They say it’s not how you start, but how you finish.
That certainly can be true in the NFL. The 2007 Giants started 0-2, ended the regular season 10-6, withstood playoff tests by the Buccaneers, Cowboys and Packers, and somehow took down the undefeated Patriots — allegedly the best single-season team in NFL history — in Super Bowl XLII. Four years later, they had a similar curve — a 9-7 regular season, a wild-card berth that forced them to run through three playoff opponents on the way to the Super Bowl, another overtime win in the NFC Championship Game, and in the end, another win over the Patriots.
Neither of those Giants teams would be considered one of the greatest in NFL history, but they got the job done when it mattered. So did the 1980 Oakland Raiders, 1997 Denver Broncos, 2000 Baltimore Ravens, 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers, 2010 Green Bay Packers and 2017 Philadelphia Eagles — all wild-card teams who went on to win the Super Bowl. None of those teams rank among the worst NFL playoff teams of all time, because they won their ultimate game, no matter how shabby the regular-season results may have looked at times.
But the NFL playoff formats have allowed for some ragged postseason contestants through the years. Here are the worst of the lot since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, considering regular-season performance, point differential, strength of schedule and postseason results.
20. 2019 Philadelphia Eagles
Regular season: 9-7
Not that any of this was head coach Doug Pederson’s fault, but injury luck hit the Eagles as it’s hit few teams in recent years. The receiver corps was hit particularly hard, and as a result, Carson Wentz became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for 4,000 yards without a 500-yard receiver. The defense — especially the secondary — has struggled through most of the season, but it was a tribute to the team that it was able to transcend its various situations, bounce back from a 5-7 record in early December, and win its last four games to win an NFC East nobody seemed to want to win. We’ll see what happens in the playoffs, but the certainty is that Pederson has done a remarkable job keeping things together.
19. 1999 Miami Dolphins
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 1-1
This marked the final NFL season for Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino and legendary head coach Jimmy Johnson in a relationship that lasted four seasons and was fraught with difficulties. Johnson was supposed to be the guy who could finally get Marino a ring, but the teams Johnson inherited and tried to build upon just weren’t there. Marino started just 11 regular-season games in 1999, with Damon Huard as his backup, and though the Dolphins started their season 7-1, they backed into the playoffs at 9-7 following a late-season collapse. After beating the Seahawks 20-17 on the road in the wild-card round, Miami was absolutely demolished by the Jaguars, 62-7, in the divisional frame. The Dolphins have made the postseason just four times since and haven’t won a playoff game since 2000.
18. 2017 Tennessee Titans
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 1-1
Mike Mularkey, who coached the Titans from 2015 through 2017, was most notable for wanting to bring an “exotic smashmouth” offense with him. As Tennessee never ranked better than 14th in points, and fell from fourth to 14th in rushing offense in 2017, it didn’t really work out. Mularkey also had to deal with the regression of quarterback Marcus Mariota, who went from a 26/9 touchdown-to-interception ratio in 2016 to 13/15 in 2017. Mariota is a problem the Titans never quite figured out, and they also never quite figured out the Patriots, who beat them 35-14 in the divisional round after Tennessee surprised the Chiefs in the wild-card game.
17. 1994 Chicago Bears
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 1-1
If younger Bears fans think the Mitchell Trubisky era is the apex of mediocre quarterback play in the Windy City, one almost feels for them as they start to learn the history of a franchise that has been quarterbacked by Sid Luckman and Jim McMahon — and a whole lot of meh at the most important position besides those two names. The 1994 season was yet another example, as the Bears had Steve Walsh and Erik Kramer, who combined for 18 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. An underrated defense led the way, and running back Lewis Tillman had a career year with 899 yards on the ground, but after surprising the Vikings in the wild-card round, these Bears were sized up for slaughter in the divisional round, losing 44-15 to the eventual Super Bowl champion 49ers.
16. 1978 Atlanta Falcons
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 1-1
The Falcons of the late 1970s fielded some really interesting teams. Atlanta’s 1977 “Grits Blitz” defense was the stingiest of the Super Bowl era up to that point, allowing just 129 points all season, and 9.2 per game. That defense, guided by assistant coach Jerry Glanville, wasn’t quite as effective in 1978, but it was good enough to help the Falcons get to the postseason for the first time in franchise history, despite a quarterback in Steve Bartkowski who completed just 50.7% of his passes, and threw 10 touchdown passes to 18 interceptions. Bartkowski redeemed himself in the wild-card round with two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to help his team beat the Eagles, 14-13. But then, reality came crashing down as the Cowboys scored 14 unanswered points to close out a 27-20 divisional win.
