
8 NFL teams that have drafted No. 1 and then made playoffs
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BVM) – The Jacksonville Jaguars haven’t been to the playoffs since their 2017 squad was a quarter away from making the Super Bowl before dropping the AFC championship to the New England Patriots in the fourth quarter. Since that time, the Jags have been in mostly a rebuilding phase as the team went 15-50 from 2018-2021. This has included four consecutive finishes at the bottom of the AFC South division and two No. 1 overall picks the past two seasons.
However, things have changed in 2022. Currently, the Jaguars sit in first place in the AFC South with just two weeks to go with the team’s Week 18 game against the Tennessee Titans serving as a winner-take-all matchup as the victor would win the AFC South and advance to the postseason. This is quite the turnaround for a Jacksonville team that just held the No. 1 overall pick of the NFL Draft in April.
The No. 1 overall pick coming through with a TFL. 🔥@44Ytw | @Jaguars
📱: Stream #PITvsJAX on NFL+ https://t.co/b5R6YDpBPe pic.twitter.com/taLb3MlW5o
— NFL (@NFL) August 20, 2022
If the Jaguars are able to complete this miraculous turnaround, they would become just the ninth team in NFL history to have the No. 1 overall pick and make the playoffs the following season. For some of these teams, this was the start of a long string of franchise success, while for others it was just a blip on the radar. Here are the eight previous times this phenomenon has occurred in order by year.