Worst Record in NFL History

The worst regular-season record in NFL history is 0-16, and two teams share it: the 2008 Detroit Lions and the 2017 Cleveland Browns. They are the only franchises ever to lose every game of a full 16-game schedule, edging past the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who went 0-14 as an expansion team.

Because the length of the NFL season has changed over the decades, “worst record” is really a question about total losses. A winless year is the ultimate mark of failure, but a team that goes 0-16 has lost more games than one that went 0-14 or 0-11. Here is how the league’s winless seasons rank, and why the two 0-16 clubs sit at the bottom. All figures are through the 2025 season.

The record: two 0-16 seasons

The 2008 Detroit Lions became the first team to go 0-16, losing all 16 games under coach Rod Marinelli in a season that also cost general manager Matt Millen his job. Nine years later, the 2017 Cleveland Browns matched them, going 0-16 under Hue Jackson and capping a two-year collapse in which they won just one game total.

Both seasons stand alone as the most losses in a single year. You can read the full stories in our profiles of the Detroit Lions’ 0-16 season and the Browns’ 0-16 season.

The full leaderboard of winless seasons

The table below ranks the NFL’s winless seasons by total losses, spanning every era of the league.

Team	Season	Record	Note
Detroit Lions	2008	0-16	First 16-game winless season
Cleveland Browns	2017	0-16	Second 0-16 team
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	1976	0-14	Expansion, worst of 14-game era
Dallas Cowboys	1960	0-11-1	Expansion year, one tie
Detroit Lions	1942	0-11	Wartime season

The two 0-16 teams lead by losses. Below them sit the 1976 Buccaneers and a cluster of older winless clubs from the 11- and 14-game eras, including the 1960 expansion Cowboys, who avoided a perfect 0-for by managing a single tie.

The 1976 Buccaneers: the old benchmark

Before the 0-16 seasons, the standard for NFL futility was the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In their first year of existence the expansion Bucs went 0-14, were shut out five times, and scored a league-low 125 points all season. They then opened 1977 with 12 more losses, running their skid to 26 games before finally winning.

By total losses in one season, the 0-16 Lions and Browns surpassed the Bucs simply because the schedule had grown from 14 games to 16. But the 1976 Buccaneers’ winless season remains the most complete expansion-era disaster, and their 26-game losing streak is a record of its own.

The 17-game era and the record ahead

Since 2021 the NFL has played a 17-game regular season, which means a truly winless team would now finish 0-17. Through the 2025 season, no team has done it; the worst records in the new era have landed in the two- and three-win range. Until a team loses all 17, the 0-16 seasons remain the most losses without a win.

That leaves an open question at the bottom of the record book, mirroring the one at the top, where no team has yet gone 17-0. For that contrast, see the best regular-season record in NFL history.

Why the worst records matter

A winless season is more than an embarrassing line in the standings; it usually marks the start of a rebuild. The 2008 Lions used the fallout to draft Matthew Stafford and rebuild their front office, and the 2017 Browns’ collapse set up the arrival of Baker Mayfield. Losing everything, it turns out, often resets a franchise.

That is why these records resonate. They capture a rock-bottom moment, but they also tend to be the hinge on which a team’s next chapter turns.

The short version: the worst record in NFL history is 0-16, held jointly by the 2008 Detroit Lions and the 2017 Cleveland Browns, with the 1976 Buccaneers’ 0-14 the worst of the 14-game era. With no 0-17 season yet in the 17-game era, 0-16 stands through the 2025 season.