Ranking the longest NFL playoff droughts by which is most likely to end in 2025: Bears, Falcons much improved

No professional sports league has more parity than the National Football League. 

Since 1990 (a span of 35 seasons), at least four new teams have earned a spot in the postseason every season following a year they weren’t in the playoffs at all. The 2024 season was no different with the Minnesota Vikings (7-10 in 2023 to 14-3 in 2024), Washington Commanders (4-13 to 12-5), Los Angeles Chargers (5-12 to 11-6) and Denver Broncos (8-9 to 10-7) all going from sitting on the couch in January to duking it out in the playoffs. 

So which of the following teams with the NFL’s longest active playoff droughts could make the leap in 2025?

Longest active playoff droughts in NFL

Let’s examine and rank the likelihood of the teams with the NFL’s six longest active playoff droughts ending their postseason dry spells in 2025. 

All NFL odds via DraftKings Sportsbook.

6. New Orleans Saints

Playoff odds: +600 ($10 to win $60)

The issues with the New Orleans Saints, like they do for many NFL teams, boil down to not having a legit dude at the quarterback position. New Orleans’ last playoff appearance occurred in the 2020 season, the final year of future Hall of Famer Drew Brees’ career. Since Brees’ retirement, New Orleans has used eight different starting quarterbacks during its four-year playoff drought. Only the quarterback-cursed Cleveland Browns (11 different starting quarterbacks since 2021) have trotted out more in this span. 

Following Derek Carr’s surprise retirement because of a lingering shoulder injury, the Saints will likely turn to second-round rookie Tyler Shough to be their starting quarterback in 2025 for new, first-time head coach Kellen Moore. The football comes out of Shough’s hands with nice velocity, but he has notable durability questions ahead of turning 26-years-old in September. He suffered a season-ending collarbone injury in 2021 at Texas Tech, missed six games with a shoulder injury in 2022 and suffered a season-ending broken fibula in 2023. During his one season at Louisville, however, started all 12 games while throwing for 3,195 yards, 23 touchdowns and six interceptions. 

Combining Shough’s inexperience with the Saints’ inability to upgrade the roster in free agency because of salary cap constraints, New Orleans is likely a year or two away from pushing for a playoff spot. 

5. Carolina Panthers

Playoff odds: +230 ($10 to win $23)

The Panthers appear to have turned a corner with quarterback Bryce Young, the first overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. He struggled mightily at the start of his career but finished the 2024 season with 10 total touchdowns and no turnovers in Carolina’s final three games. It is worth noting that two of those games were against teams who missed the postseason, the Arizona Cardinals and the Atlanta Falcons, and the one loss in that span was a 48-14 beatdown defeat against the eventual NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

The drafting of Arizona All-American wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan gives Young a go-to No. 1 option, but will McMillan and last year’s first-round pick, Xavier Legette, be enough for the offense to be at a playoff-caliber level? 

* Benched after 18th career start (Week 2 of 2024 season)

Another significant issue is the defense. It’s worth noting that defensive tackle Derrick Brown went down with a season-ending injury in Week 1, but the Panthers were the NFL’s worst defense across the board in 2024. They were dead last in scoring defense (31.4 points per game allowed), total defense (404.5 total yards per game allowed), rushing yards per game allowed (179.8 rushing yards per game allowed) and yards per play allowed (6.0). Carolina’s defense was so musty that it became the first team in NFL history to allow 3,000 rushing yards (3,057) and 35 passing touchdowns (35) in a single season, per CBS Sports Research. 

The Panthers did a decent job of fortifying their defense in both free agency (defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton, defensive tackle Bobby Brown, edge rusher Patrick Jones II and safety Tre’von Moehrig) and in the draft (second-round edge rusher Nic Scourton and third-round edge rusher Princely Umanmielen). Will it be enough to raise the level of a historically bad unit in 2025? It feels like more development needs to occur on both sides of the ball before the Panthers make a postseason return. 

One takeaway from every NFC team’s offseason workouts: Bears’ Ben Johnson runs tight ship; Rams ready to roll?

Cody Benjamin

4. New York Jets 

Playoff odds: +475 ($10 to win $47.50)

No team in major North American professional sports has missed the playoffs for a longer stretch of seasons than the Jets. Their last playoff appearance came when quarterback Mark Sanchez was in his second season, a 31-year-old LaDainian Tomlinson led the Jets in rushing and Rex Ryan was in his second year as New York’s head coach. That was an eternity ago in football years. 

None of the 15 starting quarterbacks during New York’s 14-season playoff drought had a winning record, something that might have a correlation to its head coaching hires. Eight of its last nine full-time head coaches had a defensive background. However, new head coach Aaron Glenn, who comes over after working as the Detroit Lions‘ defensive coordinator, brought a member of the Lions’ offensive brain trust with him in Tanner Engstrand, who was Ben Johnson’s passing game coordinator. 

The Jets have the defensive talent to win, as well as high-end talent at their No. 1 wide receiver (Garrett Wilson) and No. 1 running back (Breece Hall) spots. However, can Engstrand turn free agent signee Justin Fields into a quarterback who can win with his arm entering his fifth NFL season? The Pittsburgh Steelers went 4-2 in his six starts last year but only averaged 20.7 points per game (would’ve ranked 21st in the NFL last season) and 166.8 passing yards per game (would’ve ranked last in the NFL last season). If the Jets can create an offense that can push the ball downfield while maximizing Fields’ athleticism as a runner, they could make a playoff run. However, there’s no evidence yet that such a thing is possible at the NFL level. 

3. Indianapolis Colts 

Playoff odds: +200 ($10 to win $20)

Even though the Houston Texans have won the AFC South the last two years, the Colts have been right behind them in second place. General manager Chris Ballard went to great lengths to fortify their secondary with the free agency additions of safety Camryn Bynum (one of four players with 300 or more tackles and seven or more interceptions across the last three season) and cornerback Charvarius Ward (ninth-lowest completion percentage allowed (53%) across the last three seasons). Hiring longtime Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, who oversaw solid Bengals defenses for most of his tenure, should also add a steady hand on that side of the ball. 

Indianapolis’ offense is loaded with playmakers from former NFL rushing champion Jonathan Taylor to wide receiver Alec Pierce (the 2024 NFL yards per reception leader) to wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. to first-round tight end Tyler Warren and more. It just needs consistency at the quarterback position. Anthony Richardson has been the NFL’s most boom-or-bust passer, leading the NFL in yards per completion (14.4) while ranking dead last in completion percentage (47.4%) last season. He’s also only played in 15 of 34 possible games in his career. That’s not great. Should his health continue to falter, New York Giants castoff Daniel Jones would step in. If not for the uncertainty at quarterback, the Colts would be higher on this list.  

2. Chicago Bears 

Playoff odds: +150 ($10 to win $15)

The Bears might be the NFL’s most-improved team this offseason. New Bears head coach Ben Johnson arrived in Chicago after his Detroit Lions offense led the league in scoring offense (29.0 points per game since 2022). General manager Ryan Poles also went to work fortifying the roster around 2024 first-overall quarterback Caleb Williams after he took 68 sacks, tied for the third-most in a single season in NFL history. 

Poles traded for Chiefs All-Pro offensive guard Joe Thuney and Rams guard Jonah Jackson. He signed the best free agent center in the Falcons’ Drew Dalman, then drafted two weapons early for Williams in Michigan All-Big Ten tight end Colston Loveland (first round) and All-SEC wide receiver Luther Burden III (second round). If Johnson can get Williams to trust his playmakers and get the ball out of his hands quicker — his average time to throw of 3.13 seconds was the fourth longest in the NFL last season — perhaps Chicago can return to the playoffs. It will be tough with the NFC North division sending three teams to the playoffs last season in the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers. 

1. Atlanta Falcons 

Playoff odds: +155 ($10 to win $15.50)

The Falcons could take a big leap forward with 2024 eighth overall pick Michael Penix Jr. starting out 2025 as their quarterback instead of the aging Kirk Cousins. Cousins looked exactly like a 36-year-old coming off a torn Achilles last season. 

He was unable to fully step into throws and was heavily limited when moving around in the pocket, which led to Cousins co-leading the NFL with 16 interceptions. Last season, new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson was tasked to build an offense designed to cover up Cousins’ inability to move around. 

That led to the Falcons having the NFL’s lowest play-action pass rate (7.6%) by a wide spread. The Cowboys were the next-lowest team with an 11.1% rate. This offseason, Robinson can reintroduce the play-action pass in all shapes and sizes to his playbook with Penix on the field, which should further showcase the talents of first-round picks at running back (Bijan Robinson), wide receiver (Drake London) and tight end (Kyle Pitts). 

On the defensive side of the ball, Atlanta threw the kitchen sink at beefing up its pass rush after signing veteran edge rusher Leonard Floyd to a one-year, $10 million contract and drafting two edge rushers in the first round: Georgia’s Jalon Walker (15th overall) and Tennessee’s James Pearce Jr. (26th overall). Atlanta hasn’t had a player with double-digit sacks since Vic Beasley in 2016 — the longest active streak in the NFL — but perhaps that trio can snap that drought. 

Those defensive additions in tandem with a more versatile offense with Penix could lift the Falcons to a higher level. That could power Atlanta back to the postseason out of an NFC South division that always feels up for grabs.