Most of the current NFL franchises have won a Super Bowl, but 12 teams have yet to capture the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
The teams without a Super Bowl win:
- Arizona Cardinals
- Atlanta Falcons
- Buffalo Bills
- Carolina Panthers
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Cleveland Browns
- Detroit Lions
- Houston Texans
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Minnesota Vikings
- Tennessee Titans
Some of the best online betting sites allow sports fans to wager on a “first-time winner” as a simple yes/no proposition. A first-time Super Bowl winner in the 2023-24 season was a significant betting odds underdog, as the league’s best teams have won the title before.
Let’s look at the NFL teams without a Super Bowl victory.
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals started as the Chicago Cardinals in 1920 and won two NFL championships, but they haven’t won any Super Bowls. They haven’t been very competitive either, with more than 200 losses than wins in their franchise history. They were the St. Louis Cardinals from 1960-1987 and have been the Phoenix or Arizona Cardinals since then.
The Cardinals have only nine playoff appearances in the Super Bowl era, including during the 2008 season when Kurt Warner helped lead them to Super Bowl XLIII. However, Arizona lost 27-23 to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Santonio Holmes’ iconic game-winning TD with 35 seconds left (but did cover as a 7-point underdog).
The Cardinals went 13-3 and made the NFC Championship Game during the 2015 season but haven’t been past the wild-card round of the playoffs since.
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons have been in the NFL since 1966 but have yet to win a Super Bowl. The Falcons are well below .500 all-time and have only made 14 playoff appearances. Still, they have appeared in two Super Bowls.
The first was during the 1998 season after Atlanta upset a heavily favored 15-1 Minnesota Vikings team in the NFC Championship Game 30-27 in overtime. The Falcons lost handily (34-19) to the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII in a game that wasn’t even as close as that score.
Most people know Atlanta’s second Super Bowl appearance, which came with quarterback Matt Ryan during the 2016 season. The Falcons were up 28-3 in Super LI against the New England Patriots before allowing 31 unanswered points to lose 34-28 in overtime. Worst of all for Atlanta +3 spread bettors was that they somehow didn’t even cover that game.
The Falcons haven’t been back to the postseason since the 2017 campaign.
Buffalo Bills
Several teams on this list have had bad luck, and the Buffalo Bills rank high here. A former AFL team that won two championships, the Bills are the only NFL franchise to ever reach four consecutive Super Bowls (1990-1993 seasons). Unfortunately, Buffalo lost every single one of them.
The closest the Bills came to winning the Lombardi Trophy was in Super Bowl XXV (1990 season) when Buffalo kicker Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal during the final minute and the New York Giants won 20-19. It was the only one of the Bills’ four Super Bowls that they were favored in.
Buffalo lost to the Washington Redskins 37-24 in Super Bowl XXVI and then had the misfortune of going up against a juggernaut Dallas Cowboys dynasty in the next two Super Bowls. The Bills haven’t been back to the Big Game since then despite winning four straight AFC East titles from 2020-2023.
Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are in a different position than most teams on this list because they were an expansion team in 1995. Carolina played well in its first two seasons, including losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers in their second season. However, the franchise didn’t make the postseason again until the 2003 campaign.
In that season, Jake Delhomme, Steve Smith and Muhsin Muhammad helped lead the 11-5 Panthers all the way to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, they ran into a quarterback named Tom Brady in that Super Bowl and lost 32-29 on a last-second game-winning field goal by Adam Vinatieri.
Carolina also made the Super Bowl in the 2015 campaign behind NFL MVP Cam Newton, racking up a 15-1 regular-season record. However, the Panthers fell 24-10 to Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos despite being 5-point favorites.
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals are a team that has had several periods of being extremely competitive, reaching the Super Bowl three times since entering the league in 1970.
The Bengals made the championship game twice in the 1980s – Super Bowl XVI in the 1981 season and Super Bowl XXIII in the 1988 season – but lost both games to the San Francisco 49ers. In Super Bowl XXIII, Cincinnati took a 16-13 lead with 3:44 left, but Joe Montana led the 49ers down the field for an 11-play TD drive to win the game 20-16.
The Bengals were good for periods in the 2000s and 2010s under Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton, making five straight playoff appearances from 2011-2015, but consistently came up short against the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts.
Cincinnati vaulted back into contention after drafting Joe Burrow No. 1 overall in 2020, making the Super Bowl in just his second season but losing 23-20 to the Los Angeles Rams. With Burrow locked up to a big contract, the Bengals could finally win a title soon.
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns have won many championships as a franchise but no Super Bowls. Cleveland won a championship in its inaugural NFL season in 1950 and again in 1954, 1955 and 1964.
However, it’s been tough sledding since then – the Browns have never even appeared in a Super Bowl.
Cleveland was a contender in the 1980s with Bernie Kosar but lost three separate times to the Denver Broncos in AFC title games (see: The Drive, The Fumble).
Since 1990, the Browns have only made the postseason three times. They even became the second team in history to go 0-16 in an entire season in 2017, going winless under coach Hue Jackson.
While Cleveland’s defense was extraordinary in 2023, it’s tough to see the team winning a Super Bowl with its never-ending quarterback woes.
Detroit Lions
It’s been a rough go for Detroit Lions fans. Since winning four NFL championships between 1935 and 1957, the Lions have won only three playoff games and are 0-12 on the road. It’s almost incomprehensible.
Detroit made the playoffs six times in the 1990s, but there have been a lot of dry spells. The Lions have only made four postseason appearances since then, losing in the wild-card round three times.
With Dan Campbell as head coach and a roster filled with young talent, the future looks bright for Detroit after reaching the NFC Championship Game this year. However, it only produced more heartbreak as the Lions blew a 24-7 lead to the San Francisco 49ers.
Houston Texans
The NFL’s most recent expansion team (2002), the Houston Texans, drafted David Carr No. 1 overall to be their quarterback of the future. It didn’t work out so well, however, as Houston didn’t have a winning season until 2009 and didn’t make the playoffs until 2011.
The Texans were competitive throughout the 2010s and won the AFC South six times), but failed to make any AFC championship games.
With C.J. Stroud – the No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft and 2023 Offensive Rookie of the Year – looking like a franchise-changing quarterback, things may be on the upswing again for Houston and new head coach DeMeco Ryans, especially after reaching the postseason in Stroud’s rookie year.
Jacksonville Jaguars
The other expansion team to come into the league in 1995 with the Carolina Panthers, the Jacksonville Jaguars, have usually been either very good or very bad without many seasons in between. They reached the playoffs in four of their first five seasons but have only made the postseason four times since 2000, never reaching the Super Bowl despite appearing in three conference championship games.
Jacksonville was closest in the 2017 season when the Jaguars squared off with the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. Jacksonville was up 20-10 at one point, and linebacker Myles Jack forced and recovered a fumble for a touchdown, but Jack was ruled down by contact. The Jaguars went on to lose the game 24-20.
Los Angeles Chargers
Originally the San Diego Chargers until 2017, the Los Angeles Chargers have experienced great success as a franchise – just not in making it to Super Bowls. The Chargers have made the postseason 15 times since 1970 and have been to four AFC title games but only one Super Bowl.
The famous “Air Coryell” offense in the 1980s with Dan Fouts helped the team to the 1980 and 1981 AFC title games, but they lost both.
During the 1994 season, quarterback Stan Humphries, running back Natrone Means and linebacker Junior Seau helped lead San Diego to its only Super Bowl appearance in Super Bowl XXIX against the San Francisco 49ers. Unfortunately, the 49ers were 18-point favorites and won easily, 49-26.
The Chargers were one of the AFC’s top teams in the 2000s with LaDainian Tomlinson, Drew Brees and then Philip Rivers, but they haven’t been to the Super Bowl in nearly three decades.
Minnesota Vikings
Of all the teams on this list, the Minnesota Vikings are arguably the most successful. They have more regular-season wins than losses and have usually been competitive since the late 1960s.
The Vikings are 0-4 in Super Bowls, all during the “Purple People Eaters” era from 1969 to 1976.
Minnesota’s best chance may have come in Super Bowl IV, when the Vikings were 12-point favorites over Hank Stram’s Kansas City Chiefs in the first year after the AFL/NFL merger.
Minnesota lost that game 23-7 and hasn’t been back to the Super Bowl since then, despite close calls in 1998 (15-1 team with Randy Moss), 2009 (Brett Favre interception and Saints win in OT) and 2017 (Case Keenum leads Minnesota to NFC Championship Game after Minneapolis Miracle; Vikings lose 34-7 to Philadelphia Eagles).
Minnesota hasn’t been to the Super Bowl in nearly half a century.
Tennessee Titans
Originally named the Oilers until the late 1990s, the Tennessee Titans have only reached one Super Bowl. The lone appearance was during the 1999 campaign.
During the 1992 season, the Oilers were on the losing end of what was then the biggest playoff comeback in NFL history when the Buffalo Bills came back from a 35-3 deficit to win 41-38 in overtime in the Wild Card Round.
The Titans’ greatest franchise quarterbacks have been Warren Moon and Steve McNair. McNair led Tennessee to its only Super Bowl appearance during the 1999 season, where the Titans came up agonizingly short. We’ve all seen the picture of wide receiver Kevin Dyson reaching out at the one-yard line and coming up short as time ran out when Tennessee lost to the St. Louis Rams 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV.
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