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🏈 5 NFL Team Droughts That Could End in 2026

Plus: Why the tush push is losing it's edge, highest-graded position groups in PFF history, most/least aggressive 4th down teams, and more. JOIN PFF+ NFL NEWS FANTASY DRAFT TOOLS

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June 22, 2026 4:38pm EDT

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Five Long Droughts That Could End

Every NFL franchise carries its own ghosts. Whether it's a Super Bowl drought, a missing conference championship banner, or a postseason win that just won't come, every fanbase has a streak they'd love to bury. Recent years have seen some of the league's longest droughts finally fall, with the Bears and Broncos winning playoff games in 2025, the Commanders reaching the NFC title game in 2024, and the Bengals making their first Super Bowl in 33 years.

Topping our list of five droughts that could end in 2026: the Lions in the Super Bowl. Detroit has never played in one despite kicking off in 1930, with the franchise's last league championship coming all the way back in 1957. The Lions came within a few minutes in the 2023 NFC title game and still finished with the third-best overall PFF grade in a "down" 2025. If the new-look offense clicks and the corner room takes a step forward, the longest wait in football could finally be over.

See the four other droughts ready to break.

WHICH STREAKS WILL END?

Is the Tush Push Losing its Edge?

For four years, the tush push has been the most argued-about play in football. It nearly got banned in the 2025 offseason, falling just two votes short. Now, no new proposal exists to outlaw it. But the bigger story might be that the league is figuring out how to stop it on its own.

The Eagles have run 163 sneaks since 2022, more than any other team by a wide margin. The catch: their conversion rate has dropped every single year, from 88.1% in 2022 down to just 65.5% in 2025. The late-season stretch was even uglier, with just three first downs on nine tush-push attempts from Week 11 onward, including three straight stops by the Lions and a fumble forced by the Bears. For the first time, the league-wide sneak conversion rate (75.8%) actually beat the Eagles' own.

See the full data on the play's slow decline.

IS THE TUSH PUSH DONE?

The Highest-Graded Position Groups in PFF History

To mark PFF's 20th anniversary of charting NFL data, we looked back at the highest-graded single-season position group at every spot on the field. The result: a hypothetical all-time roster pulled from across two decades of grading, with eight different teams claiming the crown at eight different positions.

Headlining the group: the 2015 Panthers linebackers, who posted a 92.0 overall PFF grade en route to Carolina's Super Bowl run. Luke Kuechly's 93.6 grade beat the next-best linebacker that season by more than three grading points, while Thomas Davis added an 80.0 overall mark powered by an 89.3 coverage grade (fourth-best at the position). It's the kind of duo PFF data has only seen once in 20 years.

See which seven other teams own the all-time crown at their position.

SEE ALL 8 POSITION GROUPS

Editors' Picks

The NFL's best teams on fourth down 4️⃣

Josh Allen and the Bills lead the NFL in fourth-down yards per play (5.8) since 2021. Who else is winning in crunch time?

Top 5 RBs after contact entering 2026 😤

Achane leads all active RBs with 3.8 yards after contact, despite being just 5'8" and 188 pounds. See the full list.

Inside the NFL's kick return revolution 🚀

Returns more than doubled to 69 per team in 2025 under the new rules. The twist: defenses gain more than offenses.

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🏈 5 NFL Team Droughts That Could End in 2026

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