The NFL playoff picture is getting more clarity as Week 18 barrels on and through the early window games, we saw teams that made a minor mistake that could cost them heavily in the NFL Draft. The Cleveland Browns come to mind and are the poster child of a team that simply should have embraced the tank.
Instead, they ended the 2025 season, ending a 34-game streak of failing to win back-to-back games — Cleveland finished the year with wins over Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, landing them outside the top 5 of the NFL Draft.
The Browns aren’t the only ones, so here’s a look at the teams around the NFL that should have gone against everything moral in the NFL and simply accepted 2025 as a lost cause.
Cleveland Browns
Why the win over Cincinnati was pointless wasn’t just because of draft positioning, but it once again gave false hope about Shedeur Sanders. Hooray! He won two pointless games looking miserable in the process. Sanders didn’t show anything that proves he should be a long term solution and arguably shouldn’t even be a bridge option in 2026. Unfortunately, they won’t have the chance to outright draft his replacement.
Had they accepted the only good thing to come from 2025 was Myles Garrett becoming the NFL’s sack king, they could have been in position to not have to trade up to get one of Dante Moore or Fernando Mendoza. Now they have to decide if they gamble on an overhyped skill position or trade back further and draft best available.
This team shouldn’t be a five-win team and because of it, might have just reset their rebuild clock.
New Orleans Saints
Who would have thought Tyler Shough would have made a late push for the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year? Yet in 10 games this year, Shough managed to not look terrible, lead the Saints to a 6-11 record and effectively solidify his starting role next year. But was it worth it? Is Shough really the one to build around instead of Mendoza or Moore? It won’t matter now as the Saints won’t get a chance to decide.
That said, they could still improve their roster so it might not be a complete loss. New Orleans is a team that is in a weird transition period and finishing with six wins and on the verge of falling out of the top 10 probably wasn’t the right move. They will still have access to filling out some of their gaping holes on offense, but unless they truly believe in Shough, it’s not worth passing on a quarterback.
Cincinnati Bengals
When Joe Burrow made his triumphant return after a severe turf toe injury that required surgery, the Cincinnati Bengals were basically out of the NFL playoff picture. Instead of accepting this season was over, they made an unnecessary playoff push, and surrendered a good draft spot in the process. The Bengals don’t need a quarterback, but missing out on a chance for someone like Rueben Bain Jr was just irresponsible.
Trey Hendrickson probably isn’t coming back and Shemar Stewart is a lost cause. They need to improve this defense in a bad way and giving up draft position on the best EDGE prospect just to miss the playoffs anyway was pointless. Cincinnati could have let Burrow get completely healthy, let Flacco finish the season and turn the page to 2026.
Instead they mustered together six wins and will have a lot of work ahead of them to improve this defense. It was going to take more than one draft pick, but missing out on the best defensive prospect in the 2026 NFL Draft class was a mistake.