The 11 Teams That Failed To Post A Winning Record After Winning A Super Bowl

Every team that wins a Super Bowl heads into the following season on a quest to defend its title, but that’s easier said than done. Only nine franchises have managed to win The Big Game on back-to-back occasions, and there’s a sizeable percentage that’s not only missed the playoffs but failed to finish the year over .500.

These teams were unable to finish with a winning record the year after they won the Super Bowl

As things currently stand, there are 17 teams that won a Super Bowl that found themselves on the outside looking in when the playoffs rolled around the following season.

Around a third of them finished with a fairly respectable record that still wasn’t good enough to punch their ticket to the postseason, but there are some others that had an objectively disappointing campaign after winning it all.

For the purpose of this list, I’m going to start with the teams that ended up at .500 and work my way back while ranking them by the worst overall winning percentage.

The 2013 Baltimore Ravens: 8-8

We have three teams that were the definition of average after winning the Super Bowl, and I’m going to start with the most recent.

The Ravens went 10-6  before carving their way through the AFC and handing the 49ers a 34-31 loss in Super Bowl XLVII. That was Ray Lewis’ final NFL game, and he was one of eight starters who were no longer on the roster when Baltimore got underway in 2013.

Those losses were firmly felt, as the Ravens got off to a 4-6 start before rallying to win their next four games. However, that surge ended up being all for naught, as they lost their last two contests of the season to finish at 8-8.

The 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers: 8-8

The Steelers sort of came out of nowhere to win Super Bowl XL. They were 11-5 in 2005, but that was only good enough for a six-seed that required them to win three games on the road before they capped off the run with a 21-10 win over the Seahawks.

Jerome Bettis retired after getting his first and only ring, and while that departure wasn’t as dramatic as the ones the Ravens felt, the team did suffer a setback after Ben Roethlisberger was injured in a motorcycle accident in the offseason.

He was poised to return in time for their first game before undergoing an appendectomy, and his health was certainly a reason Pittsburgh started the season with a 2-6 record. They were able to salvage things by closing the year out at 6-2, but it wasn’t enough to make the playoffs.

The 1991 New York Giants: 8-8

The Giants also suffered a pretty significant loss after beating the Bills in Super Bowl XXV to hand Buffalo the first of what ended up being four straight losses in The Big Game. However, it was not a player but rather their head coach, as Bill Parcells retired for the first of three times after leading the team to their second title in the span of five years.

They also lost a defensive coordinator by the name of Bill Belichick after he was hired to coach the Browns, and Ray Handley was named Parcells’ replacement. He made Phil Simms compete for the starting job that Jeff Hostetler, his former backup, ultimately won at training camp, but they had a 6-5 record when he was replaced by the former after suffering a back injury.

Simms ended up going 1-3 in relief as the Giants finished at 8-8 and missed the playoffs.

The 1968 Green Bay Packers: 6-7-1

The rest of the teams on this list ended up with a losing record after winning the Super Bowl, and the Packers became the first team to do so after winning the first two iterations of that championship contest.

The decline here can firmly be linked to Vince Lombardi’s decision to step down as the head coach in Green Bay (he did stay on as their general manager), and Phil Bengtson had some massive shoes to fill heading into his first season at the helm.

There ended up being plenty of space left in the soles, as the Packers finished under .500 for the first time since 1959.

The 2003 Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 7-9

Jon Gruden kicked off his time in Tampa Bay with a bang by leading the Buccaneers to a championship during his first year as their head coach with a 48-21 thrashing of the Raiders (the team he’d previously coached) in Super Bowl XXXVII.

Unfortunately, the Bucs were ravaged by injuries after the season kicked off in 2003, and Gruden found himself butting heads with the team’s GM while dealing with some more internal tension that led to Keyshawn Johnson being traded away.

Tampa Bay ended going 7-9 and fell to 5-11 the following year before finally rebounding.

The 1988 Washington “Commanders”: 7-9

Joe Gibbs won his second of the three titles he’d get as the coach of the team now known as the Commanders in Super Bowl XXII, and they seem poised to keep going strong when you consider they’d never finished with a losing record during a tenure that began in 1981.

However, Washington finished under .500 for the first and only time during the Gibbs Era the following season. The franchise fell victim to a porous defense that failed to live up to expectations as well as a dearth of rushing talent that hurt an offensive scheme that largely revolved around the run, and they ended up at 7-9 as a result.

The 1981 Oakland Raiders: 7-9

The Raiders overcame some atrocious vibes to win Super Bowl XV after Al Davis announced his plans to move the team to Los Angeles in spite of the owners who voted to block the move prior to the start of the 1980 season.

However, the bad juju eventually caught up to a franchise that saw its passing game and defense implode in the wake of its second title. The Raiders ended up at 7-9 during what ended up being their last season in Oakland before returning in 1995.

The 1987 New York Giants: 6-9

The Giants are the only team that makes multiple appearances on this list, as they fell victim to a Super Bowl hangover a couple of times in a relatively short span.

New York went 14-2 before beating the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI, and while the 1987 season was marred by the players’ strike that had a significant impact on the beginning of a season that was shortened by a game, that only does so much to explain the team’s 0-5 start.

The Giants were still searching for answers toward the end of what ended up being a season to forget, but they were able to mount a pretty swift comeback once it came to a merciful end.

The 1999 Denver Broncos

The Broncos successfully defended their title with a win over the Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII, and their quest for a three-peat was hampered by John Elway’s decision to hang up his cleats in the wake of the victory.

Brian Griese was not able to fill the void when he was tapped to replace the legendary QB, and Denver lost its first four games before finishing in the basement of the AFC West with a 6-10 record.

The 1982 San Francisco 49ers (XVI): 3-6

This is another entry that deserves a bit of an asterisk, as the 49ers only played nine games during the strike-shortened season that unfolded in the wake of their win over the Bengals in Super Bowl XVI.

As was the case with Washington, the steep decline in their running game and defensive prowess were the biggest factors in their fall from grace. However, it ended up being fairly short-lived, as San Francisco went 10-6 in 1983 and 15-1 the following year before winning another Super Bowl.

The 2022 Los Angeles Rams: 5-12

Last, and certainly least, we have the Rams team that’s responsible for the worst record ever posted by a team coming off a win in the Super Bowl.

Los Angeles got off to a 2-1 start but bore the brunt of injuries to key players including Matthew Stafford, Aaron Donald, and Cooper Kupp. They were sitting at 3-3 heading into their bye week, and the wheels fell off upon a return that ushered in a brutal 2-9 stretch to close things out.