Image via Complex Original
Everybody loves a winner. So over the years, teams like the 1985 Chicago Bears, the 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers, and, of course, the 1972 Miami Dolphins—the only team to ever finish a season with a perfect 17-0 record—have been celebrated time and time again for what they were able to accomplish in the NFL. But what about the lovable losers of the league? During the 93-year history of the NFL, there have been plenty of those, too. From the 1934 Cincinnati Reds, who scored just one touchdown all season, to the 2008 Detroit Lions, who are "celebrating" the fifth anniversary of their imperfect 0-16 season this year, we've assembled a list of The 25 Worst NFL Teams of All Time. It's hard to hate on teams that were this awful.
25. 2009 St. Louis Rams
Record: 1-15
Head coach: Steve Spagnuolo
Between 2007 and 2009, the Rams won just six games. It was the worst record for an NFL team over a three-year period in more than sixty years (the Chicago Cardinals won just one game between 1943 and 1945, mostly because of the effect that World War II had on the team). And 2009 was definitely the worst year of all for St. Louis. The Rams scored just 175 points during the 2009 NFL season—or just over 10 points per game—making them the sixth lowest-scoring team ever in a 16-game season. And had they not managed to knock off the hapless Detroit Lions in Week 8, they likely would have finished 0-16 and landed much, much higher on this list.
24. 1944 Card-Pitt (a combination of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Cardinals teams)
Record: 0-10
Head coaches: Phil Handler/Walt Kiesling
We were initially hesitant to put this team on the list because, in all fairness, they weren't really an NFL team. Instead, they were two teams that were merged together in August 1943 because the NFL had 11 teams at the time and needed to figure out a way to schedule teams to play against one another. So Card-Pitt had just one month to come together and get ready for the 1943 season. And just to further complicate things, the Card-Pitt team—like many other NFL teams at the time—lost quite a few players who were called to serve in the military during World War II. So it's not exactly shocking that they weren't successful. But 0-10 is still 0-10, and they hold the distinction of being one of the few NFL teams to go winless during a season. So how could we not put them on this list?
23. 1960 Dallas Cowboys
Record: 0-11-1
Head coach: Tom Landry
To be fair, the Cowboys were supposed to be bad back in 1960. It was the inaugural season for the franchise, and they didn't actually enter the NFL until after the 1960 NFL Draft, which meant that their team was made up solely of players that they picked up in an expansion draft that featured a lot of second-team players from other NFL teams. They put up a fight at the beginning of the season, losing close contests to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles, but the lone bright spot in their season was a tie against the New York Giants. Fortunately, they never had another season quite as bad as this one.
22. 1949 New York Bulldogs
Record: 1-10-1
Head coach: Charley Ewart
The Bulldogs finished last in almost every major statistical category during the 1949 NFL season. They scored just 153 points (second-worst in the league). They allowed 368 points (worst in the league). And they had a takeaway/giveaway differential of -17 (worst in the league). The numbers don't lie. When you're that inept on both sides of the ball, you're going to go down as one of the worst teams to ever line up on an NFL football field.
21. 2001 Carolina Panthers
Record: 1-15
Head coach: George Seifert
These days, it's not uncommon to see a rookie quarterback start and be successful in the NFL. However, back in 2001, it was almost unheard of for a rookie QB to step right in and lead his team to a winning record. But the Panthers threw their 2001 fourth-round draft pick Chris Weinke to the wolves anyway—and his first and only season as an NFL starter turned out to be a complete disaster. He averaged 36 passes per game, a record for a rookie QB at the time, but completed less than 55 percent of them. He also threw 19 interceptions to just 11 touchdowns. Those numbers explain why the Panthers record was so bad that season.
20. 1967 Atlanta Falcons
Record: 1-12-1
Head coach: Norb Hecker
After somehow managing to go a respectable 3-9 during their franchise's inaugural season in 1966, the Falcons fell apart in year two. Although they managed to tie the Washington Redskins in Week 5 of the season and beat the Minnesota Vikings 21-20 in Week 7 of the season, they lost all of their other games, often by double digits. It was part of a rough start for the Falcons, who didn't make the playoffs for the first time until the 1978 season.
19. 1942 Detroit Lions
Record: 0-11
Head coach: Bill Edwards/Bull Karcis
Believe it or not, the Lions have finished winless two times during the history of the franchise. And while the 2008 team is the one that seems to catch most of the heat for being so inept, the 1942 Lions squad was almost as bad. Of the 11 games they played in that season, they got shut out in five of their games. They also never managed to score more than seven points in a game. So while the 2008 Lions finished with a worse record than the 1942 Lions, this team wasn't much better than that one.
18. 1981 Baltimore Colts
Record: 2-14
Head coach: Mike McCormack
During the 1981 season, the Colts set all kinds of records. Unfortunately, none of them were good records. They allowed the most points ever (533), the most touchdowns ever (68), the most first downs ever (406), and the most yards ever (6,793). And if it wasn't for the New England Patriots, who also finished 2-14 in 1981, there's a good chance they wouldn't have won a single game that year (both their wins came against the Pats). And to think, Coach McCormack actually thought he had a playoff team prior to the start of the season.