15. 2016 Houston Texans
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 1-1
Brock Osweiler! Yes, the former Broncos backup who was gifted a four-year, $72 million contract from the Texans in 2016 was at his Brock Osweiler-est in 2016, completing 59% of his passes and throwing 15 touchdowns to 16 interceptions while Houston’s defense — led by underrated players such as safety Quintin Demps, cornerback A.J. Bouye, and edge rusher Whitney Mercilus — overcame the back injury that cost J.J. Watt all but three games. The Texans beat the Derek Carr-less Raiders in a wild-card game, then got skunked, 34-16, by the Patriots in the divisional round. Osweiler completed 23 of 40 passes for 197 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions in that game. The 2016 Texans had a point differential of minus-49 in the regular season, ninth-worst of all the teams on our list.
14. 1989 Pittsburgh Steelers
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 1-1
The late 1980s were a weird time for the Steelers. Chuck Noll was still the coach, but no remnants of the Steel Curtain remained. Terry Bradshaw had been retired since 1983, and the franchise that built perhaps the best iteration of the 4-3 defense in NFL history was running a 3-4 base defense. Bubby Brister was the Steelers’ primary quarterback in 1989, and given his 54.7% completion rate and nine touchdowns to 10 interceptions, that was a problem. Wide receiver Louis Lipps was the offense’s only really explosive player, and it was the dawn of what would become the “Blitzburgh” defense of the 1990s — featuring players such as Greg Lloyd, Rod Woodson and Carnell Lake, who allowed this team to make the playoffs at all. Pittsburgh beat the Houston Oilers in overtime in the wild-card round before falling to the Broncos in their divisional game. It was Noll’s final playoff team.
13. 2016 Detroit Lions
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 0-1
There are those Lions observers who still wonder what specific problem the team’s ownership had with former head coach Jim Caldwell, considering that his replacement, Matt Patricia, hasn’t accomplished much of anything. The 2016 Lions under Caldwell were the most recent version of the franchise to make the playoffs, though the formula then remains the formula now — a talented-but-inconsistent defense, very little in the way of a running game and an overreliance on Matthew Stafford. This Lions team started out 1-3, then pushed its way to a 9-4 mark before dropping its last three regular-season games and a 26-6 wild-card loss to the Seahawks.
12. 1993 Minnesota Vikings
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 0-1
The 1993 Vikings alternated between Jim McMahon and Sean Salisbury at quarterback, and their leading rusher was Scottie Graham, with 488 rushing yards. So it was going to be on the defense to make anything happen, and that was absolutely the case. Minnesota recorded 24 interceptions that season, led by safety Vencie Glenn with five and linebacker Jack Del Rio with four. Chris Doleman and John Randle, two future Hall of Famers, gave the Vikings’ line a formidable look, and they tied for the team lead with 12.5 sacks each. The Vikings navigated their two early-season bye weeks (which was a thing that happened in 1993) to a 4-4 midseason mark before going on a bit of a run, ending at 9-7, and losing in the wild-card round to the Giants, despite the fact that Phil Simms completed 17 of 26 passes … for 94 yards. Sometimes, defense can only take you so far.
11. 1996 Indianapolis Colts
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 0-1
This marked the only season from 1994 through 2001 in which Marshall Faulk didn’t gain at least 1,000 yards on the ground, as a toe injury limited his effectiveness most of the season. Still, the future Hall of Famer and three-time Offensive Player of the Year gained over 1,000 yards from scrimmage, proving that even in an injury-plagued season, he could get the job done. Colts quarterback Jim Harbaugh regressed from a 1995 season in which he threw just five interceptions on 314 attempts, with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Harbaugh the coach probably wouldn’t have been patient with Harbaugh the quarterback. In any event, the Colts finished third in the AFC East with a 9-7 record, helped along by one of the weakest schedules of any team on our list, and were poleaxed by the Steelers, 42-14, in the wild-card round. Harbaugh rebounded in 1997, throwing 10 touchdowns and just four picks for a 3-13 Colts team, but the franchise had its eye on Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning at the top of the 1998 draft. Wonder how that worked out …
10. 1996 Minnesota Vikings
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 0-1
The 1996 Vikings were starting to get things together on offense under head coach Dennis Green and offensive coordinator Brian Billick, though they did not yet field the all-time offense they would in 1998. Here, it was journeyman Brad Johnson and 40-year-old Warren Moon at quarterback, helped along precipitously by the receiving duo of Cris Carter and Jake Reed. Minnesota started 4-0 before dropping six of its next eight games and skidding into the postseason at 9-7. A 40-15 wild-card loss to the Cowboys, in which Johnson threw two picks and Dallas quarterback Jason Garrett had two garbage-time completions, was the end result.
