The 7 Greatest 'Wasted' NFL Seasons Since 2010

One of the cruelest realities in the NFL is that, on occasion, a superstar individual is not enough to carry a team.

Looking at the 2024 season, for example, quarterback Joe Burrow has assembled an MVP-caliber year. Entering the final week of the campaign, however, the Cincinnati Bengals aren't even in position to land a wild card.

If the Bengals were to miss the postseason, Burrow's campaign would join the inglorious list of wasted years.

The list is subjective but focused on players who racked up massive stats, yet the team didn't make a playoff appearance.

The final season of Brett Favre's short tenure with the Minnesota Vikings ended with a 6-10 record. And then, it got worse.

Although the Adrian Peterson-led rushing attack was very efficient, the passing game was a disaster in 2011. Late-career Donovan McNabb and rookie quarterback Christian Ponder combined to manage just 6.5 yards per attempt, and Minnesota tumbled to an ugly 3-13 mark.

Jared Allen, however, was an absolute superstar.

The veteran edge-rusher collected 22 sacks, then the second-highest (official) total in NFL history. He amassed 66 tackles and 32 QB hits, along with four fumbles both forced and recovered. Allen, who earned his fourth AP first-team All-Pro honor in five seasons, finished as the league's Defensive Player of the Year runner-up.

All that production for three measly wins. At least Allen and the Vikings made the playoffs in 2012.

If you're a fan of the Detroit Lions, you probably read the headline and immediately knew Calvin Johnson would be included.

As happened with Barry Sanders, the franchise managed to squander the whole career of an iconic talent. Detroit went 0-16 when Megatron enjoyed his breakout year in 2008, and Johnson's peak arrived in a 2012 campaign that resulted in a 4-12 record for the Lions.

Despite the constant losing, he was an absolute menace for defensive backs. Johnson reeled in a league-high 122 receptions and tallied a still-standing NFL record of 1,964 yards.

The future Hall of Famer received first-team All-Pro recognition and settled for third in Offensive Player of the Year voting.

Two seasons after Allen's excellence in Minnesota, Robert Quinn had a similar campaign for the St. Louis Rams.

A third-year player in 2013, he exploded for a league-best 23 tackles for loss and registered 19 sacks. Quinn forced seven fumbles and recovered two of them, even taking one back for a touchdown.

Meanwhile, the team was annoyingly mediocre as usual.

It was a theme during the Jeff Fisher era, during which the Rams notched six or seven wins in all four of his full seasons. This particular campaign closed with St. Louis at 7-9, last in the NFC West.

Quinn garnered the lone first-team AP All-Pro honor of his career and finished fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

The biggest frustration for superstar pass-rushers must be that complete dominance is not necessarily rewarded with wins. After all, they don't have the ball enough to make a major impact on the scoreboard.

J.J. Watt certainly tested the limits of that theory in 2014.

Not only did he snag three touchdown catches as a goal-line weapon, he returned a fumble and an interception for a score. Watt amassed more touchdowns than 1,300-yard receiver Golden Tate!

At edge-rusher—you know, his actual job—Watt registered an NFL-high 29 tackles for loss and 20.5 sacks. He broke up 10 passes, forced four fumbles and recovered five, hit the quarterback 51 times and, well, it still couldn't take the 9-7 Texans to the postseason.

Watt brought home the second of his three career DPOY awards and ended as the MVP runner-up.

For a three-year stretch from 2014 to 2016, Drew Brees led the league in passing yards as the New Orleans Saints went 7-9, 7-9 and 7-9.

Brutal.

Look, plenty of the Saints' mistakes can be pinned on Brees. He's not immune to blame for some losses in this stretch, either. That's the nature of being a quarterback.

But in 2016, New Orleans scored the most points in the league and allowed the second-most points. Brees passed for 5,208 yards—then the No. 3 season in NFL history—and 37 touchdowns, keeping the Saints competitive in spite of yet another bad defense.

Along with a Pro Bowl nod, Brees managed a sixth-place spot in Offensive Player of the Year voting.

As the 2019 Carolina Panthers dealt with Cam Newton's foot injury—effectively a season-long absence—they leaned on Christian McCaffrey for an absurd level of production.

The good news is he delivered in historic fashion. The bad news is the Panthers, as a whole, were ineffective.

Carolina mustered a 5-11 mark behind a bad passing game and defense. Only two teams averaged fewer yards per pass attempt than the Panthers, whose quarterbacks combined for 17 touchdowns and 21 interceptions. Plus, the defense yielded the second-most points in the league.

McCaffrey, meanwhile, rushed for 1,387 yards and 15 touchdowns with 116 receptions for 1,005 yards and four scores. He became only the third player ever to have 1,000 rushing and receiving yards in the same year.

Carolina's eight straight losses were a sour end to a first-team All-Pro season from McCaffrey, who finished third in OPOY voting.

Jonathan Taylor made a splashy impact as a rookie, compiling 1,468 scrimmage yards and 12 touchdowns while helping the Indianapolis Colts post an 11-5 record and make the playoffs.

In his second year, Taylor was even better. The versatile running back scampered for NFL-best totals of 1,811 yards and 18 touchdowns, adding 40 catches for 360 yards and two more scores. Taylor garnered first-team All-Pro recognition and ended second in OPOY voting.

Nevertheless, the Colts missed the playoffs at 9-8 in 2021.

The most memorable part is how painfully the season concluded. Indianapolis needed a single win during the last two weeks to secure a wild-card berth but dropped both games, the latter of which was against the lowly 2-14 Jacksonville Jaguars.

As of the 2024 season, Indy hasn't yet returned to the playoffs since wasting Taylor's outstanding year.