3 historic NFL franchises find themselves in same boat since turn of the century

Rewind to the beginning of the 2001 NFL season.

Miami Dolphins head coach Dave Wannstedt was entering his second season at the helm in place of the legendary Jimmy Johnson. Both the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets were starting fresh. The Browns hired Butch Davis to replace Chris Palmer as head coach and the Jets moved on from Al Groh and the Bill Belichick debacle with Herm Edwards.

Hopes for all three teams were as high as they’ve been. The future looked bright.

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Fast forward nearly 25 years, not much progress has been made by any of the three franchises. As the 2025 season nears its end, the Dolphins, Browns and Jets will all end with losing records, missing the playoffs and a grand total of zero Super Bowl appearances.

The Browns are usually teased by NFL fans as a laughing-stock franchise with the amount of futility the franchise has been through since the 2001 season began.

Cleveland was the second team in NFL history to go winless throughout a season. The Browns have had 39 starting quarterbacks in that span, including three different ones this season in Joe Flacco, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. The Browns have had nine different head coaches in that span and have made three playoff appearances, including one playoff win. The team was last in the postseason in 2023.

It’s bad in Cleveland, but the one playoff win in that span is exactly one more than the Dolphins have had since the 2001 season began.

The Dolphins have only been to the playoff five times and have had names like Jay Fiedler, Daunte Culpepper, Chad Pennington, Jay Cutler, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tua Tagovailoa all come through and start games in Miami. Quinn Ewers marked the 26th starting quarterback the franchise has trotted out. There’s been 27 since Dan Marino hung up the cleats after the 1999 season.

Mike McDaniel represented the eighth head coach the Dolphins have had on the sideline, and while the team had shown bright spots with Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill connecting on the field, there just hasn’t been the same amount of success in Miami since the Marino era.

New York has entered the same realm. While the Browns and Dolphins have both had ups with their downs in recent years, most of New York’s success came in the 2000s.

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The Jets made six playoff appearances from 2001 to 2010 and were on the cusp of a Super Bowl twice with Mark Sanchez as the quarterback, Darrelle Revis locking down wide receivers and Rex Ryan running the sideline. Since 2010, the Jets have had 12 losing seasons. They haven’t made the playoffs and only finished above .500 once.

Not to mention, New York has gone through seven head coaches in that span.

It’s eerily amazing how three historic franchises have shared similar futility with the amount of parity in the NFL presently. There have been 12 different Super Bowl winners with 19 different teams at least making an appearance in the game.

And it's not to say excitement hasn't come through each franchise. The Brett Favre acquisition by the Jets was major news. The Browns drafted Johnny Manziel, who was a polarizing figure in college football and the NFL. The Dolphins had an electric running back in Ricky Williams and defensive stars like Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas.

But it just never paid off.

While 2001 was a big year for change among all three teams, more tough decisions could be made once the 2025 finishes and the 2026 season officially begins.

McDaniel, Kevin Stefanski and Aaron Glenn are all on the hot seat with their respective teams. Only the Dolphins replaced their general manager (Chris Grier) in the middle of the year. Glenn is only in his first season as head coach, but rumors have differed on whether he will be retained for 2026.

All three teams could be in the market for a quarterback change.

The Dolphins benched Tagovailoa for the final few games of the season despite his massive contract. The Browns didn’t appear to be set with Sanders or Gabriel as QB1 going into 2026, especially with Deshaun Watson and his albatross of a contract lingering. The Jets tried three different quarterbacks as well in 2025, but a high draft pick could lead them toward taking a flier on someone like Fernando Mendoza.

Things could always change for these three franchises but as the 2025 season comes to a close, many things have stayed the same once the new millennium kicked off and nothing appears to be changing any time soon.

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