17. 1943 Chicago Cardinals
Record: 0-10
Head coach: Phil Handler
We know that there wasn't a lot of scoring in the NFL back in the 1940s. But the Cardinals managed to score just 95 points during the 1943 season. Let that sink in. 95 POINTS! Today, that's the total output for most NFL teams, even bad NFL teams, in three or four games. So you really don't have to look too far to realize why this team failed to win a single game that season.
16. 1989 Dallas Cowboys
Record: 1-15
Head coach: Jimmy Johnson
For the first and only time in the history of Monday Night Football, the Cowboys were not featured on MNF during the 1989 NFL season. And it wasn't hard to see why. The Cowboys played two rookie quarterbacks during the '89 season—Troy Aikman and Steve Walsh—and struggled to do much on the offensive side of the ball. Their lone win came against the Washington Redskins in Week 9. Other than that, the only positive thing that happened to the Cowboys during the season came in October when they convinced the Minnesota Vikings to trade them five players and eight draft picks in exchange for running back Herschel Walker and four draft picks. The trade helped lay the foundation for the Cowboys' success during the 1990s.
15. 1925 Columbus Tigers
Record: 0-9
Head coach: Red Weaver
In nine NFL games, the Tigers scored just 28 points. That's only about one field goal per game, which is horrible to say the least. But we will give the Tigers credit for one thing. In addition to nine NFL games, they also scheduled games against the Columbus Wagner Pirates and the Columbus All-Stars, two non-NFL teams. And they won both of those games, meaning that technically they went 2-9 overall for the season, which sounds much better than 0-9. Maybe the 2008 Detroit Lions should have tried the same thing.
14. 1982 Baltimore Colts
Record: 0-8-1
Head coach: Frank Kush
Prior to the 2008 Detroit Lions going winless, the Colts were the last NFL team to finish a season without a single win. And here's why: They could not move the football. In one game against the Buffalo Bills—a 20-0 loss—they actually failed to cross the 50-yard line at all. Had they played the seven games that were cancelled in 1982 due to a strike, they may have gone down as a better team historically. Then again, four of the seven games that were cancelled were against teams that beat them by more than 10 points at a different time during the season, so maybe not...
13. 1952 Dallas Texans
Record: 1-11
Head coach: Jimmy Phelan
The problem with the '52 Texans was that they had no identity and no talent. After an unsuccessful 1951 season in New York City as the New York Yankees (weird, right?), the team moved to Dallas in 1952. However, they lost the first half of their games by an average of 20 points and simply couldn't compete with other NFL teams. In fact, it got so bad that with five games remaining on their schedule the NFL took control of the team and moved them out of Dallas. They ended up playing their final home game—which, miraculously, they won because the Chicago Bears sent their second-string players to match up against them—in Akron, Ohio. It was a strange season for the Texans to say the least.
12. 1996 New York Jets
Record: 1-15
Head coach: Rich Kotite
Prior to the 1996 NFL season, the Jets went out and spent $70 million on free agents and rookie contracts. They added guys like quarterback Neil O'Donnell, wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, and offensive tackle Jumbo Elliott to their roster. But after starting the season 0-6, O'Donnell injured his shoulder during pre-game warmups before the Jets' seventh game and was lost for the season. And all hell broke loose from there with the Jets limping through a season that featured just one win. The only good thing to come out of it? Bill Parcells, who agreed to join the Jets as their head coach the following season.
11. 1934 Cincinnati Reds
Record: 0-8
Head coach: Algy Clark
The Reds couldn't score. Through eight games in the 1934 NFL season, they tallied just one touchdown and one field goal. They also had a very porous defense, which gave up 6.4 rushing yards per attempt. It made them the worst run defense in the history of the NFL, a distinction that they still hold. Oh, and get this: Things started to get so bad for the Reds that they actually threw in the white towel and folded as a franchise with three games left in the season. What a terrible way to go out.
10. 1992 Seattle Seahawks
Record: 2-14
Head coach: Tom Flores
There a lot of teams on this list who had really bad offenses. But the 1992 Seahawks probably had the worst of this entire bunch. During the 1992 NFL season, Seattle scored just 140 points (that's less than nine points per game!) and only managed to string together 1,778 passing yards. Strangely, the Seahawks did have a great defense—defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy was named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1992—but their D couldn't help Seattle avoid finishing with the lowest winning percentage in franchise history.
9. 2000 San Diego Chargers
Record: 1-15
Head coach: Mike Riley
The Chargers were bad—real, real, real, real, reeeeeeal bad—when it came to gaining rushing yards (and they were forced to rush a lot since Ryan Leaf was their quarterback at the time). They ended the 2000 NFL season with just 1,062 yards on the ground, making them the least successful rushing team of all time. They actually lost a handful of games by three points or less—including three games by one point and two games by two points—but, unfortunately, a loss is a loss regardless of how many points you lose by. And the Chargers ended the season with 15 losses. The only good thing about that was that it allowed them to draft LaDainian Tomlinson the following spring.
