Buffalo Sabres Make New York Jets Officially The Saddest Franchise In Pro Sports
Sbres' misery streak ends at 14 years, and the Jets become the clear No. 1 in postseason futility.
As OutKick's Matt Reigle noted Saturday, the Buffalo Sabres snapped a 14-season postseason drought by clinching a spot in the NHL playoffs. And while that's a fascinating story in its own right, Reigle did an excellent job breaking that down.
For our purposes, we're going to focus on what that means for the professional sports landscape as a whole. With the Sabres snapping a lengthy postseason drought, attention turns to the new team sporting the longest drought. The answer, as you might have guessed, is the New York Jets.
The Jets last made the playoffs in the 2010 season when Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez (yeah, it's been that long) helped lead the team to the AFC Championship game. As most sports fans know, that conference championship season (the second of back-to-back AFC title game appearances) would be the high point of Sanchez's career. Of course, the low point would come on Thanksgiving Day, 2012.
The infamous "Butt Fumble."
It feels like the "Butt Fumble" happened ages ago, and it did, but it's more recent than New York's most recent postseason appearance.
Sabres Snap Streak, Leaving Jets All Alone
The Sabres' 14-season playoff drought was tied with the Jets entering the 2025 NFL season and 2025-26 NHL season. The Jets missed the playoffs, again, and the Sabres did not. Thus, the Jets streak now sits at 15 seasons, and they are alone with that dubious distinction of having the longest drought in the four major professional North American sports leagues.
Only one other franchise has a current streak longer than 10 seasons and that's the Los Angeles Angels, who last reached the MLB playoffs in 2014 (11 seasons entering 2026). That's back when they were still going by the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" for some reason.
The NHL's new leader, the Detroit Red Wings, could join that 10-season club if the team fails to make the postseason this year, but they are currently in the mix for a wild card spot.
The Sabres ended the NHL’s longest playoff drought, leaving the New York Jets atop the major-sports list at 15 straight seasons without a postseason berth.
(Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
The NBA's longest current streak is the Charlotte Hornets (nine seasons), but that could also end this season with Charlotte in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race with one week to go in the regular season.
So, it's the New York Jets and the New York Jets alone at 15 seasons. And the immediate future isn't especially bright. The team's starting quarterback is a former Jets starting quarterback, Geno Smith. Smith went 2-13 in his 15 starts for the Raiders last year (and 3-10 as a starter for the Jets in 2014). The Jets do have the second pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, but given the team's recent history, there's no reason to think they'll nail that selection and turn around the franchise's fortune.
The salt in the wound for Jets fans is that Sam Darnold, a quarterback the team cast aside following the 2020 season, just led the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl victory.
Football fans rightfully roast the Cleveland Browns for the revolving door the team has had at starting quarterback, but the Jets have quietly put together quite the list of their own since that playoff appearance in 2010.
Over the past 15 seasons, New York has had 18 starting quarterbacks. I'm going to list them, just for fun: Mark Sanchez, Greg McElroy, Geno Smith, Michael Vick, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Bryce Petty, Josh McCown, Sam Darnold, Luke Falk, Trevor Siemian, Joe Flacco, Zach Wilson, Mike White, Tim Boyle, Aaron Rodgers, Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor and Brady Cook.
The quarterback list might be sadder than the postseason drought.