Caleb Wilfinger
NFL Conference Championship Weekend has come and gone, and it featured another all-time classic in the AFC between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs. And much like the recent previous installments in the Patrick Mahomes vs Josh Allen rivalry, the Bills found yet another excruciating way to lose a close game in the postseason. Buffalo’s tortured football history features crushing losses of all kinds, including 4 consecutive Super Bowl losses between 1991 and 1994. But what teams have never even had the chance to get their heart broken in the Super Bowl? Let’s take a look at the NFL franchises that have never made a Super Bowl, while you can also find out our Super Bowl picks for Chiefs vs Eagles at the Caesars Superdome on February 9.
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Jacksonville Jaguars
While there isn’t much hope for the Jacksonville Jaguars to be a Super Bowl-caliber team as presently constructed, there was a time when Jacksonville was within shouting distance of winning the Super Bowl in its infancy as a franchise. Shortly after they joined the NFL in 1995, the Jaguars found immediate success under head coach Tom Coughlin, including 2 trips to the AFC Championship Game. However, both of those title games ended in lopsided defeats, and the franchise reached the playoffs just twice in the next 17 years before making another run to the AFC Championship game in the 2017 season behind quarterback Blake Bortles and an elite defense. However, Jacksonville ultimately squandered a double-digit lead in the 4th quarter to Tom Brady’s Patriots in that game, which spoiled the team’s best shot to reach a Super Bowl to this point.
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Cleveland Browns
While the Cleveland Browns are one of the more historical significant franchises in the NFL, they have not had much success to speak about in the Super Bowl era. The closest the Browns have come to reaching the Super Bowl was in the late 1980s, when Cleveland reached the AFC Championship in 1986, 1987 and 1989, only to lose to John Elway and the Broncos in each game. In recent decades, Cleveland has hardly made the playoffs, much less sniff a Super Bowl appearance. In fact, over the past 30 years, the Browns have more winless seasons than Super Bowl appearances. Ouch.
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Houston Texans
This inclusion isn’t too surprising, as the Texans are still the newest franchise in the NFL (founded in 2002). With that said, it’s not as if Houston hasn’t had its chances in the postseason. The Texans have yet to reach the AFC Championship in their franchise history, despite having plenty of talented and capable teams over the past decade. Houston’s most infamous postseason loss is undoubtedly in the 2019 Divisional Round, when the Deshaun Watson-led Texans held a 24-point lead over the Chiefs in the first half, only for Kansas City to quickly rally and outscore Houston 51-7 over the final 3 quarters en route to a convincing victory.
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Detroit Lions
The Lions are perhaps the closest thing we have to the pre-2016 Chicago Cubs in the NFL at this point. Detroit is one of the oldest franchises in the league, yet the Lions do not have a Super Bowl appearance and one of the most disappointing playoff histories of any current team. In fact, Detroit has made the NFC Championship game just twice in the Super Bowl era, with one of those appearances coming in 2023 against the 49ers. In that game, the Lions seemed poised to make their first ever Super Bowl appearance, but San Francisco erased a 17-point halftime deficit and defeated Detroit to punch its Super Bowl ticket while delivering more pain to Lions fans in the process.
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