obie_wan Posted January 24, 2006 Posted January 24, 2006 Interesting read from Footballguys.com message board: With it being 35 years (more or less) since the AFL-NFL merger, it’s time to grade the league, franchise-by-franchise, since play in the unified League opened on September 20, 1970. I’ve devised by own grading system, based on points. It goes like this: Winning Season: 1 point Playoff Victory: 2 points Division Championship: 4 points Conference Championship: 8 points Super Bowl Championship: 16 points I’ve put no value on playoff appearances if they don’t have a division title attached to them, because those are subject to factors that are somewhat out of the team’s control; sometimes a mediocre team nabs a wild-card berth in a weak year for a conference, while at other times a good team misses the playoffs in a strong year. The Lions shouldn’t get more credit for going 8-8 and making the playoffs in 1999 than the Broncos get for going 11-5 and missing the playoffs in 1985. Really, should a fluke entrance and a quick exit be counted positively on a team’s long-term resume? I don’t think so. Division championships and playoff victories are what it’s all about. For somewhat the same reasons, I’ve attached more credit to division championships than playoff wins. A division title is a body of work; an accomplishment garnered over 16 games. A playoff win is just one game. It’s a big game, no doubt, and winning a playoff game is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but the body of work, at least to me, is more indicative of team success than one game. Since the merger, BTW, one team has won a division championship without a winning record- the Browns at 8-8 in 1985. Two teams with losing records made the playoffs in 1982- the Lions and Browns at 4-5 in the strike-truncated season- but they were both beaten soundly in the first round, so I don’t have to deal with an uncomfortable exception like that. One more thing. Six teams, not counting the New Browns, have come into league since the merger- the Seahawks and Buccaneers in 1976, the Panthers and Jaguars in 1995, the Ravens in 1996 (sort of), and the Houston Texans in 2002. Obviously these teams as a general rule won’t fare particularly well in the rankings. Oh, and if my math is wrong, or if I've otherwise screwed anything up, feel free to holler about it. 32. Houston Texans Total Points: 1 They did beat the Cowboys in their first game as a franchise. I’ll give them a point for that. 31. (tie) New Orleans Saints Winning Seasons: 7 (7) Playoff Victories: 1 (2) Division Championships: 2 (8) Total Points: 17 For the first twenty years of their history, the Saints never even so much as had a winning record. Then when they finally became a decent team in the late ‘80s, they unveiled themselves as big-assed postseason choke-dogs. In their first playoff game, the 1987 Wild Card against the Vikings, the Saints sustained the second-worst home postseason loss in NFL history. New Orleans went winless in their first four postseason games, losing three of them at the Superdome. They didn’t win in the playoffs until the 2000 Wild Card, when they almost blew a 31-7 fourth-quarter lead before hanging on to beat the Rams, 31-28. 31. (tie) Arizona/St. Louis Cardinals Winning Seasons: 7 (7) Playoff Victories: 1 (2) Division Championships: 2 (8) Total Points: 17 This franchise’s two division titles came back when Jim Hart, Terry Metcalf, Jim Otis and Jackie Smith were cavorting across the seamed turf at old Busch Stadium. That was thirty years and a franchise shift ago, and I’m pretty sure those long-ago division titles aren’t doing a whole heck of a lot for current Cardinal fans, who have seen their team do a whole heck of a lot of nothing, other than smacking down the hated Cowboys in the ’98 playoffs for their first postseason win since 1947. The Cardinals haven’t appeared in a championship game of any kind since 1948, when they were the Chicago Cardinals and played their home games in Comiskey Park. They haven’t even won ten games in a season since 1976. 29. Jacksonville Jaguars Winning Seasons: 6 (6) Playoff Victories: 4 (8) Division Championships: 2 (8) Total Points: 22 In their 11-year history, the Jags have made the AFC Championship Game twice and in 1996, in one of the most astonishing playoff games I’ve ever seen, beat Elway and the Broncos at Mile High Stadium. That’s an amazing accomplishment for any team, let along a second-year expansion outfit. They’re lower in the standings than the Panthers, their 1995 expansion cousins, due to Carolina’s Super Bowl trip in 2003. But the Jags, despite some tough seasons in the early ‘00s, have on the whole been more consistently competitive than Carolina. 