Reid Kerr

This week’s column is all about frustration. Chiefs fans, you’re excused from this discussion.

At the start of every season, every team has a chance. Hope springs eternal, and all that. Whether you’re the defending champs or coming off a high draft pick, there’s enough turnover in the league that every fanbase can have high hopes.

Fast forward to week 11, and most of those high expectations have just set fans up for a beating.

When I talk about who is the most disappointing team, not everyone qualifies for the top levels. Teams like the Giants, Bears, and Panthers might be a slight downer, but imagining they were seriously going to compete for a championship was somewhere between “delusional” and “Skip Bayless.” You have to have a reasonable anticipation of success for it to really hurt, so with that in mind, here’s my top five most disappointing teams of the year.

At number five, the Saints. And honestly, they shouldn’t even be on the list. If not for that opening two-game winning streak, they would have had much more sensible expectations. If those two wins were scattered over the first two months, they might not have hit the panic button and fired their head coach, but here they are.

My fourth-most disappointing team is the Browns. They’re only ranked this low because let’s face it, disappointment is an expectation in Cleveland. You’ve got a great defense and you’re coming off a playoff season, and you finally might get the quarterback you traded the farm for to stay healthy for a season. Instead, he shows up for work with a dedication level I can only describe as “Office Space”-esque, and they waste a whole season of Myles Garrett’s career.

Put the Bengals in at number three. Joe Burrow is an MVP-level player every single season, and he’s phenomenal again this year. However, Cincinnati is, and has always been one of the worst front offices in pro sports. They do well when they draft well, but they don’t spend money to bring in talent. They’re nickel-and-diming their top receiver, about to let their second best walk, and gave up on Joe Mixon for a seventh-round pick just to watch him rush for more yards a game than their entire team. Bengals fans don’t want to admit it, but Burrow is good enough to give them hope just so the rest of this team can break their hearts every single year.

Cowboys fans, you’re probably disappointed you’re not the number one disappointment, and you could certainly make a case for it. Year in and year out since 1996, this team has broken hearts in the regular season and playoffs alike. It’s a combination of optimism and … well, delusion that keeps expectations so high for a team that rarely deserves it. We wish we could quit you, Cowboys. We wish we could take a long nap and wake up after Jerry Jones has sold the team to someone who’ll actually hire a general manager. But until that’s possible, every year will be “Our Year” until inevitably it isn’t.

And Jets fans, congratulations. You’re finally the best at something, even if it is delivering crushing disappointment to your long-suffering fans. More than 50 years without a Super Bowl. Fourteen years without a playoff spot. Many, many can’t-miss quarterbacks who still missed spectacularly. You finally get a star to build around and he gets hurt in four plays. He comes back the next year and you struggle, so you fire the coach, trade for Aaron Rodgers’ best friend, pay your holdout defensive star, and somehow get even worse. The Jets have a tremendous and loyal fanbase, and every year they show up to cheer on this house of cards.

Or more accurately, the house from Poltergeist. It’s cursed.

Time for my week 11 picks.Last week I went 5-1 but just 2-4 against the Vegas point spreads. In my defense,I did pick two major upsets correctly while still underestimating every single easy game. Lesson learned there. On the season, I’m now 42-21 and 30-33 against Vegas. As always, these are for the purposes of comedic discussion only. No wagering.

Houston (-7.5) at Dallas: The highlight of this Monday night home game for the Cowboys will probably be not having to talk about the sun blinding anyone in the postgame press conferences.

Pick: Texans to win and cover, winning by eight points or more, and we all go to bed early.

Cincinnati (+1.5) at LA Chargers: The rest of the league this year is 41-4 when scoring 33 points or more. Somehow, the Bengals are 2-3 when they score that many. That is an amazingly depressing stat. it’s like having a losing record when the opposing team forgets to come back out after halftime.

Pick: Bengals to win it outright.

Indianapolis (+4) at NY Jets: This game was flexed out of the Sunday night prime time matchup, and it will now be on television Sunday morning at 7:13 a.m., between “Meet the Press” and reruns of “Davey and Goliath.”

Pick: Jets to win and cover, winning by five points or more.

Kansas City (+2) at Buffalo: For the Bills, this is somehow an absolutely must-win game this week, yet in the longer view, utterly meaningless. In football terms, this is the equivalent of that “Tiger King” show.

Pick: Chiefs to win it outright.

Baltimore (-3) at Pittsburgh: Mike Tomlin is somewhere between “Hall of Fame Coach” and “Vegas Magician” at this point. Resurrecting Russell Wilson’s career is somewhat akin to making the Statue of Liberty disappear.

Pick: Ravens to win and cover, winning by four points or more.

Cleveland (+1) at New Orleans: I tried to look up the point spread on this game, and it immediately connected me with the Gamblers Anonymous Hotline.

Pick: Browns to win it outright.

I’ll also take the Dolphins over the Raiders, the 49ers over the Seahawks, and guys in costumes over live animal mascots, especially predators. Good luck, everybody.