Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

The 13-3 ranking thread for some bizarre reason got me going on this line of thinking... Since the advent of the 16 game schedule, what was the best 1-15 team? And where would they all rank against each other? As much as I'm a sucker for lists and rankings but all those 1990s 13-3 teams was a bit to wrap my brain around. (lots of other stuff going on in life right now so I don't want to expend the mental energy) So who wants to take a stab at this one? Here they are....

1980 Saints
1989 Cowboys
1990 Patriots
1991 Colts
1996 Jets
2000 Chargers
2001 Panthers
2007 Dolphins
2009 Rams
2016 Browns

Feel free to add the 0-16 2008 Lions and/or the 0-8-1 1982 Colts, whom if they played a full schedule it wouldn't have been out of the question for them to finish 1-14-1 or 0-15-1.

Those '82 Colts had games cancelled against the teams below, with the 10/24 home game against Miami the only one rescheduled, being tacked on at the end:

Home: Jets, Bills, Bucs, Raiders
Away: Lions, Browns, Pats

As far as ranking the 1-15 teams, the "Losses by Less Than a Touchdown" litmus test isn't foolproof, but at least gives an idea of how close the team was to actually winning other games:

80 Saints: 4
89 Cowboys: 4
90 Pats: 3 (another loss by 7)
91 Colts: 3 (one loss in OT)
96 Jets: 6
00 Chargers: 6 (one loss in OT) (only win by a point)
01 Panthers: 8 (two losses in OT)
07 Dolphins: 6 (one loss in OT) (only win in OT)
09 Rams: 4 (one loss in OT)
16 Browns: 5 (two losses in OT)

Based on this concept, I'd say the Seifert-led Panthers from 2001 are the "best", followed by the Kotite Jets of 1996.

FWIW, the '08 Lions had three games that they lost by less than a touchdown.

I don't know who was the best team, but the worst is easy...my Cowboys in 1989! They were so bad that by the 4th week of the season in every broadcast the commentators kept saying that it was very real that they wouldn't win a game all season (and that was BEFORE they traded Herschel Walker to Minnesota, when many "experts" criticzied the trade and said that they wouldn't ever would've gotten rid of Walker). Their victory at Washington in week 9 is easily one of the top regular season upsets in NFL history (for the record, the Redskins were 14 point favorites and that loss kept them out of the playoffs).

The 2001 Panthers lost a lot of close games against decent teams.

Barely lost 2x to 49ers, also close games with the Rams/Jets/Packers.

Yes, that very squad which is why Seifert will never make the Hall is 'tops' amongst 1-15s. Without actually rolling up sleeves and diving into stats, I may want to place '80 Aints at '#2'; if only due to they being one year removed from 7-9, 8-8 campaigns. Some of their more-than-7-pt defeats - against winners, mind you (Bills, Lions, Eagles, Pats) - were respectable, competitive enough; especially for a...1-win team.

It's said that '08 Lions & '82 Colts can be included in this, but how about 1982's Oilers who were 0-7 after the strike (0-10 start in '83)? Perhaps they may be the worst of them all.

74_75_78_79_ wrote:how about 1982's Oilers who were 0-7 after the strike (0-10 start in '83)? Perhaps they may be the worst of them all.

Similar to their 18-game losing streak a decade earlier. That began with the infamous MNF "middle finger" rout by the Raiders and finally ended with a 31-27 win over the miserable 2-5 Colts. They then lost their final six games, so after a 1-2 start in '72, they went on a 1-24 stretch.

ok here goes... I actually had no idea who I’d end up first, er, uh, last (worst) on this list before I started looking into this.

1. 2001 Panthers... only really got blown out once, to the GSOT Rams
2. 1980 Saints
3. 1996 Jets
4. 2007 Dolphins
5. 2016 Browns... It seemed they were actually playing respectably until November. Then some bad losses started piling up and it looked as though 0-16 would be possible. I predicted the win over the Chargers though. A team that was in free fall at that point. Isaiah Crowell had a decent year. I think they’ve found a featured back with him.
6. 1989 Cowboys... Only team on this list who’s lone win came against a team with a winning record. (10-6 Redskins)
7. 2000 Chargers... Inept rushing attack of Fazande, Fletcher & co. combined for 3.0 ypc
8. 2009 Rams... scored above 17 only twice. Steven Jackson actually had a really good year despite getting in the endzone only 4 times.
9. 1990 Patriots

.......and the suckiest 1-15 team of all time. *drum roll*

10. 1991 Colts... scored in double digits in only FIVE games

The 1996 Jets had talent, they had no business going 1-15. But they also had Rich Kotite turn in maybe the most inept, passionless, pathetic, unprepared performance I have ever seen on the sidelines.

Signing O'Donnell to the kind of money that they did at the time was a bad idea, but at least he was an NFL QB. The receivers were Keyshawn Johnson, Wayne Chrebet, Jeff Graham, and Webster Slaughter. A good receiving corps.

Adrian Murrell was a good back. Went for 1200 that year. The defense was lacking a pass rush but had some decent talent top to bottom. Victor Green, Aaron Glenn, Mo Lewis etc. It wasn't a top D but it had no business being a dumpster fire.

The team was outright poorly conditioned. I remember the first game of the season I was expecting an exciting battle in Mile High only to have the Jets players taking knees and gasping for breath while on defense basically one series into the game. They blew a lot of leads that season too just because they would run out of gas in the 3rd quarter.

I have never seen anybody as beleaguered and confused as Rich Kotite was that year. On one hand I wanted to strangle him, on the other I remembered that he's probably what I looked like going through college calculus. Exhausted, confused, frustrated, punchless, and just wanting to go home.