Top 5 Best NFL Players Who Never Won a Super Bowl Ring

When it comes to the NFL, and virtually all sports, the primary debate is generally regarding which player is the GOAT. That often leads to discussions as to what determines that, and championships are one of the talking points. However, there have been plenty of NFL superstars that have gone on to have Hall-of-Fame careers despite never winning a Super Bowl. In this article, we’ve shared our top five best NFL athletes who never won a championship. 

#1: Dan Marino

Each of the players in our list of the top five best NFL athletes who never won a championship are elite in their own right, but it’s only fitting to begin with a quarterback. The position is regarded as the most difficult across any sport by many, and Dan Marino was one of the best to ever do it.

The lifelong Miami Dolphin was a part of some incredible teams, but they were never able to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. Marino’s 61,361 career passing yards still rank eighth all time, and he has only been surpassed by far more recent quarterbacks. For perspective, the next-closest signal caller from his era is John Elway, of which Marino has just under 10,000 more passing yards. He was also the first quarterback to ever pass for 5,000 yards in a single season and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005. 

#2: Randy Moss

A much more recent Hall of Fame induction was that of Randy Moss, who put on the gold jacket in 2018. His career was just as lengthy as Marino, but it wasn’t all for one team. Some fans remember him best for his start with the Minnesota Vikings, while others remember him for helping close out the recent New England Patriots dynasty.

Once paired with Tom Brady, Moss led the Pats to an 18-0 season before falling just short of the first-ever 19-0 season with a Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants. However, many fans don’t seem to remember that Moss returned to the Super Bowl following that loss. At the tail end of his career, he joined the San Francisco 49ers, who faced the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl 47. Of course, it was the Ravens that came out on top for their second Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.

#3: Barry Sanders

He retired too early. That’s the remark that many football fans make the second that they think of Barry Sanders. The shifty running back broke countless ankles over his 10-year career spanning the 1990s. Even with his short tenure in the NFL, his 15,269 career rushing yards are still the fourth-most all time to this day.

That proves why many fans speculate that he would be the record holder had he not retired earlier than expected, but Sanders was never able to win the Super Bowl with the Detroit Lions. In fact, they never even made it to the ultimate game with arguably the best running back in league history. As if that wasn’t enough, the Lions won just a single playoff game with Sanders. Who knows if that frustration was a factor in his early retirement?  

#4: Bruce Smith

Speaking of postseason frustration, that epitomizes the Buffalo Bills of the early 1990s. Specifically, the years of 1991 through 1994 were pure agony for the franchise and the fans of Upstate New York. As many overall NFL fans know, that Bills team lost four straight Super Bowls.

There were several future Hall of Famers from that era, but we’re highlighting the great Bruce Smith. The defensive lineman was one of the best the game has ever seen, and arguably paved the way for the prominence of pass rushers that we see today. Smith still holds the NFL record for career sacks with 200, and aside from Reggie White (198), the next-closest player is 40 behind! Even when he wasn’t smashing quarterbacks, he changed the way offenses had to gameplan, but he was never able to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

#5: JJ Watt

To wrap up our top five best NFL athletes who never won a championship, we could continue the theme of Bills from that Bruce Smith team by going with Jim Kelly. Instead, we’re going to keep a different theme going – pass rushers. One could argue that there is some recency bias here, but JJ Watt did things that we’ve never seen before.

Much of his career was spent helping kickstart the Houston Texans franchise, and Watt went on to win three Defensive Player of the Year awards. Like Barry Sanders, there wasn’t much playoff success whatsoever for Watt, let alone a Super Bowl appearance. The elite pass rusher only retired in 2022, so he has yet to be eligible for the Hall of Fame, but there is almost no doubt that he will be a first-ballot inductee.