9. 1983 Denver Broncos
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 0-1
The 1982 Broncos went 2-7 in a strike-shortened season to earn the fourth overall pick in the 1983 draft. They used that pick on Northwestern offensive lineman Chris Hinton, whom they subsequently traded to the Baltimore Colts, along with backup quarterback Mark Herrmann and their 1984 first-round pick, for Stanford quarterback John Elway, whom the Colts had selected No. 1 overall despite his refusal to play for them under any circumstances. Turned out to be a pretty good deal for the Broncos, though Elway struggled mightily as a rookie — he completed 47.5% of his passes and threw just seven touchdown passes to 14 interceptions. Still, those Broncos started 6-3 before dropping to 9-7 at the end of the regular season, and they lost to the Seahawks in the wild-card round. Elway would have to wait a while before he could start making magic happen.
8. 1989 Houston Oilers
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 0-1
The Oilers made the playoffs in each of Jerry Glanville’s final three seasons as their head coach from 1987 through 1989, but it was the way in which the ’89 season ended that sealed Glanville’s fate for owner Bud Adams. They were in line for the AFC Central title until getting demolished by the Bengals, 61-7, in Week 15. A 24-20 loss to the Browns the next week put them in the wild-card round instead. After a quick postseason exit at the hands of the Steelers, Glanville was fired and replaced by Jack Pardee, who took Houston to new levels with the Run-and-Shoot offense. Glanville wound up in Atlanta, where he led the Falcons to one playoff berth in four seasons.
7. 2017 Buffalo Bills
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 0-1
“He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, will stand a tip-toe when the day is named.”
William Shakespeare wrote this in Henry V, though his St. Crispian’s Day speech could also apply to the first half of the Bills’ 54-24 Week 10 loss to the Chargers in 2017. Starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor found himself replaced by rookie fifth-round pick Nathan Peterman, who threw an astonishing five interceptions in the first half. The Bills were able to put together a 9-7 regular season despite this fiasco, primarily on the feet of running back LeSean McCoy and an opportunistic young defense led by safeties Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer — and rookie cornerback Tre’Davious White, who now may be the best at his position in the NFL. But in the wild-card round against the Jaguars, Taylor completed just 17 of 37 passes for 134 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception, and Peterman threw his own back-breaking pick late in the game to seal the win for Jacksonville. Still, when you’re able to make the playoffs despite the consistent insertion of perhaps the worst quarterback in NFL history, that does say something. We’re just not exactly sure what that may be.
6. 2004 St. Louis Rams
Regular season: 8-8 | Playoffs: 1-1
The 2004 Rams bore little resemblance to the Greatest Show on Turf teams, as quarterbacks Marc Bulger and Chris Chandler combined for 23 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. Still, an 8-8 record was enough to reach the playoffs in a season where just three NFC teams won 10 or more games. The real star of this show was cornerback Jeremetrius Butler, who led the team with five interceptions, but missed the entire 2005 season with a torn PCL and never had another pick in his NFL career after that. St. Louis rose out of the morass of 8-8 squads and beat NFC West champion Seattle 27-20 in the wild-card round before falling to the Falcons, 47-17, a week later. This was the start of a long, slow decline for the Rams, who wouldn’t make the playoffs again until 2017.
5. 2011 Denver Broncos
Regular season: 8-8 | Playoffs: 1-1
It’s Tebow Time! Denver selected the Heisman Trophy winner from Florida in the first round of the 2010 draft, trading its second-, third-, and fourth-round picks to the Ravens to do so. And after a 1-4 start under Kyle Orton in 2011, the Broncos made the switch. Offensive coordinator Mike McCoy designed an easy, first-read offense Tebow could run, and Denver managed a 7-4 record with Tebow in charge, despite his 46.5% completion rate. Tebow made up for his regular-season inconsistency with a dynamite 80-yard touchdown pass to receiver Demaryius Thomas to win the wild-card game against the Steelers before the Patriots turned Tebow and the Broncos into a pumpkin with a 45-10 thumping in the divisional round. Tebow’s run was halted by the arrival of Peyton Manning, and his NFL career was unremarkable outside of the 2011 season, but there’s always that one magic year.