8. 1971 Buffalo Bills
Record: 1-13
Head coach: Harvey Johnson
Just before the start of the 1971 NFL season, Bills head coach John Rauch called it quits, which forced Buffalo to hand the reins of the team over to their pro personnel director Harvey Johnson. And things turned out about as well as you would expect them to when you make a big change like that right before the season starts. The Bills offense and the Bills defense both ranked dead last in the league during the season. And despite having future NFL great O.J. Simpson on the team (he rushed for just 750 yards that season), the Bills couldn't do anything on either side of the ball. The result was a disastrous season that forced the Bills to change their offensive philosophy and run the ball more—a lot more—the following season.
7. 1991 Indianapolis Colts
Record: 1-15
Head coach: Ron Meyer/Rick Venturi
Despite the fact that the Colts had six-time Pro Bowl running back Eric Dickerson in their backfield in 1991, they couldn't manufacture any offense. They put up just 143 points that year, the lowest point total of any NFL team in a 16-game season up until that point. Things actually got so bad that Dickerson more or less told fans to stop coming to games. "I wouldn't come out and watch a game," he said. "No way I'd pay to see someone play the way we are." Fortunately, the Colts squeaked out a one-point win against the New York Jets in Week 11. Otherwise, they very well could have finished 0-16 and gone down as the worst NFL team ever.
6. 1980 New Orleans Saints
Record: 1-15
Head coach: Dick Nolan/Dick Stanfel
The Saints had absolutely no running game. Jimmy Rogers, their leading rusher that year, barely topped 350 yards on the entire season, which forced quarterback Archie Manning to throw constantly. Eventually, New Orleans fans started referring to their hometown team as the "Aints" and routinely showed up to games with brown paper bags over their heads. They somehow managed to eek a win out over the New York Jets in Week 15 of the season to avoid going 0-16. But it didn't make their fans feel any better about their team, and they were forced to wait all the way until 1988 to make the playoffs again.
5. 1973 Houston Oilers
Record: 1-13
Head coach: Bill Peterson/Sid Gillman
During the 1973 NFL season, the Oilers' offense stunk. They couldn't run the ball (they finished last in rushing with 1388 yards), they couldn't get first downs (they only managed to pick up 193), and they couldn't protect their quarterback Dan Pastorini, who routinely played with broken ribs in the early 1970s (he was the first quarterback to wear a "flak jacket"). And they weren't much better on defense, either, giving up 447 points that season. Those things combined to create a recipe for disaster, which was exactly what the 1973 season was for the Oilers.
4. 1977 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Record: 2-12
Head coach: John McKay
During the 1976 and 1977 seasons, the Buccaneers lost 26 consecutive games. They went 0-14 in 1976 (more on that later) and then lost their first 12 games in 1977. In '77, they were pitiful on offense, scoring just six touchdowns the entire season and setting a league record by getting shut out in six of their 14 games. They did finally win a game in Week 13—a 33-14 victory over the New Orleans Saints that earned them a celebration back in Tampa the following day that featured more than 8,000 fans welcoming them home—but it wasn't enough to save them from cementing their legacy as one of the worst NFL teams ever.
3. 1990 New England Patriots
Record: 1-15
Head coach: Rod Rust
The Patriots were bad both on and off of the football field. During the 1990 season, they scored just 181 points total while giving up 446 points. It was the worst point differential in the NFL during the 1990s. And as if that wasn't bad enough, they also managed to spoil the one win that they did get during the season. After beating the Indianapolis Colts 16-14 in Week 2 of the season, tight end Zeke Mowatt, running back Robert Perryman, and wide receiver Michael Timpson were accused of sexually harassing Lisa Olson of the Boston Globe in the Patriots' locker room. Basically, the season couldn't have gone any worse for New England.
2. 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Record: 0-14
Head coach: John McKay
They couldn't score and they couldn't stop other teams from scoring. It's as simple as that. During the season, they averaged less than nine points per game and gave up more than 20. They also struggled to move the ball on offense with quarterback Steve Spurrier throwing just seven touchdowns during the entire season. The season was such a letdown for the Bucs that, according to defensive lineman Pat Toomay, their head coach stopped talking to the team after Week 3 of the season. "He wanted nothing to do with us," he said back in 2001. "I can't blame him, really." Us, either.
1. 2008 Detroit Lions
Record: 0-16
Head coach: Rod Marinelli
The Lions had plenty of chances to win at least one game during the 2008 NFL season. Although they suffered their fair share of blowouts throughout the year, they also lost four games by a touchdown or less. So they very easily could have finished 1-15, 2-14, or even 3-13. But they didn't. They finished 0-16, and their season was summed up perfectly by their radio play-by-play announcer Dan Miller after they lost their 16th game of the season to the Green Bay Packers. "For 16 weeks, starting in Atlanta back in September, they took the field thinking this was gonna be their day," he said. "Sixteen times they were wrong...They are the worst team in league history." You won't get an argument from us.