Over the course of NFL history, there have only been two teams that have made it through a regular season undefeated — the 1972 Miami Dolphins and 2007 New England Patriots — and I think we can all agree that a third team won’t be joining that group in 2025.
What I’m trying to say is that it seems like a lock that every team is going to lose at least one game and with that being the case, I’ve decided to take it upon myself to predict when each team will suffer their first loss.
For half of the NFL, that first loss will come in Week 1, but what about everyone else? Let’s dive in.
First loss in Week 1
Dallas Cowboys (at Philadelphia Eagles). The Cowboys are a train wreck. The Eagles are the reigning Super Bowl champs. The Cowboys’ chance at an undefeated season is going to end after one game.
Los Angeles Chargers (vs. Kansas Chiefs in Brazil). The Chiefs have won seven straight games against the Chargers, but they’ve never beaten them in Brazil, but there’s a first time for everything. The Chargers have had a run of bad injury luck with Rashawn Slater out for the season and the Chiefs are the Chiefs.
Atlanta Falcons (vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers). The Buccaneers are 3-0 in their past three road openers and that includes an impressive 20-16 win over the Lions last season, which was one of just two losses that Detroit suffered during the regular season. Michael Penix Jr.’s will be making just the fourth start of his career and it will be coming against a seasoned Buccaneers team. This feels like a Tampa Bay win.
Cleveland Browns (vs. Cincinnati Bengals). The Bengals have actually been pretty horrible coming out of the gate over the past two years, but the Browns have too many question marks. Cleveland’s defense might be able to keep the Browns in this game — they’ve actually played well against Joe Burrow — but beating the Bengals seems like a tall task. This game will likely be closer than most think, but the Browns go down.
Indianapolis Colts (vs. Miami Dolphins). With Daniel Jones getting the first start of his Colts career in Week 1, it feels like Indy’s offense is probably going to struggle for the first few weeks of the season. The Dolphins have their own problems, but Miami’s offense has enough firepower to get by Indy.
Arizona Cardinals (at New Orleans Saints). The Cardinals defense will get to go up against Tyler Shough, Jake Haener or Spencer Rattler. Advantage: Cardinals.
Las Vegas Raiders (at New England Patriots). The schedule-makers didn’t do any favors for the Raiders, who have to fly across the country for a game that will kick off at 10 a.m. PT on their body clock. The Patriots have added several key players on defense this offseason and those players will likely give Geno Smith some trouble.
New York Jets (vs. Pittsburgh Steelers). Based on the comments he made earlier this offseason, it seems pretty clear that Aaron Rodgers would like nothing more than to destroy the Jets.
New York Giants (at Washington Commanders). The Giants had the worst record in the NFC last year and they get to open up the season on the road against a team that made it to the NFC title game. Sometimes life is unfair. This is one of those times.
Carolina Panthers (at Jacksonville Jaguars). We have the Buccaneers offensive coordinator from 2023 (Dave Canales) coaching against the Bucs offensive coordinator from 2024 (Liam Coen). This will be Coen’s first game as coach of the Jaguars and the offensive mastermind has plenty of weapons to work with in Jacksonville, so this feels like a shootout win for the Jaguars.
Tennessee Titans (at Denver Broncos). Since 2003, there have been 16 quarterbacks who have been selected with the first overall pick in the NFL Draft. They have combined to go 1-15 in their first career start. Cameron Ward was taken with the No. 1 overall pick. This feels like a game the Titans are destined to lose.
Seattle Seahawks (vs. San Francisco 49ers). The 49ers have won six of the past seven games in this series and with San Francisco finally expected to be healthy, the 49ers will use the opener to show that they’re going to be a Super Bowl contender in 2025.
Green Bay Packers (vs. Detroit Lions). Dan Campbell has had Matt LaFleur’s number over the past few years, winning six of the past seven against his NFC North coaching rival. For the Packers, it also doesn’t help that Jordan Love is currently dealing with a thumb injury that’s going to cause him to miss a week or two of practice heading into this opener.
Los Angeles Rams (vs. Houston Texans). The Rams have a starting quarterback in Matthew Stafford who didn’t practice a single time from Aug. 1 through Aug. 17. When you have a banged-up QB and a big question mark at left tackle, like the Rams do, the last thing you want to do is face a Texans team that is led by two premier pass rushers in Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr.
Baltimore Ravens (at Buffalo Bills). Sean McDermott is a former defensive coordinator and that has come in handy when the Bills have had to face Lamar Jackson. The Bills have won three of their past four against the Ravens, including the playoffs, and a big reason for that is because McDermott’s defense has held Baltimore to an average of just 16 points per game in the three wins.
Minnesota Vikings (at Chicago Bears). This is an intriguing game: Not only will J.J. McCarthy be making his first start for Minnesota, but Ben Johnson will be making his coaching debut for the Bears. The Vikings won’t have Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson has been dealing with a hamstring issue in training camp, so Minnesota’s receiving group won’t be at full strength. With the Bears playing at home in prime time, we’ll give them the slight edge.
