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Multiple playoff teams have never started 0-5

The 2026 NFL season has already produced an unusual cluster of winless teams, with five squads entering Week 5 still undefeated in the negative column—a rare occurrence tied with five other years since 1962. Among them, the Chargers and Texans stand out as the only two to have qualified for the playoffs last year, a feat that hasn’t coincided with a 0-4 start for two teams since 1999, when both the Super Bowl champions (Broncos and Falcons) opened the following season with identical records.

Even more striking is the absence of any playoff-bound team ever starting 0-5 in the year after their postseason run; the last instance of a single playoff team beginning the next season 0-5 was the Giants in 2017. This week’s matchup between the Texans and Titans could push the total number of 0-5 teams to three, depending on the outcome, as the Chargers and Dolphins remain winless alongside the potential loser of that game.

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