28. Detroit Lions Winning Seasons: 10 (10) Playoff Victories: 1 (2) Division Championships: 3 (12) Total Points: 24 Detroit’s problems are a vivid illustration of the importance of a great quarterback to sustained team success in the NFL. The Lions haven’t had a top-level player at the most important position since Bobby Layne in the late ‘50s. Not coincidentally, the Lions haven’t won a league title since the late ‘50s (Tobin Rote was actually the Detroit starter for their last championship, to be technical). 27. New York Jets Winning Seasons: 11 (11) Playoff Victories: 6 (12) Division Championships: 2 (8) Total Points: 31 The Jets went the first 28 seasons after the merger without winning a division title, didn’t make the playoffs until 1981, and have made it as far as the AFC Championship Game twice, losing both times. 26. Carolina Panthers Winning Seasons: 3 (3) Playoff Victories: 6 (12) Division Championships: 2 (8) Conference Championships: 1 (8) Total Points: 31 In a decade, the Panthers have gone to the Super Bowl, to the NFC Championship Game three times, put together the best record ever for an expansion team, and gone 1-15, with the longest in-season losing streak in league history. Their competitive history is a lot more spiked and jagged than Jacksonville’s, but at this point the lone difference between the two teams, ranking-wise, is Carolina’s 2003 NFC Championship. 25. Baltimore Ravens Winning Seasons: 4 (4) Playoff Victories: 4 (8) Division Championships: 1 (4) Conference Championships: 1 (8) World Championships: 1 (16) Total Points: 40 I’m counting the Ravens as basically a 1996 expansion team, because I’m a delusional Cleveland fan who wants to believe that the New Browns have a real connection to the Old Browns, despite clearly being a crappy expansion team without a semblance of the soul of our majestic, flawed, real, oh-riginal Browns (RIP). Anyway, the World Championship jumps the Ravens ahead of Carolina and Jacksonville, two teams that have been around for basically the same amount of time. The division championship is from 2003- Tennessee won the AFC Central the year the Ravens won the Super Bowl. 24. Atlanta Falcons Winning Seasons: 8 (8) Playoff Victories: 6 (12) Division Championships: 3 (12) Conference Championships: 1 (8) Total Points: 40 The only team that has never had back-to-back winning seasons, Atlanta is also the lowest-ranked pre-merger team with a Super Bowl appearance. Atlanta’s Dirty Bird Super Bowl run in ’98 has got to be the biggest one-hit wonder in the NFL in the last 35 years, by the way. 14-2? The Falcons? Don’t get me wrong; though- I’d give my one remaining nut for that kind of anomaly in Cleveland. 23. Kansas City Chiefs Winning Seasons: 18 (18) Playoff Victories: 2 (4) Division Championships: 5 (20) Total Points: 42 If this list were weighted more heavily in favor of winning regular seasons, the Chiefs would be #11. But it’s all about the hardware, and in that department Kansas City isn’t cutting it. Even in their most sustained period of good play, the nine straight winning seasons under Marty Schottenheimer, the Chiefs won the AFC West only three times, and won only twice in the playoffs- both times in 1993, when they capitalized on Pittsburgh special-teams breakdowns in the Wild Card round and a Houston fourth-quarter implosion in the Divisional round before taking a heavy beat-down in Buffalo in the AFC Championship Game. Like the Bears, the Chiefs have displayed a continual inability to properly utilize home-field advantage: they’re 2-4 in postseason games played at home in Kansas City. 22. Cleveland Browns * Winning Seasons: 13 (13) Playoff Victories: 4 (8) Division Championships: 6 (24) Total Points: 45 *- Missed 1996-98 seasons Most of Cleveland’s points were gleaned in the ‘80s, when the Browns had six winning seasons, five division championships, and three of their four post-merger playoff victories. Despite the fact that they didn’t exist for three seasons, they’re still the highest-ranked team not to appear in a Super Bowl. I can’t imagine the Browns being in a Super Bowl. I can’t muster up the creativity to envision that scenario. I can sooner envision Byner breaking the plane with the football, or Elway slipping and getting pinned in his own end zone. And yes, I am one of those annoying Browns fans that still pisses and moans about the Denver games. Yes indeed. 21. San Diego Chargers Winning Seasons: 11 (11) Playoff Victories: 6 (12) Division Championships: 6 (24) Conference Championships: 1 (8) Total Points: 55 Almost half of San Diego’s winning seasons came under Air Coryell in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. That’s really the best period of Charger football since the merger, in terms of consistency; the Chargers’ Super Bowl run in ’94 was sandwiched between a .500 record in ’93 and a quick Wild-Card exit in ’94. 