The Browns and Lions: A Story Of the NFL’s Least Successful Teams Since 1973

The Cardinals have one more playoff game win than the Browns’ four, and they played in a Super Bowl. They have a higher regular season winning percentage (.427) than the Browns, as do the Panthers (.483), Jaguars (.456) and Texans. The Panthers, whose first NFL season was in 1995, top the Browns with seven playoff game victories and played in a Super Bowl. Jacksonville, in 18 fewer seasons than the Browns, has more playoff wins (six).

The Browns are at a slight disadvantage to other longtime teams in this category, as they missed three seasons (1996-98) when then-owner Art Modell moved the original Browns to Baltimore following the 1995 campaign.

By the way, the Ravens have a .545 regular season winning percentage since the move, have won two Super Bowls and have 15 playoff game wins in 10 playoff seasons. Baltimore’s success has little to do with players who had been with that last original Browns team in 1995. The Ravens had a .383 winning percentage and didn’t make the playoffs in their first four seasons after the move. Most of the former Browns players were gone by the Ravens’ first playoff season (and Super Bowl title) in 2000.

The Browns, unless they turn things around in the next few seasons, are in danger of their all-time NFL winning percentage dropping below .500. Their regular season record is 460 wins, 443 losses and 10 ties for a .509 percentage. In fact, counting their 11-20 record in playoff games, the Browns are now just eight games over .500 in their NFL history.

Cleveland went 47-4-3 and 5-0 in playoff games, with championships in all four seasons, in the AAFC from 1946-49. That, of course, doesn’t count in the Browns’ NFL records.

The Browns’ pro football-best .693 regular season winning percentage from 1950-73 came with 213 wins, 92 losses and nine ties. (The NFL counts a tie as a half-win and half-loss in a win-loss percentage). They won seven playoff games and lost 11 while compiling their league-high 15 playoff seasons and second-best four titles (1950, 1954, 1955, 1964) in those 24 seasons. (Until 1966, the only playoff game was the championship game, matching the NFL’s two division champions. The Browns defeated the New York Giants in a playoff game to break a first-place division tie in 1950. That was the only NFL season in which the Browns posted multiple playoff wins).

Cleveland had a 161-174-1 record (.481) from 1974-95, with no championships and a 4-8 record in eight playoff seasons. In 1986, 1987 and 1989, like in the third and fourth Super Bowl seasons of 1968 and 1969, the Browns won one playoff game to move within one win of the Super Bowl, but lost each time.

Since their return as an NFL franchise in 1999, and counting their 2-5 record this season, the Browns are 86-177 (.354). Their lone playoff season was 2002, when they earned a wild card berth but lost to the Steelers in Pittsburgh, 36-33. The fact they made the playoffs in their fourth season as an expansion team, and considering that other recent expansion teams enjoyed early successes, diminishes any “expansion team” excuse for the Browns’ incompetence since.

In their last six seasons (1990-95) prior to the move to Baltimore, the Browns went 39-57 and made the playoffs once, in 1994, when they earned their last playoff game win, 20-13 over the New England Patriots.

Thus, in their last 23 seasons, counting this one and the six prior to the move, the Browns have won 125 games and lost 234 for a .348 win-loss percentage. They’ve made the playoffs twice, winning one game and losing two.

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