Raiders and the 4 NFL teams we already regret jumping on the early bandwagon for

It’s easy to hype up a team in August. A lot of the time we need something to talk about before the season and we need something to go back to once the season begins. It’s even easier to get behind a team that’s had a strong start to the season. That said, now that we’re five weeks into the new NFL season, we might be regretting hyping up some of the teams we did. Las Vegas is now winless in their last two games; the Cleveland Browns’ offense looked lifeless against the New York Jets and some fanbase bangwagons are starting to look a bit thinner.

Here are the teams we simply gave too much credit too early in the season. These teams have come back down to earth and now we’re wondering why we ever hyped them up to begin with.

Las Vegas Raiders

Las Vegas’ 3-0 start to the 2026 season always needed an asterisk next to it. Not because they didn’t earn the hot start, but because the teams they played en route to the strong start. Case and point, the Raiders are now 0-2 since starting 3-0 and haven’t beat a team with a winning record. Their season was going to be defined by the second month of the season. They’ve already played the Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots. Now they have the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Rams left of that brutal four game stretch. 

The Raiders have a lot to be proud of considering they haven’t had to turn to Fernando Mendoza yet — though he made his NFL debut against the Patriots in garbage time. They also still have a lot to play for this season with the AFC West division up for grabs, though the Chiefs are the frontrunners for now. Vegas has cooled off and we probably gave them a bit more credit than they had earned. Nonetheless, they’ve come back down to earth.

Cleveland Browns

For the first month of the NFL season, Cleveland looked like a playoff contender. They had a three-game win streak — put together with two game-winning drives — and actually looked like a team that would be potentially buying at the NFL trade deadline. And then the New York Jets happened. And in perfect Cleveland fashion, they found a bizarre way to lose that game and ground every fan that ever hyped them up. For what it’s worth, this team didn’t look threatening despite being 3-1. 

Sunday’s loss essentially puts Cleveland in a position to rethink how they want to approach the rest of this season. Do they potentially go all in on a playoff run, or do they ride this out, see where it goes and react accordingly? This team wasn’t expected to have a winning record after the first month and certainly wasn’t in the position to be contending in the AFC North. Cleveland reminded everyone why cautious optimism is appropriate. Sunday was a reminder this team is still far from being a true playoff contender.

Dallas Cowboys

Phew, this defense is a disaster-class. Do the players deserve the blame for terrible execution? Or does Christian Parker deserve blame for trying to do things with personnel that can’t execute? Either way, this defense, which was supposed to turn a corner this season, is still holding back this Dallas Cowboys team and instead of running the NFC West division, they’re falling quickly behind. The Cowboys bandwagon was full most of the offseason and then the season kicked off. We all fell for the same thing we chastised Cowboys fans for. 

This team can turn things around and they can look like a division contender. The problem is right now, they aren't, and they look far from one. We were all fooled by the Cowboys’ preseason hype and now we’re revisiting why we ever believed in a defense that hadn’t stepped on the field yet. 

Los Angeles Rams

After four games, the LA Rams don’t look like the Super Bowl contender national media pundits thought they’d be. Regardless of what happens on Monday night football, the Rams aren’t the best team in the division and they might not even be the second-best team. Myles Garrett has been out since the season opener in Australia. Even without him, the Rams are just 2-1. Claiming teams are locked in for a championship before they’d played a game is a dangerous approach and now the Rams bandwagon is losing members by the week. 

The NFC West division is a juggernaut, so it’s not completely on them when it comes to the slow start they’ve had to this season. They are still 2-2 and have a clear shot to the playoffs and possibly winning the division. We don’t have to abandon the Rams altogether, but we may have overhyped them after they had a busy and expensive offseason.

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