When it comes to the worst season in Cleveland Browns history, there are plenty of options for fans to choose from. While early on in the franchise's history, they were winning championships right and left, that legacy did not carry over when the Browns re-entered the NFL in 1999.
Since coming back into the league, the Browns have had four winning seasons. That means there are a lot of bad seasons to pick from when it comes to the worst, but in all honesty, there's only one answer to that question. The 2017 season is the worst in Cleveland Browns history for the painfully obvious reason that it's the year the team went 0-16.
2017 is the worst season in Browns history and it's not close
The Hue Jackson era of Cleveland Browns football was not kind to the fan base. Hired in 2016 after seeing success as the Bengals' offensive coordinator, Jackson's first year with the Browns went about as poorly as it could. The team won one game (and it didn't come until the end of the season), but the front office opted to keep Jackson to see if he could turn things around.
He could not. After winning just one game in his first year, the Browns went winless in his second year and lost 10 games by more than one score. They managed to take two teams into overtime but weren't able to persevere. The 2017 Browns ranked dead last in points scored and were second to last in points allowed, so nothing went right for this crew. They joined the 2008 Detroit Lions as the only other team in the Super Bowl era to not win a single game, which is obviously a group you don't want to be included in.
With this dumpster fire of a season, the Browns became the first team to finish back-to-back seasons with 15 or more losses. Nothing went right for them, and fans simply couldn't wait to turn the page and move on from the Hue Jackson era and hit the reset button once again.
Read More: Former Browns day 3 standout entering make-or-break year
Unfortunately for Browns fans, going winless somehow wasn't enough for the Browns to fire Jackson, as they let him return for the 2018 season despite him winning a combined one game in two seasons. While they eventually learned their lesson and fired him after a 2-5 start, it was still a laughably bad decision by the organization.
The Browns have had a lot of really bad years, but nothing is worse than going winless in an entire season. Even some of the worst teams in NFL history have backed their way into a win, and the fact that the 2017 Browns weren't able to even do that proves that this was the worst season in Browns history.