The NFL trade deadline is looming. Division races are tight. We're already approaching the middle of the 2026 NFL season, and Week 8 looks like it could have tide-shifting implications across the board.
Unfortunately, the writing is already on the wall for certain teams. While you can never truly "guarantee" anything in the NFL, there are some teams around the league that look like they are pretty much locked into a loss in Week 8.
Those are the three teams we're going to be calling out today. Anything can happen on any given Sunday in the NFL (blah, blah, blah...), but let's take a look at three teams we're absolutely expecting to lose.
Titans lead top 3 teams most likely to lose in Week 8 of the 2026 NFL season
1. Tennessee Titans (@ Bengals)
It's hard to see a path to victory for the Tennessee Titans in Week 8 against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Titans are traveling on the road, their offense has struggled, and they just traded away their best player -- Jeffery Simmons -- to the Chicago Bears. This team has its eyes fixed on the 2027 NFL Draft.
The Titans falling in this "guaranteed to lose" category has as much to do with them as it does the Bengals playing nearly flawless football in the second half of their win last week over the Baltimore Ravens. The Bengals outscored the Ravens 35-0 in the second half, and that defensive front has been completely transformed by the presence of Dexter Lawrence.
The Titans are now 12.5-point underdogs on the road after the Simmons trade.
2. Minnesota Vikings (@ Lions)
What goes up...
Let's just make something clear here: This is not meant as a sign of disrespect to the Vikings.
The Vikings checked in as the #1 overall team on my latest NFL Power Rankings, and I'm a firm believer that defense wins championships.
But for an exercise like this, we have to take some risks and be willing to stick our neck out there for the sake of some actually bold predictions. Simply predicting three bad teams to lose every week is no fun.
The Lions came out of their bye week last week and played their best defensive game of the season against the Green Bay Packers. The Detroit offense has obviously been one of the best in the NFL all season, and nobody has been better under pressure this year than Jared Goff.
Jared Goff is now the best QB against the blitz by EPA per dropback https://t.co/GiDGct8dek pic.twitter.com/EfAqv4i4RV
— SūmerSports (@SumerSports) October 27, 2026
Brian Flores will absolutely be putting that to the test this week, but I've got the undefeated Vikings (who have won 3 road games to open this season) on upset alert -- even though they are 3-point road underdogs -- against the Lions.
3. Indianapolis Colts (@ Jaguars)
The Indianapolis Colts look about as hopeless as you can possibly look on a given week in the NFL. Their defense just gave one of its best efforts of the season in a tight loss against the Minnesota Vikings, and the team's decisions to trade both Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner will just be deflating.
I'm expecting the Colts to come out swinging in this type of game, and obviously it's different when you're playing a divisional opponent, but the Jaguars are also coming off a bye week here.
Could we see the Colts rally in a game like this and play some inspired football? Maybe, but the Jaguars are more likely to kick their division rivals while they're down.
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