10 NFL Superstars Who Will NEVER Win A Super Bowl
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
For NFL fans, few things are as heartwarming as seeing a superstar player finally win a Super Bowl near the end of his career. John Elway, Jerome Bettis, Eric Weddle, Ed Reed, and Michael Strahan are among the NFL greats who enjoyed such an experience.
Unfortunately, there’s only room for so many players to win the Super Bowl. And given where they’re at this phase of their careers, it’s safe to rule out a handful of marquee players as future champions.
Here are 10 active NFL superstars who will never win a Super Bowl.
Which superstars will never win a Super Bowl in their careers?
Myles Garrett
As much as we appreciate what Myles Garrett does on the field, we’ll never understand his unwavering loyalty to the Cleveland Browns. It’s no different than Barry Sanders with the Detroit Lions.
Garrett is the best defensive player of this era with a clear-cut path to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He eclipsed the 100-sack mark in just his eighth NFL season and finally completed his individual resume with his first Defensive Player of the Year award in 2023. And believe us, more are coming.
After the 2024 season, Garrett did the right thing and requested a trade from the Browns, citing his wish to play on a winning team. Inexplicably, he went back on the demand and signed a four-year, $160 million extension.
What more can we say? You devote your entire Hall of Fame career to the Cleveland Browns, and you’re kissing a Super Bowl dream goodbye. Congrats on loyalty, Myles, but the wise bet would have been pursuing a ring while you’re still in your prime.
To each their own, we guess.
Justin Jefferson
It’s hard not to feel for Jefferson, who seems poised to retire without a Super Bowl ring like fellow Minnesota Vikings great Randy Moss.
If Jefferson does retire without a ring, it’s because of the Vikings’ management and coaching staff, not because of his talents. Without “Jettas”, the Vikings would be in annual contention for a top-five pick.
To be perfectly blunt, the Vikings’ front office and coaching staff just don’t know what they’re doing. And unfortunately, Jefferson already committed the remainder of his prime years to Minnesota after signing that lucrative four-year, $140 million extension in 2024.
The Vikings held onto Kirk Cousins for far too long until it took a season-ending Achilles tear in 2023 for them to decide to move in another direction. And then, when they found a rockstar at quarterback in Sam Darnold, who led them to a 14-win season in 2024? Oh, they let him walk and handed the reins to the unproven JJ McCarthy.
Proving 2024 was no fluke, Darnold has actually elevated his game with the Seattle Seahawks. Since returning from injury, McCarthy has been practically unwatchable with his woeful accuracy and penchant for overthrowing a wide-open Jefferson.
Unless Jefferson somehow forces a trade in the not-so-distant future, he’ll beat out Moss as the greatest wide receiver to never win a Super Bowl. And what a travesty that would be.
CeeDee Lamb
When you think of the greatest Dallas Cowboys players ever, most of them won at least one Super Bowl. Roger Staubach. Tony Dorsett. Lary Allen. Emmitt Smith. Troy Aikman. Michael Irvin. Bob Lilly. Herb Adderley. Randy White. Deion Sanders. Just to name a handful.
There’s also a tier of other greats like Jason Witten, Dez Bryant, Tony Romo, Tyron Smith, Terrell Owens, and Zack Martin that never sniffed championship glory. Unfortunately, Lamb is destined to join this list.
There’s really no one to blame other than Jerry Jones. Lamb and Dak Prescott give Dallas a top-five offense every year. The problem is the defense and Jones’s inept performances in the GM chair. See: Keeping Mike McCarthy for five years, trading away Micah Parsons, and never spending money in free agency.
As long as Jones is in the GM chair, the Cowboys will never win another Super Bowl. Good thing Parsons got out, and maybe Dak can follow the footsteps of Matt Stafford, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers, who prioritized success over loyalty in the later stages of their careers.
But Lamb is locked in for the long term after signing a four-year, $136 million extension last year. With his prime years devoted to a mediocre Cowboys team led by an over-his-head GM and owner, Lamb may as well accept now that he’ll never win the big one.
Trent Williams
We think the San Francisco 49ers have a long-term championship window, with Brock Purdy, George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk, Christian McCaffrey, Nick Bosa, and Fred Warner all in their primes.
The clock is ticking on another Hall of Fame lock in Trent Williams, who’s already in his 15th NFL season. The 2025 49ers might make the playoffs, but they’ve suffered too many injuries — namely, Bosa and Warner to make a Super Bowl run.
Williams is adamant about playing through the age of 40. However, that could be wishful thinking for an aging veteran who has already dealt with enough recent injuries. And again, the odds of the 49ers outlasting the rest of the NFC while he’s on borrowed time?
Simple math and logic suggest Williams won’t get back to the Super Bowl, let alone win it. He had his best chance when the 49ers fell to the Chiefs in overtime of Super Bowl 58.
Khalil Mack
Mack briefly considered retirement after the 2024 season, but ultimately decided to return for a 12th NFL campaign. And why wouldn’t he? His Chargers won 11 games and finished with the league’s No. 1 scoring defense in 2024. So why pass up on another golden opportunity to pursue the Lombardi Trophy?
The 2025 Chargers got off to a perfect 3-0 start and looked like a bona fide Super Bowl contender. Unfortunately, a significant number of injuries to star players followed, essentially wiping out those championship dreams.
Superstar offensive tackle Rashawn Slater suffered a season-ending knee injury before the regular season. Fellow stud bookend Joe Alt played six games before requiring season-ending ankle surgery. Running back Najee Harris tore his Achilles tendon in Week 3 and was ruled out for the year. Rookie RB Omarion Hampton landed on the IR with an ankle injury.
