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Bill Barnwell, ESPN Staff Writer
For some NFL fans, the 2023 season has been full of joy. Others have been tormented. Losing is one thing, but even teams that win the majority of their games can be infuriating for fans to watch on a weekly basis. In Week 16 alone, the two teams that played in Super Bowl LVII and are a combined 20-10 this season were booed off the field on offense by their fans. It’s rough out there.
In 2023, a season in which even the best teams have serious flaws, this phenomenon is even more acute. As someone who tries to follow every team and take the temperature of each fan base, there’s more fury out there than ever. Today, I’m going to try to capture that by looking at the teams whose fans have been forced to hate-watch their favorite players most often.
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Every team has a week or two when they disappoint, of course, but the squads I’m going to hit have been infuriating more weeks than not this season. Framing this as a list of teams that are disappointing in 2023 might be too simplistic; consider this a look at those coming up short of what their fans believe they can be. I’ll start with the teams that have been less infuriating before working my way toward the most hate-watched team in the league.
Jump to a team:
ATL | BUF | CAR | JAX | KC
LAC | NO | NYJ | PHI | PIT
The problem: They stink now and could stink for years to come.
On one level, Panthers fans have found their games unwatchable for the most classic of reasons: This is a terrible football team. The Panthers are 2-13. Their two wins have come by a combined four points, and both required game-winning field goals. Over the past six games, the Panthers have led for a total of 11 seconds; thankfully, one of those seconds was the end of regulation against the Falcons.