Ranking Detroit Lions among teams without Super Bowl wins

How do the oddsmakers rank the chances of the Detroit Lions to end their Super Bowl streak?

A social media post asks NFL fans, “Of these franchises without a Super Bowl win, who would you put money on this season to win it?” Twelve teams are in that category, including the Detroit Lions who had a 3-12-1 record in 2019. This week we’ll discuss what the odds say about the Lions prospects for 2020 and ranking the “not elite” teams.

It’s not the list teams want to be on but the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers, Minnesota Vikings, and Tennessee Titans are all on it with the Detroit Lions.

Seven of the teams have participated in a Super Bowl, the Buffalo Bills have been to four. The Lions, Browns, Texans, Jaguars, and Chargers have never earned a chance to compete for the Lombardi Trophy, given to the eventual Super Bowl champions. The Texans have only been in the NFL since 2002, the Jaguars since 1995, though.

The Chargers, Lions, and Browns have been in the NFL for the entire Super Bowl era, which has spanned the past 54 seasons. Super Bowl 55 will be held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both the Browns and Chargers started as AFL teams, the American Football League, which merged with the NFL in 1966.

Starting in 1967, the AFL and NFL played each other in a final championship game, which after a few years would be dubbed, the Super Bowl. Now the NFL divides the league into two conferences based upon the former leagues they belonged to. The AFL expanded to nine teams, with the entrance of the Miami Dolphins in 1966, while the NFL expanded to fifteen teams with the addition of the Atlanta Falcons that year.

All NFL historical information can be found on the NFL Hall of Fame website, here.