20. Seattle Seahawks Winning Seasons: 12 (12) Playoff Victories: 5 (10) Division Championships: 4 (16) Conference Championships: 1 (8) Total Points: 56 In their first twenty years of existence, the Seahawks had eight winning seasons to Tampa Bay’s three, but had a tougher time picking up championship hardware in the rugged AFC West. Even in their best season before this year, 1984, their 12-4 record wasn’t good enough to win the division. It’s only in the last decade that Tampa Bay has shot past Seattle in the battle of 1976 expansion teams. The Seahawks have rarely been terrible. What they’ve been is very, very middling- 16 seasons of either 7-9, 8-8 or 9-7 in 30 years of existence. Of course, that’s all changed now, what with Seattle in its first Super Bowl ever. Somewhere, Paul Skansi is very, very proud. 19. Cincinnati Bengals Winning Seasons: 12 (12) Playoff Victories: 5 (10) Division Championships: 6 (24) Conference Championships: 2 (16) Total Points: 62 Take away the team’s two AFC Championships in the ‘80s and they still would only drop two spaces in the rankings. It’s easy to forget that the Bengals were one of the better teams in football for the first two decades after the merger. It’s only in that period between 1990 and the hiring of Marvin Lewis that the Bagels were a league dreg, notwithstanding a brief period in the late ‘70s under the somewhat misguided leadership of Homer Rice. 18. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Winning Seasons: 9 (9) Playoff Victories: 6 (12) Division Championships: 5 (20) Conference Championships: 1 (8) World Championships: 1 (16) Total Points: 65 How many points had the Buccaneers accumulated before they changed their uniforms and became born-again hard in 1997? 13. Tampa Bay went twelve straight years without losing at least 10 games in a season. They were the kind of franchise that chewed up and spat out good players as well as bad ones. But they’ve come a long way, to their credit. They’re basically a healthy organization now. And they have the hardware, too. Even so, I’m frankly surprised they rank even this highly. 17. Tennessee Titans/Houston Oilers Winning Seasons: 16 (16) Playoff Victories: 13 (26) Division Championships: 4 (16) Conference Championships: 1 (16) Total Points: 74 It had to be, in sum, a very frustrating existence for the Oilers in Houston. When they were good- and they were good, in separate eras- they either ran headlong into the Dynastic Steelers in the playoffs or made a cluster#### out of things (as in Buffalo, New York, January 4, 1993). And they were also putrid in two different eras; back-to-back 1-13 seasons in the early ‘70s and the woeful days under Ed Biles and Hugh Campbell in the early ‘80s. It was only when the Oilers moved to Nashville and became the Titans that they fixed their mojo enough to win a conference championship. 16. Philadelphia Eagles Winning Seasons: 16 (16) Playoff Victories: 11 (22) Division Championships: 6 (24) Conference Championships: 2 (16) Total Points: 78 The Eagles have had three separate periods of sustained success- the late ‘70s and early ‘80s under Dick Vermeil, when they had four winning seasons, a division title, and an NFC Championship in 1980; the late ‘80s and early ‘90s under Buddy Ryan, and the beginning of the new century under Andy Reid. But they were mediocre-to-poor for extended periods in the ‘70s, ‘80s and late ‘90s, and even in their good periods have had trouble in the playoffs, particularly at home. 15. Chicago Bears Winning Seasons: 13 (13) Playoff Victories: 7 (14) Division Championships: 8 (32) Conference Championships: 1 (8) World Championships: 1 (16) Total Points: 83 Except for the concentrated period of fury between 1985 and ’88, when they were 52-11 and won Super Bowl XX, the Bears have been a very ordinary franchise. After 1985, they were never able to really advance in the playoffs. Their pitfall, then as now, was an inability to defend Soldier Field when it counts. The Bears are 2-6 at home in non-1985 home postseason games. 