Six NFL teams headed for ugly 2021 season: Giants, Texans among those with suspect rosters, rough offseasons

After talking to coaches and evaluators, Jason La Canfora breaks down the bumpiest roads ahead

Sometimes, it's simply not your year. Sometimes, even in a league of parity, it gets very late, very early. As much as the NFL preseason is used to determine rising players and hidden gems and ascending teams and fantasy-football sleepers, alas, it is also a time when the worst of the league begins to stand out for very different reasons. With the preseason wrapping up and major roster cut-downs just ahead, it's impossible not to watch what is going on, talk to other coaches and evaluators and begin to get a sense for which franchises are quite likely to be drafting very high next spring. And it looks like many of the usual suspects, sadly enough for those fanbases. August has not been particularly kind to some teams, with bad luck, mounting injuries, self-inflicted errors, and bad juju all swirling around. For teams already very much on the margins, and facing a talent imbalance and in many cases with very inexperienced hands overseeing the coaching staff and/or the roster, suffering even one critical injury to a key starter can undermine any gains. Unfortunately for these half dozen teams, they already check far too many of the above boxes, with the potential for overwhelmed coaches and/or facing immediate crisis at key roster spots, with not much going their way heading into the final exhibition contests.