Justin Herbert has taken a vicious beating with a duct-tape-made offensive line. Jim Harbaugh’s ground game isn’t scaring anyone without its super-tandem, and the defense isn’t without its warts, despite Mack’s excellent production.
The 2025 Chargers might make the playoffs, but there’s no chance of them reaching the Super Bowl with this many injuries. And even if this isn’t Mack’s last ride? Well, 2026 probably will be. And can you bet on the Chargers outlasting the other top dogs in the AFC? Again, the math doesn’t add up.
Mack’s excellent production in LA will have clinched a spot in the Hall of Fame. But since he’s not keen on committing to playing much longer, we’re confident in putting him down as one of the ringless GOATS.
Alvin Kamara
While most ringless superstars wish to pursue a ring in the later stages of their careers, a Super Bowl isn’t Kamara’s main priority. He’s made that perfectly clear.
Kamara’s name was mentioned aplenty leading up to the 2025 NFL trade deadline. Kamara, however, told reporters he’d rather retire than play anywhere else, saying he’d “drink a piña colada somewhere” if traded.
It’s certainly an interesting choice, since the New Orleans Saints have become an afterthought in the post-Drew Brees era. They’re on their way to a fifth straight non-playoff season, but Kamara still refuses to leave. Alrighty then.
As one of the most complete and well-rounded running backs of his era, it’s sad to think that Kamara’s best shot at a Super Bowl was wasted in the infamous 2018 “NOLA No-Call game.” But if he wishes to retire with New Orleans and waste the remainder of his career on one of the league’s worst teams, so be it.
Minkah Fitzpatrick
The Miami Dolphins did Fitzpatrick a solid by trading him to the Pittsburgh Steelers early in the 2019 season. They were blatantly tanking that year, so the 2018 first-round pick got to spend his prime years on a much more competitive Steelers squad instead of the ‘Phins.
Well, the Steelers had their fair share of chances to go on a run with a loaded defense anchored by T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward, Alex Highsmith, and Fitzpatrick. They reached the postseason in 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024. They were eliminated in the Wild Card Round each year, never putting up a fight in either contest.
Fitzpatrick’s hope for a Super Bowl was destroyed when the Steelers traded him back to the Dolphins in the 2025 offseason in a blockbuster deal that brought Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith to Pittsburgh.
Fitzpatrick is now stuck on a struggling Miami team that is back to rebuilding, and he’s signed through the 2026 season. With his twilight years not too far off now, this hopeful Hall of Famer has hopefully realized and accepted that he’ll never win the big one.
Maxx Crosby
Hey look! Another player on our list who’s staying committed to a terrible team!
Another player on a Hall of Fame trajectory, Crosby has been one of the few bright spots for the Las Vegas Raiders since entering the league as a fourth-round pick out of Eastern Michigan.
It remains mind-boggling that Crosby, one of the league’s premier pass rushers, would stay loyal to a Raiders team that, ahem, has built a single playoff team in his career. That was back in 2021, and the Raiders went one-and-done anyway.
Crosby isn’t a young man anymore at age 28, and he just signed a three-year extension in the 2025 offseason. If he wants to spend the rest of his prime years on a consistent bottom-feeder, so be it. The Raiders aren’t anywhere close to contention, unlike their three AFC West foes.
Baker Mayfield
It’s always gutsy to predict that a top QB in his prime on a playoff contender won’t win a Super Bowl. Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Jordan Love, Jared Goff, and Justin Herbert will all get plenty of kicks at the can, thanks to their production, ages, and good team situations.
But we find it difficult to believe that Baker Mayfield will win a Super Bowl at this phase of his career. We know he’s only 30, which is young for a QB these days, but hear us out.
The Buccaneers are a good-not-great team. They’re the best team in a weak NFC South division. But they aren’t the super-team we saw with Tom Brady in 2020 and 2021. They have too many aging and injury-prone veterans and a weak defense. They also lack depth compared to the NFC powerhouses.
Chris Godwin and Mike Evans have legitimate age and injury concerns and may not have much left in the tank. Lavonte David, the longtime backbone of this defense, could also retire after the season.
When Godwin and Evans are gone, then what? How do you replace an elite slot receiver and future Hall of Famer? How do the Bucs rebuild a defense that’s devoid of young talent? And eventually, their three NFC South rivals, in the midst of major youth movements, will gain ground in the NFC.
It’s just hard to see the Bucs somehow outlasting the other NFC contenders in the postseason. And with the amount of injuries and hits Baker has already taken, how much longer will his prime really last?
If there’s one top-10 active NFL QB we’d bet money against winning a Super Bowl, it’s Baker.
T.J. Watt
One of the craziest, hard-to-believe facts among active NFL players is that T.J. Watt hasn’t experienced a single playoff win in his career.
But it’s true, alright. The Steelers drafted Watt in April 2017, three months after they defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round. To this day, that remains the club’s most recent postseason win.
Watt’s Steelers have gone one-and-done in the 2017, 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024 postseason tournaments. And quite frankly, they weren’t close to winning either of those games.
The 2021 Defensive Player of the Year remains committed to Pittsburgh. However, he signed a three-year extension worth $123 million ahead of his age-31 season. Someone was drinking the Aaron Rodgers Kool-Aid, alright.
Pittsburgh has been in the mushy middle for a decade now. They’re not going to perform a tear-it-all-down rebuild. They’re also just not good enough to compete with the AFC’s top dogs like the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens, and New England Patriots.
Watt’s signing that three-year extension meant signing away his last real shot at winning a Super Bowl. The Steelers are content with merely being a “playoff team” under Mike Tomlin. Nothing’s going to change. That means we’ll have not one, but two Watt brothers in the HOF without a single Super Bowl ring.