Remaining unbeaten teams after Week 1: 16
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First loss in Week 2
Commanders (at Packers). After playing on Sunday in Week 1, the Commanders have to turn around and play a Thursday ROAD game at Green Bay, which isn’t an easy ask. If the Packers lose in Week 1, which is exactly what we have happening, then they’ll be desperate to win this game so they don’t fall to 0-2.
Jaguars (at Bengals). If you want to beat the Bengals, you have to stop Joe Burrow, and unfortunately for the Jaguars, they’re not exactly built to do that. Jacksonville surrendered the MOST passing yards per game in the NFL last season and the Jaguars will find out in this game if they’ve done enough to fix that issue.
Dolphins (vs. Patriots). This a game the Patriots’ new-look defense could end up dominating, especially against a Dolphins offense that hasn’t looked overly good in training camp.
Bears (at Lions). This is a fascinating game with Johnson facing his old team, but the schedule-makers didn’t do the Bears any favors. They have to play on Monday in Week 1 and then face the Lions on a short week. If anyone knows how to slow down Johnson’s offense, it’s Campbell, so we’ll give the Lions the edge here.
Eagles (at Chiefs). After getting embarrassed in Super Bowl LIX, the Chiefs are going to be out for revenge.
Buccaneers (at Texans). In Week 1, the Texans are getting a Rams team that likely won’t have starting left tackle Alaric Jackson. In Week 2, they’re getting a Bucs team that likely won’t have starting left tackle Tristan Wirfs. The Houston defense is going to feast early in the season.
Remaining unbeaten teams after Week 2: 10
First loss in Week 3
Patriots (vs. Steelers). If the Patriots get off to a 2-0 start, that would be a pleasant surprise, but their undefeated run will end here against a Steelers defense that has its way with Drake Maye.
Cardinals (at 49ers). After getting off to their first 2-0 start since 2021, the Cardinals’ parade comes to an end against a 49ers team in a close game that goes down to the wire.
Lions (at Ravens). Jackson has a career record of 24-2 against NFC teams and that’s basically all you need to know about this Monday night showdown. Advantage: Ravens.
Remaining unbeaten teams after Week 3: 7
First loss in Week 4
Chiefs (vs. Ravens). The Chiefs have a brutal schedule to start the season with three of their first four games against teams that made the playoffs last season (Chargers, Eagles, Ravens). It won’t be surprising if they slip up in one of those games and we’ll say it happens in this one.
Broncos (vs. Bengals). This might end up being the best game of Week 4. These two teams gave us a shootout last season and it won’t be surprising if we get another one with the Bengals pulling off the road upset.
Remaining unbeaten teams after Week 4: 5
First loss in Week 5
49ers (at Rams). Since the start of the 2020 season, no team has been better than the Rams when it comes to winning a Thursday game on short rest. Over the past five seasons, the Rams have played six such games and they’ve won them all, so we’ll say that streak continues here.
Bengals (vs. Lions). After an emotional Monday night win over the Broncos, the Bengals have to turn around and face the Lions on a short week. The Lions are not a team you want to be facing on a short week.
Texans (at Ravens). Last season, the Texans played six games against teams that made the playoffs and they went 1-5 in those games. Although this team is good, it remains to be seen if it can compete with the best teams in the NFL and the Ravens should be one of the best teams in the NFL.
Remaining unbeaten teams: 2
First loss in Week 7
Steelers (at Bengals). After getting off to a surprising 6-0 start in Pittsburgh, Rodgers finally suffers his first loss with the Steelers during this Thursday night game in Cincinnati. Over the past six years, AFC North teams are 3-13 when forced to play a prime-time game on the road against another AFC North team and that ugly trend will continue here.
Remaining unbeaten teams after Week 7: 1
First loss in Week 9
Bills (vs. Chiefs). If the Bills can get past the Ravens in Week 1, there’s a good chance we could see them make it all the way until November with an unbeaten record. However, that streak will end with a loss to the Chiefs. Although the Bills have actually dominated the Chiefs in the regular season, we’re going to give the edge to Kansas City here, because in this hypothetical situation, if the 7-0 Bills move to 8-0 with a win over K.C., that would put them in the driver’s seat for the top seed in the AFC. When the pressure is on, the Chiefs tend to perform and the pressure would be on here.
So there you have it, the Bills will be the final undefeated team, but that’s not necessarily a good thing and here’s why: The final unbeaten team has struggled to win the Super Bowl this century. Since 2000, the final undefeated team in the regular season has only won the Super Bowl once and that came in 2006 when Peyton Manning’s Colts won the Lombardi Trophy after starting the season 9-0. That’s a 19-year drought if you’re scoring at home.