14. Indianapolis/Baltimore Colts Winning Seasons: 15 (15) Playoff Victories: 9 (18) Division Championships: 9 (36) Conference Championships: 1 (8) World Championships: 1 (16) Total Points: 93 Unlike the Jets or the Chiefs’, the Colts’ lone Super Bowl title gets in under the wire here: it came in 1970. Since then it’s been more negative than positive for the team with the best helmets in pro football. Basically, it goes like this: when Peyton Manning and a healthy Bert Jones is the starting quarterback, the Colts are very good. When it’s anyone else- Bill Troup, Mark Herrmann, Jack Trudeau, whomever- they suck, colossally. Really, it’s not much more complicated than that. 13. Green Bay Packers Winning Seasons: 15 (15) Playoff Victories: 11 (22) Division Championships: 6 (24) Conference Championships: 2 (16) World Championships: 1 (16) Total Points: 93 Prior to the 1992 season, Green Bay had had four winning records in 22 years. None of them came less than four years apart. Their only post-merger, pre-Favre division championship came in 1972 under Dan Devine. Their only pre-Favre playoff win came in the first round of the 1982 “Super Bowl tournament” over the Cardinals. This was a franchise that had it very tough, for very long, before Ron Wolf, Mike Holmgren, and #4 came in and saved the day. 12. Buffalo Bills: Winning Seasons: 16 (16) Playoff Victories: 12 (24) Division Championships: 7 (28) Conference Championships: 4 (32) Total Points: 100 78% of Buffalo’s points are from six seasons in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. In the remaining thirty, they’ve won a grand total of two playoff games. And the Bills have been obscene for extended periods, too. They’re a lot like the Giants, only without the World Championship hardware. 11. New York Giants Winning Seasons: 15 (15) Playoff Victories: 12 (24) Division Championships: 6 (24) Conference Championships: 3 (24) World Championships: 2 (32) Total Points: 119 The Giants have been a serious mixed bag. They were terrible in the ‘70s. They’d make stupid moves like trade the second pick in the 1975 draft to Dallas, a division rival, for Craig Morton (that pick turned into Randy White, BTW). They didn’t even have a home venue for several years in the mid-70s while Giants Stadium was being built for them. Then, under Parcells, they became one of the best teams in football, winning two World Championships in 1986 and ’90, before settling into an on-again, off-again pattern in the ‘90s and ‘00s. New York has actually been mediocre-to-bad more than it has been good… but the success of the Parcells years lands the Giants in the top half of the overall standings. 10. St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams Winning Seasons: 20 (20) Playoff Victories: 16 (32) Division Championships: 11 (44) Conference Championships: 3 (24) World Championships: 1 (16) Total Points: 136 Were it not for their two losses to the Vikings in the ’74 and ’76 NFC Championship Game, the Rams would be ahead of Minnesota and possibly the Redskins as well. But this team, up until the move to St. Louis and the revival under Vermeil and Martz, had a nasty habit of gagging in big games. The Los Angeles Rams got to within a game of the Super Bowl seven times in the ‘70s and ‘80s and won just once. The team was generally in the upper-echelons of the league, though, before collapsing into dog#### status for the balance of the ‘90s. 9. Minnesota Vikings Winning Seasons: 25 (25) Playoff Victories: 16 (32) Division Championships: 14 (56) Conference Championships: 3 (24) Total Points: 137 The Vikings are in the top ten despite being a franchise that is generally associated with failure. They’ve had some poor regular seasons, like 1984, when they went 3-13 in one disastrous season under Les Steckel, but by and large they’ve been a contender in the NFC Central and now the North. Still, they’re best known for losing Super Bowls in the ‘70s, and failing to get the most out of deep and talented teams in the late ‘80s and late ‘90s. They’re also known for helping to jump-start Dallas’s ‘90s mini-dynasty with the Herschel Walker trade. 8. Washington Redskins Winning Seasons: 22 (22) Playoff Victories: 21 (42) Division Championships: 4 (16) Conference Championships: 5 (40) World Championships: 3 (48) Total Points: 168 One of only two teams to make it to the Super Bowl in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, the Redskins have been a perennial winner pretty much since George Allen took over the head coaching job prior to the 1971 season (although they spent a few years in the '90s as roadkill). They’ve come up a bit short in the division championships department- they’re the only NFL team with more conference titles than division titles- but that’s on account of 1982, the year of Washington’s first World Championship, being a strike year, and the league revising the playoff format and not recognizing division championships. 7. New England Patriots Winning Seasons: 20 (20) Playoff Victories: 16 (32) Division Championships: 8 (32) Conference Championships: 5 (40) World Championships: 3 (48) Total Points: 172 This is a team that has accumulated the bulk of its points in the last five seasons. Prior to 2001 the Patriots were respectable- they went to two Super Bowls before the Belichick era- but nowhere near a great NFL power. New England has gone 2-14 twice (in 1981 and ’92) and in 1990 went 1-15. No other team in the top ten, with the exception of the Rams of the ‘90s, has been as bad, as often, as the Patriots since 1970. But three World Championships in four years has a way of trumping just about everything. 