The 12 NFL Teams With The Most One-And-Done Playoff Appearances

Making the playoffs is usually a sign your team has had a solid season, but it’s hard not to be frustrated if you end up getting sent home after the first round. Every NFL franchise has befallen that fate at least a couple of times, but there are some that have failed to get over the hump significantly more than the rest based on the number of one-and-done appearances they’ve racked up.

No sane NFL fan is going to complain about their team making the playoffs, but the same can’t be said for situations where the postseason run comes to an end after a single game.

The league’s playoff system has evolved a fair amount over the years as it’s gradually expanded the number of teams, but for the purpose of this list, I’m defining “one-and-done” as any situation where a team had the chance to get one step closer to the championship game (pre-merger years where two teams earned an automatic berth to the title showdown don’t count, but seasons where a conference championship was needed to break a tie do).

Without further ado…

Minnesota Vikings: 15

No team has been treated to an early exit more frequently than the Vikings, who supplement a single conference championship loss in the pre-Super Bowl Era with the 14 they’ve fallen victim to since The Big Game became A Thing.

The first half of the 1990s was a particularly rough time to be a fan, as the Minnesota made the playoffs five times in the span of eight seasons starting with the 1989 campaign and lost every single game in the first round.

Dallas Cowboys: 14

Four teams have been eliminated in the first round on fourteen occasions, and we’re going to kick things off with the Cowboys.

Two of those one-and-done losses transpired prior to the Super Bowl Era, and Dallas had a five-year streak of its own thanks to what transpired in its quintet of appearances between the 1998 and 2007 seasons.

That last loss was particularly brutal when you consider the Cowboys earned a bye as the No. 1 seed in the NFC before losing to the Giants (although New York did go on to win the Super Bowl). They befell a similar fate after finishing the 2016 season at 13-3, and the Packers also sent them home packing in the second round.

Indianapolis Colts: 14

The Colts only made the playoffs four times between the 1972 and 1994 seasons, and they fell victim to a one-and-done appearance in every single one of those instances.

They’ve punched their ticket to the postseason 18 times since then, and while they’ve won the Super Bowl three times, they’ve also been sent home after their first game on 10 occasions—including three instances where they’d earned a bye (1999, 2005, and 2007).

Kansas City Chiefs: 14

The Chiefs have advanced past the first round of the playoffs six years in a row, but they’ve had plenty of trouble avoiding a one-and-done showing over the course of their existence.

That was especially true during the seven playoff appearances Kansas City secured between 1994 and 2013, as they peaced out after a single game every time (including three contests where they’d earned a first-round bye as a one or two-seed).

Pittsburgh Steelers: 14

There were only three teams in contention for the title when the Steelers lost a tiebreaker to advance to the championship all the way back in 1947, but the rest of these are a bit more legitimate.

Pittsburgh wouldn’t appear in the postseason again until after the advent of the Super Bowl Era and subsequently punctuated most of their one-and-dones with deeper runs.

With that said, their four most recent playoff appearances have ended with them being eliminated as soon as possible, and they’ll look to avoid extending that streak to five against the Ravens.

Los Angeles Rams: 13

The Rams have had plenty of time to rack up one-and-done losses with a history stretching back to 1936, and three of them unfolded before the Super Bowl shook up the playoff structure.

Unlike most of the other teams on this list, there aren’t really any notable stretches to speak of, as the franchise has had a tendency to bounce back. With that said, it’s had to do so on plenty of occasions—including a loss to the Panthers as a two-seed with a bye following the 2003 season.

Miami Dolphins: 13

The Dolphins lost their first-ever playoff game after making the postseason in 1970 but quickly rebounded with three consecutive Super Bowl appearances (with the last two being back-to-back wins).

Miami has only made the playoffs five times since 2001, and the new millennium has not been kind to a team that has gone one-and-done every single time during that stretch.

Philadelphia Eagles: 12

The Eagles snapped a lengthy playoff drought in 1978 but subsequently recorded the first of the dozen one-and-done appearances the franchise currently has under its belt.

The bulk of them have transpired over the past couple of decades, and the team can take a little bit of solace in knowing the 1988 season is the only time they were eliminated after earning a bye.

Cincinnati Bengals: 11

This is particularly brutal when you consider the Bengals have only appeared in the playoffs 16 times in the history of the franchise, which means they’ve seen their Super Bowl dreams swiftly extinguished close to 69% of the time.

The most brutal run unfolded between 2005 and 2015. Cincinnati not only went one-and-done in its seven postseason games during that stretch but went out in that manner five years in a row starting with the 2011 season.

Denver Broncos: 11

Denver’s longest one-and-done stretch went down in the four games they lost between 1978 and 1984.

However, the most brutal was easily the loss to the Jaguars in 1996 after the Broncos secured the top seed. John Elway and Shannon Sharpe have both said they consider that defeat the worst of their career, and while they’d go on to win back-to-back Super Bowls, they probably could have pulled off the threepeat if they’d avoided that upset.

Detroit Lions: 11

It’s only natural one of the teams on this list would have the longest one-and-done streak in NFL history, and it makes sense the only one that’s never made it to a Super Bowl is responsible.

The Lions were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs three times between 1991 and 1999 en route to doing the same in the five postseason appearances they earned in the span of seven years during the decade.

Detroit extended the streak to eight with three more disappointing endings in the 2010s before finally getting over the hump when Dan Campbell led them to the NFC Championship last season.

Tennessee Titans: 11

This takes into account the one-and-dones the Titans had when they were still the Oilers, as six of them occurred when the franchise was still in Houston.

There aren’t really any notable trends or stats to highlight here, so I’ll close things out by noting the Bears, Browns, and Patriots narrowly avoided making the cut with 10 one-and-done showings apiece.