Will There Be Any Winless NFL Teams This Year?

The NFL hasn’t had a winless team since the Cleveland Browns infamously failed at a historic rate in 2017. 

Few thought that would be possible after the 2008 Detroit Lions went 0-16, but it happened. I assume most won’t expect an 0-17 team to pop up, but that isn’t impossible either.

You can currently survey winless NFL team odds at top online betting sites such as bet365, which currently pegs the Carolina Panthers as the best bet to go 0-17 in 2024.

How likely is it for an NFL team to be so bad to win every single game in a 17-game schedule? I don’t know if it’s an amazing bet in general, but what’s one more game?

To assess which teams actually might be bad enough to “accomplish” this feat, let’s look at the latest odds for an NFL team to go 0-17 this year.

2024-25 NFL Winless Team Odds

The Carolina Panthers were atrocious a year ago, so they are unsurprisingly the frontrunners to be the team that does go 0-17, if there is one.

Bet365 stages the betting market appropriately. It’s not just whether or not an NFL team will go winless – you have to bet on which team does it.

You’re taking on some obvious risk here, but there are a handful of teams that realistically could give this one a go. Before you place your bets, take in the NFL winless team odds.

I probably could have stopped listing the latest winless NFL team odds a while ago. Most of the teams above aren’t seriously in contention for the league’s worst record, let alone failing to win a single game.

Only a precious few NFL rosters are bad enough to feel remotely confident of this happening in 2024, and I’d also try to stick to teams with bad or inexperienced coaching.

Generally, good coaching can get you at least a couple of wins each year, and historically, the winless NFL teams didn’t have brainiacs roaming the sidelines.

Carolina makes sense as the betting favorite here, and I have no real disagreements across the board when looking at the odds for which NFL teams could go 0-17.

So, who is the best bet, and should you bet on anyone at all? I’ll explore that and more, with my first stop assessing Carolina’s ability to live up to their billing as the winless favorite.

Why Are the Carolina Panthers Favored to Go 0-17 in 2024?

The Panthers won two games last year, and with a 2-15 record, were the worst team in the NFL. 

If you remove the record, that was still the case. They were so bad that they fired their head coach and started over by luring former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dave Canales into town.

On paper, Canales is an offensive genius. He orchestrated career revivals for both Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield, so if anyone can fix Bryce Young, it’s him.

Of course, Young could have been a bust all along. Even if he wasn’t, a brutal rookie season could mark him as damaged goods.

Carolina also had a bad signing in running back Miles Sanders, while they got worse defensively following a trade of Brian Burns to the New York Giants.

On paper, the Panthers didn’t get much better. Add a rookie head coach to the equation, and this team does appear to have the formula needed for a winless season.

Top Contenders to Go Winless During the 2024 NFL Season

Carolina might be in a league of their own when it comes to odds of finishing without a win this year, but a couple of teams aren’t far off.

If you’re betting on whether or not an 0-17 team will exist in the NFL this year, I’d consider the following two bets as well.

New England Patriots +3500

The New England Patriots are a bit of a mess. There is optimism that former Bill Belichick disciple Jerod Mayo can eventually right the ship, but he’s not a proven commodity.

It’s also worth noting that he replaces his former coach, who was let go following a rough 4-13 record in 2023.

If Bill Belichick couldn’t get this franchise to win more than four games a season ago, what hope does a first-year shot caller have?

My guess is Mayo really has his work cut out for him here. Obviously we don’t know if he has much of a plan, or if he’s really cut out for running an NFL team. But it only gets worse for him, as New England arguably took a step back under center in the off-season.

Mac Jones wasn’t great, but the Pats’ troubles weren’t exactly all on him, either. The Patriots traded him to the Jacksonville Jaguars, though, and followed that move up by bringing back Jacoby Brissett and drafting Drake Maye with the third overall pick.

Maye is talented, but he’s super young and isn’t even a lock to start. With New England still looking to fill holes and not having an answer at the most important position, they are an obvious candidate to struggle in 2024.

New York Giants +4000

One other team that could be in a bad way is Big Blue. The New York Giants made history by appearing in the first ever off-season edition of Hard Knocks, and their transparency was alarming.

We saw first hand what it was like for an organization to practice team building concepts, but it’s arguable it wasn’t in a positive light. New York lost stud running back Saquon Barkley to the division rival Philadelphia Eagles, and the franchise had a very lukewarm endorsement for starting quarterback Daniel Jones.