6. Denver Broncos Winning Seasons: 23 (23) Playoff Victories: 17 (34) Division Championships: 10 (40) Conference Championships: 6 (48) World Championships: 2 (32) Total Points: 177 Denver is underrated: you rarely hear the Broncos mentioned when the talk turns to great NFL franchises, but here they are at #6. They haven’t had back-to-back losing seasons since 1971-72. They have the consistency that the teams below them lack. And they've been to the Super Bowl in three different decades. 5. Miami Dolphins Winning Seasons: 27 (27) Playoff Victories: 20 (40) Division Championships: 12 (48) Conference Championships: 5 (40) World Championships: 2 (32) Total Points: 187 They’ve been a consistent winner in almost every era, but Miami has had increasingly more trouble translating wins into championships since the early days of the Don Shula era. In their first period of dominance, the Dolphins reached three Super Bowls in a row, and won two of them. In their second, the Dolphins reached two Super Bowls in five years, and lost them both. In the last decade, they’ve made the playoffs five times but haven’t advanced past the Divisional round. In fact, in three Divisional playoff games from 1998 to 2000, the Dolphins were outscored by a cumulative 127-10. But they generally have winning seasons and won a couple of Super Bowls a long, long time ago, so they’re fifth. 4. Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders Winning Seasons: 22 (22) Playoff Victories: 22 (44) Division Championships: 12 (48) Conference Championships: 4 (32) World Championships: 3 (48) Total Points: 194 The Raiduhs maintain their lofty perch in spite of the fact that they’ve had only seven winning seasons in the last two decades. They cleaned up early, winning eight AFC West titles and three Super Bowls in the first 16 years after the merger. But ever since the halcyon days in the Coliseum with Marcus Allen and Howie Long, the Raiders have made a commitment to mediocrity. They’ve made two deep playoff runs in the last two decades, to the AFC title game in 1990 and to the Super Bowl in ’02, and both ended in humiliation. 2. (tie) Pittsburgh Steelers Winning Seasons: 27 (27) Playoff Victories: 27 (54) Division Championships: 17 (68) Conference Championships: 6 (48) World Championships: 4 (64) Total Points: 261 Pittsburgh’s win on Sunday pushes them into a second-place tie with the 49ers. This team, back in the day, was an armpit. They went 1-13 in 1969, the last year before the merger. But they got their #### together shortly thereafter, copped those four Super Bowl titles in the ‘70s, and have been #######ed competitive in the meantime, despite the fact that they had a yawning chasm at quarterback for two decades (with apologies to yinzers who still drink the Neil O’Donnell kool-aid). The emphasis is on had. 2. (tie) San Francisco 49ers Winning Seasons: 23 (23) Playoff Victories: 25 (50) Division Championships: 17 (68) Conference Championships: 5 (40) World Championships: 5 (80) Total Points: 261 If this was January 1981 and not January 2006, the ‘Niners wouldn’t be anywhere near #2. Other than winning the first three NFC West titles in 1970-72, San Francisco hadn’t done anything of consequence during the ‘70s, other than lose. And they haven’t won a playoff game since their last-second win over the Packers in the ’98 Wild Card round (BTW, Joe Starkey’s “Owens! Owens! Owens!” call on T.O.’s game-winning catch in that Packer game is extremely lame). Their amazing run from 1981-98 (16 straight seasons of 10 wins or more; five World Championships) vaults them to the stratosphere. But this franchise doesn’t look to be going to be adding points anytime soon. By this time next year, I’d imagine them being bumped down to third by Pittsburgh. 1. Dallas Cowboys Winning Seasons: 25 (25) Playoff Victories: 31 (62) Division Championships: 15 (60) Conference Championships: 8 (64) World Championships: 5 (80) Total Points: 291 I’m all the way around the world from being a Cowboys fan. But the fact is, they’re the most consistent winner in football since the merger. They’ve been dominant in two completely separate eras, which no one else can really say. They won two Super Bowls during the 1970s under Tom Landry, and won three more in the early ‘90s under Jimmy Johnson. Only Dallas has won multiple Super Bowls with two different coaches. And they're Number One with a bullet here
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