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 tables.
Companion pages: Closest NFL races and Biggest NFL comebacks and collapses.
| Rank | Race | Team that led | Weeks in first | Playing weeks | Share | Eventual winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2023 NFC East | Philadelphia Eagles | 17 | 18 | 94% | Dallas Cowboys |
| 2 | 2003 NFC North | Minnesota Vikings | 16 | 17 | 94% | Green Bay Packers |
| 3 | 2014 NFC West | Arizona Cardinals | 16 | 17 | 94% | Seattle Seahawks |
| 4 | 2023 AFC South | Jacksonville Jaguars | 16 | 18 | 89% | Houston Texans |
| 5 | 2024 AFC North | Pittsburgh Steelers | 16 | 18 | 89% | Baltimore Ravens |
| 6 | 2002 AFC South | Indianapolis Colts | 15 | 17 | 88% | Tennessee Titans |
| 7 | 2013 NFC South | New Orleans Saints | 15 | 17 | 88% | Carolina Panthers |
| 8 | 2019 NFC East | Dallas Cowboys | 15 | 17 | 88% | Philadelphia Eagles |
| 9 | 1983 NFC East | Dallas Cowboys | 14 | 16 | 88% | Washington Redskins |
| 10 | 1986 AFC East | New York Jets | 14 | 16 | 88% | New England Patriots |
| Rank | Race | Winner | Weeks in first | Playing weeks | Share | First place for good |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2014 AFC North | Pittsburgh Steelers | 2 | 17 | 12% | Week 17 |
| 2 | 2003 NFC North | Green Bay Packers | 3 | 17 | 18% | Week 17 |
| 3 | 2016 NFC North | Green Bay Packers | 3 | 17 | 18% | Week 17 |
| 4 | 1986 NFC West | San Francisco 49ers | 3 | 16 | 19% | Week 16 |
| 5 | 1997 AFC West | Kansas City Chiefs | 3 | 16 | 19% | Week 16 |
| 6 | 1992 AFC West | San Diego Chargers | 4 | 17 | 24% | Week 16 |
| 7 | 2012 NFC East | Washington Redskins | 4 | 17 | 24% | Week 16 |
| 8 | 2013 NFC North | Green Bay Packers | 4 | 17 | 24% | Week 17 |
| 9 | 2013 NFC South | Carolina Panthers | 4 | 17 | 24% | Week 16 |
| 10 | 2014 NFC West | Seattle Seahawks | 4 | 17 | 24% | Week 17 |
Everything on this page comes from the same day-by-day season files the charts draw, with standings read as each day 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. 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. Its last column is the week the 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.