Thirty teams from the National Football League have played in a Super Bowl, it doesn’t matter if they lost or won, the important thing is that they made it to the Super Bowl and played after a tough battle in the regular season and the playoffs. But only two sad teams have never played in a Super Bowl since their founding, hard to say but relatively easy to guess who they are: Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans.
It is not clear why these two teams have never played in a Super Bowl even though they as Franchises have invested enough money to hire the best players and the front office has had good picks during drafts to recruit college talent.
The good news is that the Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans have come close to playing in a Super Bowl, so close that the Jaguars lost to one of the NFL’s big teams, the Patriots and Tom Brady. At the very least, Houston and Jacksonville played in the playoffs in the 21st century, not bad for a pair of teams with mediocre records.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Never played in a Super Bowl since joining the NFL in 1995
The Jaguars were founded in 1993 and they joined the NFL in 1995 as a franchise, the first season was a disaster for them with 4-12-0 overall. Tom Coughlin was the team’s head coach in the first season, but he continued in charge until 2002 and the Jaguars made the playoffs several times but lost two AFC Championships. The Jaguars recently played another Conference Championship game against the New England Patriots in 2017, after that season everything has been negative for them.
How many playoff appearances do the Jaguars have?
The Jaguars haven’t played in a Super Bowl yet, but the team has seven playoff appearances, four in the 20th century and three in the 21st century: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2007, 2017. The Jaguars have three divisions Championships (AFC Central 1998, 1999) and (AFC South 2017).
Houston Texans: The closest they came to a Super Bowl was a divisional round game
The Texans’ first eight seasons were chaos, the team just finished one of those seasons with positive numbers in 2009 with 9-7-0, and two seasons in 2007 and 2008 with 8-8-0 each. From 2011 onwards the Texans have been close to a Super Bowl game playing in a divisional game of which they have lost 4 games (2011, 2012, 2016 and 2019). The most recent game in a divisional round was against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Texans lost 51-31.
How many playoff appearances do the Texans have?
The Texans are not as mediocre as they appear, they used to have one of the best defensive players in the NFL, J.J. Watt, who helped the team play six times in the playoffs, and the Texans also won six AFC South division championships.
Detroit Lions: They wont a Championship before the merger
The Lions won a championship once, it sounds hard to believe but it’s true, even though it wasn’t the Super Bowl, it was a thing called the NFL Championship Game and it was in 1957. That was the NFL’s big game before the AFL-NFL merger and the birth of the Super Bowl in 1967. But after that title the Lions never won another big title, in short they never played in a Super Bowl.
How many playoff appearances do the Lions have?
Detroit Lions have a current record of nine consecutive playoff losses since 1991 when they lost to Washington Football Team in the NFC Championship game 41-10. The last time they played in the playoffs was in 2016 when the Lions lost to the Seahawks in the Wild Card round. For the rest, the appearances of the Lions are: 1932, 1935, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1970, 1982, 1983, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2011, 2014, 2016.
Cleveland Browns: They played in the last ‘Championship’ but never in a Super Bowl
The Browns used to be a big team, winners and favorites to win the NFL Championship in the mid-20th century, the last time they played for that title was in 1964 and they lost to Minnesota Vikings 27-7. After that defeat the Browns’ ambition died, as they never again won a conference championship again. The last time they were close to a Super Bowl, playing a divisional round, was in 2020 and the Browns lost to the Chiefs 22-17.
How many playoff appearances do the Browns have?
The Browns’ playoff appearances date back to the mid-20th century, but not only in the NFL, they also played a short time in the AAFC with four appearances in that postseason (1946, 1947, 1948, 1949). In the NFL the Browns have played in 25 playoffs: 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987 , 1988, 1989, 1994, 2002, 2020.