5 NFL teams who have recorded winless seasons

Detroit Lions v Cleveland Browns

#3 - Baltimore Colts, 1982

Other than debutants, three other teams have had winless seasons. The first among them were the Baltimore Colts in 1982. A players' strike had shortened the season by seven games and only nine games were played that season. Unfortunately for the Colts, it ended as a winless season as they lost eight games and tied only one.

They began the season with two straight losses before the strike halted the season. When it resumed, they played two matches, not scoring a single point in either of those first games back. Their only tie of the winless season came against the Green Bay Packers, three matches from the end of the season.

#4 - Detroit Lions, 2008

The Detroit Lions made history in 2008 as the first non-debutant team in the modern era to go completely winless without tying a single game. Their record during the winless season read a perfect 0-16. Hence, even if this year's Detroit Lions have a winless season, they will not be able to match the existing franchise record since they have already tied one game.

It was a truly woeful season on all fronts for the Detroit Lions. They allowed 32.31 points per game on defense, while not scoring more than 25 points in any single game. It was the perfect recipe for disaster and hence it duly came to pass. The winless season was the opening act of two disastrous seasons for the franchise, as next season they went 2-14.

#5 - Cleveland Browns, 2017

It is difficult to remember a team worse off than the 2017 Cleveland Browns. The Browns came into the season with a 1-15 record the previous season, and fans rightly believed that they would improve as they would have to be catastrophic not to. But they were as bad as was feared, and had a winless season in 2017 without even a tie. In the process, they equalled the record set by the Detroit Lions in 2008.

This was the nadir of a franchise already stuck in a perpetual rut. This winless season marked the tenth consecutive time that they had a losing season. It extended their divisional championship drought to 25 years and playoff qualification drought to 15 years. Since that awful winless season, the only way was up, and the Browns have duly improved.