team actually adds talent this offseason and gets the coaching hire correct.
Jeanna Kelley: New Orleans Saints. As a bona-fide Saints hater, this one brings me so much joy. They have two quarterbacks, Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough, and neither of them is good. It’s the only thing that makes me feel better about the Falcons’ season.
Mark Schofield: Las Vegas Raiders. This might be something of a “mea culpa,” but as I wrote in our SB Nation NFL Season Preview, I was all in on what the Raiders did last offseason. Now I’m not sure if any of it, save the Maxx Crosby extension, worked.
Most disappointing ‘our expectations for you were low but holy F–K’ unit
Mookie Alexander: Cincinnati Bengals defense. The Bengals have scored 80 points over the last two weeks with Joe Flacco at quarterback. They’ve lost both games. I don’t think anyone expected Cincinnati to have even a moderately decent defense given the lack of great talent on the roster outside of Trey Hendrickson, but they’re on course to be one of the worst defenses we’ve ever seen by DVOA. They have a bye in Week 10, which means nothing since it just continues the theme of the defense not showing up on the field.
Jared Mueller: Cleveland Browns offense. As the Producer at Dawgs By Nature, I have had the displeasure of watching Joe Flacco be terrible (then throw for a thousand yards in a couple of games for Cincinnati) and Dillon Gabriel look worse so far this season. The offensive line is old and a mess. The receivers can’t separate and the run game lacks the ability to create holes. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln…
Jeanna Kelley: I’m not mad about it, but as I mentioned above, the New Orleans Saints offense is an abomination, and I think that’s fantastic.
Mark Schofield: Cincinnati Bengals defense. As bad as everything I said about Dallas above is, this group is worse. A historically bad unit.
