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Weeks in first place: NFL division races, 1970 to 2025

The longest anyone has led an NFL race without winning it: the Philadelphia Eagles ended 17 of the 2023 NFC East race's 18 playing weeks in first place, 94% of them, and finished behind the Dallas Cowboys. At the other end, the Pittsburgh Steelers won the 2014 AFC North race having led on two of its 17 playing weeks, never more than one in a row. Both lists below rank by the share of a race's playing weeks a team spent in first place. How that is counted is spelled out under the lists.

Companion pages: Closest NFL races and Biggest NFL comebacks and collapses.

Longest leads lost

  1. The Philadelphia Eagles led the 2023 NFC East race on 17 of its 18 playing weeks, 94% of them, and finished behind the Dallas Cowboys.
  2. The Minnesota Vikings led the 2003 NFC North race on 16 of its 17 playing weeks, 94% of them, and finished behind the Green Bay Packers.
  3. The Arizona Cardinals led the 2014 NFC West race on 16 of its 17 playing weeks, 94% of them, and finished behind the Seattle Seahawks.
  4. The Jacksonville Jaguars led the 2023 AFC South race on 16 of its 18 playing weeks, 89% of them, and finished behind the Houston Texans.
  5. The Pittsburgh Steelers led the 2024 AFC North race on 16 of its 18 playing weeks, 89% of them, and finished behind the Baltimore Ravens.
  6. The Indianapolis Colts led the 2002 AFC South race on 15 of its 17 playing weeks, 88% of them, and finished behind the Tennessee Titans.
  7. The New Orleans Saints led the 2013 NFC South race on 15 of its 17 playing weeks, 88% of them, and finished behind the Carolina Panthers.
  8. The Dallas Cowboys led the 2019 NFC East race on 15 of its 17 playing weeks, 88% of them, and finished behind the Philadelphia Eagles.
  9. The Dallas Cowboys led the 1983 NFC East race on 14 of its 16 playing weeks, 88% of them, and finished behind the Washington Redskins.
  10. The New York Jets led the 1986 AFC East race on 14 of its 16 playing weeks, 88% of them, and finished behind the New England Patriots.

Winners who led least

  1. The Pittsburgh Steelers won the 2014 AFC North race having led on 2 of its 17 playing weeks, 12% of them, and took first place for good in Week 17.
  2. The Green Bay Packers won the 2003 NFC North race having led on 3 of its 17 playing weeks, 18% of them, and took first place for good in Week 17.
  3. The Green Bay Packers won the 2016 NFC North race having led on 3 of its 17 playing weeks, 18% of them, and took first place for good in Week 17.
  4. The San Francisco 49ers won the 1986 NFC West race having led on 3 of its 16 playing weeks, 19% of them, and took first place for good in Week 16.
  5. The Kansas City Chiefs won the 1997 AFC West race having led on 3 of its 16 playing weeks, 19% of them, and took first place for good in Week 16.
  6. The San Diego Chargers won the 1992 AFC West race having led on 4 of its 17 playing weeks, 24% of them, and took first place for good in Week 16.
  7. The Washington Redskins won the 2012 NFC East race having led on 4 of its 17 playing weeks, 24% of them, and took first place for good in Week 16.
  8. The Green Bay Packers won the 2013 NFC North race having led on 4 of its 17 playing weeks, 24% of them, and took first place for good in Week 17.
  9. The Carolina Panthers won the 2013 NFC South race having led on 4 of its 17 playing weeks, 24% of them, and took first place for good in Week 16.
  10. The Seattle Seahawks won the 2014 NFC West race having led on 4 of its 17 playing weeks, 24% of them, and took first place for good in Week 17.

How these lists are ranked

Everything on this page comes from the same season files the charts draw, with standings read as each week ended. All 384 charted NFL races from 56 finished seasons enter: every division race from 1970 to 2025. Wild card races are not ranked; their story is the playoff cutoff, not first place. The 2026 season joins these lists when it ends. A team's time in first place is counted once per season, at its longest, whichever of its charted races it came in.

Longest leads lost is the club that ended the most of a race's playing weeks in first place and did not finish first. Any club in the race qualifies, not the runner-up alone, because a club can lead for four months and finish fifth.

Winners who led least is the same count for the club that did win, ranked from the fewest weeks up. Each row closes on the week that winner took first place for good, which the comebacks page ranks on.

Only weeks this race's teams played are counted, the same rule the closest races page counts closeness over. A strike or a pause freezes the standings, and a leader sitting out an idle stretch would collect time on top for nothing.

The ranking is by share rather than by the raw count, because a league's seasons are not all the same length and a short one would otherwise win by being short. Seasons cut short by a strike or a stoppage are ranked on what was played, which is the same rule and the reason for it. The count and the total are printed beside the share, so the order can be checked; where two rows print the same whole percent, the unrounded share put them in that order.

A week two clubs end level at the top is a week in first place for both of them, which is what holding first place means in English. So the two counts of one race can add up to more than the race's playing weeks. Races whose top two the standings cannot separate appear on neither list: with no winner, the data can name neither the club that lost a lead nor the club that kept one.

A lead measured in weeks and a lead measured in games are different questions, and the two lists often disagree about which season was the bigger collapse; the comebacks page ranks the same blown leads by size. Only finished seasons are ranked; every irregularity in the record is listed in the data notes.