The worst NFL teams of the Super Bowl era

Highlights

• The 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished their debut season with a disastrous 0-14 record.
• The 1982 Baltimore Colts managed only to tie one game during the strike-shortened season.
• The 2008 Detroit Lions and the 2017 Cleveland Browns are the only two teams to finish with an 0-16 record.

Simply put, there have been a lot of bad NFL teams over the years, teams whose victories in a given season could be counted on one hand. But bad teams aren’t the topic of discussion here. No, this is a discussion about the worst NFL teams of the Super Bowl era, teams so terrible that one doesn’t have to lift a single finger to count the wins accumulated during a single season.

Now, it’s not that there weren’t any winless NFL teams before the first Super Bowl was played following the 1966 season. In fact, there were eight among teams that played at least eight games in a season.

But as the initial instances occurred before true standardized scheduling was implemented and several others took place during World War II, when the player pool was depleted, we’ve opted to stick with the worst NFL teams of the Super Bowl era.

But for those who are curious, here’s the list:

• Columbus Panhandles, 1925, 0-8
• Columbus Tigers, 1925, 0-9
• Cincinnati Reds, 1934, 0-8 (the franchise folded before the season ended)
• Detroit Lions, 1942, 0-11
• Chicago Cardinals, 1943, 0-10
• Card-Pitt, 1944, 0-10 (the Cardinals and Steelers merged due to player shortages)
• Brooklyn Tigers, 1944, 0-10
• Dallas Cowboys, 1960, 0-11-1 (this was the Cowboys’ debut season)

For those wondering, there was never a winless AFL team during the league’s 10-year history from 1960 to 1969. The AFL-NFL merger was completed in 1970.

Since then, there have been four franchises that failed to win a game during a single season. So, without further ado, let’s have a look at the worst NFL teams of the Super Bowl era.

1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1976, 0-14

The Bucs didn’t win a single game during their debut season

The 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season marked the franchise’s inaugural year in the NFL (it was also their lone year in the AFC), and it remains the worst season in team history, going 0-14 in their debut campaign.

In their first two games, Tampa Bay didn’t score a single point, getting outscored 43-0, and this trend continued as they were held scoreless five times. The closest the Bucs came to victory were consecutive three-point losses in Weeks 6 and 7 to the Seattle Seahawks and Miami Dolphins, respectively, their only other single-digit loss being a 14-9 defeat to the Buffalo Bills in Week 3.

The 1976 Tampa team set a dubious record by finishing the season with the worst point differential in NFL history at -287, a mark that stands to this day. Offensively, they scored just 125 points (8.9 per game), while their defense allowed a staggering 412 (29.4 per game).

The Buccaneers also lost the first 12 games of the 1977 season, finally earning a victory over the New Orleans Saints in Week 13 to halt their losing streak at 26.

2 Baltimore Colts, 1982, 0-8-1

The Colts at least tied one game during the strike-shortened 1982 NFL season

Coming off a dismal 2-14 season in 1981, the then-Baltimore Colts made a change at head coach, replacing Mike McCormack with Frank Kush. The team also made a change at quarterback, replacing two-time All-Pro Bert Jones with rookie Mike Pagel, who was the last Colts player to wear No. 18 before Peyton Manning.

But neither of these changes amounted to much, at least not in 1982.

The 1982 season, of course, comes with a bit of an asterisk as the campaign was shortened to nine games due to a 57-day players’ strike, which began after Week 2, a week during which Baltimore took just a four-point loss to the Miami Dolphins, one of three defeats of four points or fewer on the year.

After dropping their first six games, the Colts were able to muster a 20-20 tie against the Green Bay Packers in Week 7, but then took double-digit losses to the San Diego Chargers and Dolphins to close the year, ultimately finishing with an 0-8-1 record.

The Colts improved to 7-9 in 1983, but regressed upon leaving Baltimore, going a combined 12-36 in their first three seasons in Indianapolis.

3 Detroit Lions, 2008, 0-16

The Lions are the only NFL team in existence with two winless seasons

Infamously known as the first team to go winless in a 16-game season, the 2008 Detroit Lions, who went 4-0 in the preseason, became one of the worst NFL teams of the Super Bowl era by giving up a franchise-worst 517 points (32.3 per game), easily the worst mark in the league.

But it’s not as if the Lions’ offense was much better, ranking 27th of 32 teams, averaging 16.8 points per game. The team started three different quarterbacks during the 2008 season — Dan Orlovsky, Daunte Culpepper, and Jon Kitna — with Drew Stanton and Drew Henson getting a few reps as well.

Detroit’s -249 point differential stands as the seventh-worst in NFL history.

The lone bright spot for the Lions that season was Calvin Johnson, who broke out in his second season with 1,331 receiving yards and a league-best 12 receiving touchdowns.

The closest Detroit came to victory was a 12-10 defeat to the rival Minnesota Vikings in Week 6. A 31-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers clinched the first 0-16 season in NFL history. With their 0-11 campaign in 1942, the Lions are the only team still in existence with multiple winless seasons.

4 Cleveland Browns, 2017, 0-16

The 2017 Browns were the best of the worst NFL teams of the Super Bowl era

Like the 2008 Lions, the 2017 Cleveland Browns went a perfect 4-0 during the preseason. But that was as good as it got.

After posting a 1-15 record in 2016, only avoiding a winless campaign with a Week 16 win over the Chargers, the Browns went all the way in 2017, although their 0-16 season wasn’t quite as embarrassing as Detroit’s — if that makes any sense.

Sure, the Browns’ offense ranked 31st in scoring, averaging just 14.6 points per game. And while the defense ranked last in points allowed (25.6 per game), Cleveland gave up 107 fewer points than the Lions in ’08.

In addition, the Browns were much more competitive. Yes, they took 16 losses. But of those 16, two came in overtime. They took seven single-digit losses, six of which were by six points or less, with four being by three points. But a loss is a loss, right? Thus, the 2017 Browns have to be considered among the worst NFL teams of the Super Bowl era.

No team has gone winless since the NFL changed to a 17-game schedule in 2021.

All stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference unless stated otherwise.

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