Teams with Worst Records in NFL History

This is the kind of article that should come with a warning label. The following teams make you wince, laugh, and maybe even cry (depending on your rooting interests). It takes a special kind of…um…something to be this bad. So, for that, congratulations to our winners at losing.

The state of Florida might have the largest collection of bad teams in NFL history. Jacksonville’s success is partly due to the draft picks accumulated after the disaster at the start of the decade.

The Jaguars won their opener, then lost the rest of them. Of the three previous single-victory clubs, this team allowed more points than each — 30.8 per game. Only the 2008 and 2009 Lions were more generous (more on the Detroit bunch later).

But it wasn’t as if the offense did many favors. That group was 30th in the league in scoring, which equaled a dreadful point differential of -186. The Jags decided to bring in Urban Meyer as head coach the following season. So, yeah, it didn’t get much better.

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It also went south for the team in South Beach. It took overtime and a walk-off touchdown in the extra session at home against Baltimore on December 16 for the Dolphins to avoid a winless season.

Miami gave up a franchise-record 437 points, ranking 30th in the entire league. The offense failed to keep pace with the porous defense. They used three different quarterbacks with very little success. Their signal-callers — Trent Green, Cleon Lemon, and John Beck — combined to throw for 12 touchdowns.

Before the Week 15 triumph over the Ravens, the Dolphins were close to breaking through — coming within three points six different times. The low point was an inconceivable 3-0 Monday Night defeat in Pittsburgh.

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The third Sunshine State squad clouded by ineptitude is an expansion franchise that might be the most famous bad team ever. But in fairness, Tampa’s defense was respectable with future Hall of Famer LeRoy Selmon patrolling at linebacker.

But no amount of defense could stop what this team provided (or didn’t) on the other side of the ball. The offense was so bad that the Bucs lost eight games by at least 20 points, tied for the most by any team in a single season since the merger. Tampa was also shut out five times and averaged under nine points a game.

The Bucs were lucky that this was only a 14-game season. Unfortunately, they had to return for 1977, when they dropped their first 12. No franchise has touched their 26-game losing streak to open business.

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In the era of the 16-game season, which lasted from 1978 through 2020, 11 teams went 1-15. The 2016 Browns are among them, avoiding infamy with a Week 16 win.

Somehow, Cleveland outdid itself a year later. Similar to the ’76 Bucs, these Browns were more than competent on defense. Specifically, in stopping the run. This unit ranked seventh at 97.9 yards allowed per contest and second with 3.4 yards allowed per carry.

It was on offense where Cleveland was truly hampered. Browns QBs threw a league-high 28 interceptions and regularly put their defense in uncompromising spots. As it turned out, they allowed more points than all but one other team. And as you can imagine, they scored the least. The Browns’ attempt to salvage a completely lost year failed in a four-point defeat in Pittsburgh.

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Only these Lions know the feeling of a winless 16-game campaign. Before ’08, many said it couldn’t be done. But Detroit proved them all wrong.

All wrong would be a good way to describe the defense. The Lions’ 32.31 points per game allowed on is the third worst of any NFL team since the 1960s. The 517 total points given up was only 16 shy of the 1981 Colts record. These Lions were 30th in yards produced and 27th in scoring at 16.8 per game.

Of the many embarrassments of the year, a humiliating 47-10 loss on Thanksgiving Day offered an unappealing appetizer to a national TV audience. Detroit completed the 0-fer in Green Bay: 31-21 defeat to the Packers.

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A year later, the Rams made it known in the first half of the schedule they were fully capable of challenging the ’08 Lions — with early season losses of 28-0, 36-17, 35-0, 38-10, and 42-6.

St. Louis was a collective immovable object on offense, with 175 points for the year. That total easily eclipsed what the 1992 Seattle Seahawks had done to become the worst offense in NFL history. The Rams were blanked twice, scored 10 or fewer points nine times, and were outscored by 261 points.

In Week 8, they put it all together and found a way to scrap together a victory: 17-10 on November 8. Who was the team on the wrong end of that total? The Detroit Lions.

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When asked about the appeal of the ’91 Colts, a man said “Personally, I wouldn’t come out and watch a game.” That man was Eric Dickerson, who just happened to be Indy’s running back.

The Colts set NFL records at the time for the lowest points (143) and fewest touchdowns (14) in a 16-game season. Head coach Ron Meyer was put out of his misery after opening with five straight defeats and interim coach Rick Venturi couldn’t fare much better.

The lone victory came against the New York Jets by a single point in Week 14. Indianapolis is one of three 1-15 teams to win their lone game by one point. Seems like Dickerson was right.

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There’s a story that before the winless Texans played their Thanksgiving game against the Chicago Bears before a sparse crowd in Hershey, PA, head coach Jimmy Phelap suggested the players go up into the stands and introduce themselves man-to-fan.

Those who made it out saw a borderline miracle: the Texans defeated the Bears after Chicago coach George Halas used his second team. The former New York Yankees moved to the Lone Star State but found no success when it came to attendance, which prompted the league to take them over and move them back east.

They failed at scoring, too. Dallas’ margin of defeat was 20 points. In a stat that seems inconceivable today, the club didn’t kick a field goal all season.

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What makes this worse is that the Oilers preceded this one-win season with another one-win season. The ’73 performance is slightly worse thanks to the combined efforts of inept point-scoring ability (199), low rush yardage (1388), and a Swiss cheese defense (447 points allowed) that yielded the most points in the post-merger era for a 14-game season.

Quarterback Dan Pastorini eventually saw better days at the end of the decade, but the early part was rough. After setting the record for most times sacked in ’72, he broke it again in ’73. The football version of the flak jacket was later invented and used on Pastorini. He could have used it here.

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The roster still had several players who were contributors to their best times in the 80s. But the Pats aged fast and they couldn’t prevent an incredible downfall.

Just like the Colts a year later, these Patriots provided no reason for the home crowd to come and watch. They lost all games in Foxboro. Watching them anywhere was a risk to the eyes. The 24 points they put up in the season opener was the high-water mark for the offense. New England scored a touchdown or less in five games.

After beating Indianapolis to even its record at 1-1 under new head coach Rod Rust, New England dropped the final 14. The new head coach soon became the ex-head coach.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2024 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Top Lists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.