4. 2013 Green Bay Packers
Regular season: 8-7-1 | Playoffs: 0-1
Only a 48-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers to Randall Cobb with 38 seconds left in the season finale against the Bears prevented the Packers from missing the postseason. So Green Bay won the NFC North despite the broken collarbone that took seven games from Rodgers’ season and forced Matt Flynn, Scott Tolzien and Seneca Wallace into action. Not good to have reserve quarterbacks who combine for eight interceptions in seven starts when your defense records just 11 picks all season, which is what happened in Green Bay that year. Second-round rookie running back Eddie Lacy had a career year (which you never want as a rookie) with 1,178 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns, and receiver Jordy Nelson transcended the quarterback uncertainty with 85 catches for 1,314 yards and eight touchdowns. Were it not for those two Lacy and Nelson, Green Bay would not have hit the postseason. Unfortunately, the postseason hit Green Bay right back with a 23-20 loss to the visiting 49ers in the wild-card round.
3. 2014 Carolina Panthers
Regular season: 7-8-1 | Playoffs: 1-1
Ron Rivera’s 2014 squad became the second losing team in the Super Bowl era to make the playoffs, following the 2010 Seahawks. And like that Seahawks team, the 2014 Panthers improbably won a wild-card game before elimination in the divisional round. They also became the first team to win back-to-back NFC South titles, for what that’s worth. Cam Newton enjoyed clear development as a passer when healthy, but he was limited to 14 games — missing one late in the season due to a car crash. Although tight end Greg Olsen and receiver Kelvin Benjamin had matching 1,008-yard seasons, the passing game was limited to Newton’s health and availability (as it has been since), and the defense struggled mightily during a six-game midseason losing streak. Still, this team was one year away from a 15-1 season in which it made the Super Bowl for the second time in franchise history.
2. 1998 Arizona Cardinals
Regular season: 9-7 | Playoffs: 1-1
The 1998 Cardinals reached the playoffs despite a point differential of minus-53 (sixth-worst of all the teams on our list) and the easiest schedule of any team on our list. Dallas won the NFC East in 1998 with a 10-6 record, and the Cowboys were the only team the Cardinals played that year who ended their season with a winning record — which means that they beat no teams with winning records, because the Cowboys swept Arizona in the regular season. Quarterback Jake Plummer led the offense with a 59.2% completion rate and 17 touchdown passes to 20 interceptions, and though Adrian Murrell had a nice season with 1,042 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on the ground, it was an opportunistic defense defined by safeties Kwamie Lassiter (who had eight interceptions that season) and Aeneas Williams that lifted the Cards past their own mediocrity. Arizona did manage to beat Dallas in the wild-card round before being summarily dismissed in the divisional frame by the point-a-minute Vikings.
1. 2010 Seattle Seahawks
Regular season: 7-9 | Playoffs: 1-1
When head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider took over the Seahawks following the 2009 season, they inherited a dispirited roster nearly bereft of the kind of talent required to compete at a playoff level. So they made a dizzying number of transactions in a rebuilding effort. The most important transaction that year happened in October, when Seattle traded a 2011 fourth-round pick and a 2012 fifth-round pick to the Bills for the services of one Marshawn Terrell Lynch. That started to turn things around, but the 2010 Seahawks are rightly seen as the worst playoff team ever.
Russell Wilson was two years away, so Seattle settled for the quarterback combination of Matt Hasselbeck and Charlie Whitehurst — a tandem that netted 14 touchdowns and 20 interceptions. Lynch led the team with 573 rushing yards in 12 games, but he wouldn’t get his star turn until later. Wide receiver Mike Williams, a former first-round pick of the Lions who had once eaten his way out of the league and then worked his way back, was given another chance by Carroll, his coach at USC, and led the team with 65 receptions and 751 receiving yards. First-round safety Earl Thomas led the team with five interceptions — but the rest of the defense had just seven all season. The 2010 Seahawks had a regular-season point differential of minus-97, the worst of any playoff team in the Super Bowl era. Only the 1998 Cardinals had a less-imposing strength of schedule in the 16-game era. Carroll’s first Seahawks team limped into the playoffs and faced the defending Super Bowl-champion Saints in the wild-card round, which is where Lynch memorably did this …
… which was enough to carry Seattle to victory in the wild-card round. Reality wasn’t as kind the next week as the Seahawks lost to the Bears in the divisional round, but Carroll’s new NFL template had been set.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”