I personally didn’t hate New York’s moves. They got discounted upgrades on their offensive line, they replaced Barkley with some warm bodies, and they made a big splash trade for Brian Burns.

In theory, the Giants are getting back a healthy and motivated Daniel Jones, their o-line is better than ever, their defense has a top-5 pass rush tandem, and they still have a strong coaching staff.

But everything needs to fall into place. It might be too much to ask in a short window for a team that was just 6-11 a year ago.

Top NFL Winless Team Value Bet for 2024

New York offers good value, but this is very much a “go big or go home” play. I’d be lying if I said I felt super confident about any team going 0-17 this year, but the odds are likely that just two teams fit the bill.

That said, I think the New Orleans Saints look interesting at +15000. It’s obviously a price play, as these are staggering odds for a Saints team that has some nice talent, but was the epitome of pedestrian en route to a 9-8 finish a year ago.

Derek Carr was a free agent flop, and the best players on this team are getting pretty long in the tooth. They can still win games and maybe even push for the playoffs if everything goes their way, but this squad is an injury away from leaning on Spencer Rattler all year.

Head coach Dennis Allen hasn’t come across as the most likable fella, either.

Is it crazy to think an aging and overrated Saints roster starts off slowly and quits on a coach that doesn’t give them much love back? I don’t think so.

Calling for the Saints to be bad isn’t a reach, to be frank. Betting on them to go through all of 2024 without a win might be. Still, they are not a reliable team and at +15000, they’re easily the most appealing sleeper pick for this betting market.

Will Any NFL Team Go Winless in 2024?

If I like the Panthers to be the team to win last in 2024, it only makes sense for them to be the best bet to go 0-17, too.

New England is the only team I’d strongly consider as a pivot. They have a rookie head coach in Jerod Mayo, so things obviously could go poorly. They also haven’t seen consistent play out of their prized rookie franchise passer, and that’s never a good sign.

But are the Panthers any better off with Bryce Young under center? Nope. They have a rookie head coach of their own with Dave Canales taking over, too. Carolina was atrocious last year, and it’s pretty arguable they didn’t get a whole lot better.

Given the lack of major strides being taken here, a step back that leads to a total gutting of the front office wouldn’t be that shocking. Heck, maybe it even leads the Panthers to start over under center and look to a quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft.

The latest 2025 NFL Draft odds do peg a quarterback to go first overall, so the math would certainly check out there.

If I am making a bet on a team going winless, Carolina is the pick. That said, they were really bad in 2023 and still won two games. Even mild improvement should keep them out of the 0-17 conversation.

Bet: Carolina Panthers +2500

Which NFL Team Will Be the Last to Win in 2024?

There is a secondary betting market dealing with terrible NFL teams in 2024. It isn’t so much about who will go winless, but which team will be the last to win.

It could have its own write-up, to be sure, but it’s still very similar to betting on which NFL team will go 0-17. One way or another, if you bet on a team to be the last to get a win, you’d probably favor them to go winless, as well.

Weirdly enough, the team favored to be the last to win isn’t the same one that is favored to go winless. It’s close, though, as the New England Patriots (+550) have the best odds to pick up a win last in 2024, and they have the second best odds to go 0-17 on the year.

Carolina, who has the best winless odds, has the third best price to win last in 2024. In between those teams are the Minnesota Vikings, who have +750 odds to be the final NFL team to get a win this season.

What do these three sad sack franchises have in common? They don’t really have a quarterback any bettors can trust. Of course, of the three, Minnesota is in the best shape, as they do have Sam Darnold on the roster, and J.J. McCarthy has actually looked good.

I can’t say the same for Drake Maye, while Bryce Young’s rookie season was so bad that pretty much whatever good news that comes out of training camp is to be ignored.

Regardless, the Panthers and Patriots are the two correct teams to be looking at here. Whoever you bet on to get the last win is probably the way to go for a winless bet, too.

For me, that’s the Panthers. 

Bet: Carolina Panthers +800

NFL Teams to Go Winless

In the history of the National Football League, there have been numerous teams to go winless for an entire season. However, there was only one team that went 1-31 over a two-year stretch and that was the Cleveland Browns. Some fans and pundits say that the Browns of 2016 and 2017 are the worst team in NFL history. Only the Cardinals of the 1940s can come close to this type of futility.

The following is a list of winless teams that played eight or more NFL games in a season. This list would greatly increase if we were to add teams that played partial NFL schedules during the league’s early years.