The year 2008 in the NFL was a year of big surprises and disappointments. We saw history made, major fall offs and plenty of coaches fired. Here are the most disappointing teams in 2008.
10. Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns finished the season at 10-6 last year. There were plenty of high hopes in Cleveland. The dogs were starting to think that things were looking up. Well now, not so much. They finished the season at 4-12, fired their head coach and hired another head coach, Eric Mangini, that was recently fired from the Jets.
9. Washington Redskins
The expectations for the Redskins were not very high this year. They just hired a new unproven head coach in Jim Zorn bringing in a new offense with the verdict still out on their quarterback Jason Campbell. Most people were expecting them to finish where they did, 8-8 at the bottom of the toughest division in the NFL, the NFC East.
So why is this team on this list? They started the season at 6-2 with some tough road wins against Philly and Dallas. Then they went on to lose 6 of their last eight games. Not good. Especially in Washington.
8. Green Bay Packers
The good news is that the Brett Favre saga is finally over. The bad news is that so were the Packers winning ways this season. Aaron Rogers appeared to have done his part with a 93.8 QB rating. But what about the intangibles?
Does Aaron Rogers have the leadership skills and fire that Brett possessed during his time at Green Bay to lead this team? Only time will tell in say about 16 more years.
7. Seattle Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks have been a given to make the playoffs with 5 consecutive playoff appearances. Now they finished the season at 4-12 as one of the worst teams in football. What a disappointing way for Mike Holmgren to finish his NFL coaching career. Now they have a new head coach in which they have to adjust to hopefully right the ship.
6. Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos started the season hot at 3-1 and had one of the best offenses in the league. But with a defense ranked 29th in the league, they lost 3 straight down the stretch putting them out of position to make the playoffs finishing the season at 8-8.
As a result of their poor season the Broncos fired the face of the franchise, future Hall of Fame coach Mike Shanahan, after 14 seasons and 2 Super Bowls. Talk about a disappointing season.
5. Jacksonville Jaguars
Jacksonville was considered on of the top 5 teams in the league coming into the 2008 season. They were ranked #5 in the ESPN week 1 power rankings. They finished with an 11-5 record last year and made it to the second round of the playoffs.
This year they decided to do a complete turnaround and finished with a 5-11 record. Now they have to deal with poor free agent signings from the past, salary cap issues, and have decided to start building through the NFL draft.
4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Buccaneers start the season at 9-3 and were already penciled in for a playoff position. That is until they lost the next four games straight with the last 2 games at home. In their final game of the season the Oakland Raiders, of all teams, who finished the season at 5-11 defeated the Bucs 34-21.
With straining relationships with the players and only an average offense, the Buccaneers fired head coach Jon Gruden and general manager Bruce Allen. The good news is that now Jon Gruden is no longer on the hot seat.
3. New York Jets
There was new life in New York and I am not talking about for the New York Giants. I am talking about the other New York, the Jets. They made a huge splash signing the future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. The Jets got off to a hot start at 8-3.
Talk of an all New York Super Bowl began with the Jets versus the Giants. The New York Brets were alive and kicking. But the season was not over and the Jets lost 4 of their next 5 games with Brett Favre throwing 9 interceptions over this period. Oh, and then they fired their head coach!
2. Detroit Lions
Detroit finished with a perfect season. Sort of like the Dolphins 72 season in reverse, 0-16. They went down in the history books as the only team every to go 0-16. Sure, no one expected much from this team but to go all year and not win 1 game. One? Man. It sure sucks to be a Lions fan these days.
1. Dallas Cowboys
And then there was one. The one and only. America's team! The Dallas Cowboys were many people's preseason favorite to win the Super Bowl. This team finished the 2007 season with a record of 13-3 with one of the losses being a meaningless game on the last game of the season. Their team is stacked with superstars on both sides of the ball.
Yeah, but when you have a bunch of head cases on your team like T.O. and Pacman Jones you are sure to have some problems. I used to always defend Terrell Owens and try to give him the benefit of the doubt.
But if you destroy the locker room chemistry at every team that you go to then maybe you have some issues that you need to address. The problems with Terrell Owens complaining about not getting the ball and the Pacman Jones distractions were just too much for this team.
Not to mention Wade Phillips is probably not the right coach for a place like Dallas. Someone a little more hard-nosed, similar to Parcells or Cowher, is needed in big D.
To go from the Super Bowl favorite to not even making the playoffs is just bad. And not only did they not make the playoffs, they got destroyed by Philadelphia in the last game of the season (44-6) when they had everything to play for. Now that is what I call a disappointing season!
Seth Taylor is the author of the NFL Ticket Guide, an e-book that provides NFL fans with tricks and techniques to obtain discount NFL tickets. The guide covers a variety of ways to acquire tickets to help fans get into the game.
