Which NFL teams have never played in the Super Bowl?

Both the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles come into Super Bowl 59 as veterans of playing in the Super Bowl, particularly in recent memory. This is the Eagles' fourth Super Bowl since 2000 and their third in the past decade. It's even more frequent for the Chiefs as they've been to five of the last six Super Bowls.

So all this is to say, this is far from a matchup between newcomers in the Super Bowl. And frankly, it's been a long time since we've had that. Coming into the 2024-25 season, though, some fans absolutely expected the Detroit Lions to be playing in this game. They came into the year as the presumptive favorites out of the NFC but lost in the Divisional Round. The Lions' abject lack of Super Bowl history, though, made that all the more heartbreaking.

Any NFL team that talks about goals going into a given season will most likely tell you that the ultimate endgame is the same: to win the Super Bowl. That, of course, is only possible for one of the 32 franchises in the league. But nonetheless, it's what every team goes into each season striving toward.

Unfortunately, there are a handful of teams that have not just never won the Super Bowl but have never even made it to the Big Game. So let's take a look at all of those teams before the 2025 edition of this matchup for the Lombardi Trophy.

NFL teams that have never played in the Super Bowl

There are four NFL teams that haven't played in the Super Bowl. Those franchises are the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Three of the four teams have made it to conference championship games, but all have fallen short of winning the conference to punch a ticket to the Super Bowl. The Texans are the one team that has yet to play in the AFC Championship Game, having only ever made it to the Divisional Round in their playoff history.

The Browns last played in the AFC Championship Game in 1989, which resulted in a 37-21 loss to the Denver Broncos. The Lions last made the NFC Championship Game in 1992 when they suffered a deflating 41-10 loss to Washington. The Jaguars have actually made the AFC Championship Game an impressive three times since the franchise's inception in 1995, doing so in their second-ever season in 1996 and most recently in 2017-18, which resulted in a heartbreaking 24-20 loss to the New England Patriots.

Which NFL teams have never won the Super Bowl?

In total there are 12 teams who have never won a Super Bowl, though eight have played in them. Here's a look at the 12 franchises still looking for a Lombardi Trophy, the number of times they've been in the Big Game and fallen short, and their last appearance in the Super Bowl: