In Super Bowl LIX, the Eagles won their second Vince Lombardi Trophy in eight seasons. Before 2017, they hadn't won an NFL Championship since 1961, which pre-dates the Super Bowl era. They defeated the Chiefs, who had won three of the previous five Super Bowls. Before this recent success, their last Super Bowl appearance and win was in the 1969 season, the last before the NFL-AFL merger.
When both teams finally won their first championships in the merged NFL, I was happy for them. To me, they always seemed well-run; when either franchise had a terrible season, it was an aberration. The Chiefs and Eagles were rarely bad but also never great—until recently.
Other teams have been like that. Two that came to mind are the Dolphins and the Vikings. The Dolphins last won the Super Bowl 51 years ago and had not appeared in the game for 40 years. The Vikings are 0-4 in Super Bowls and haven't been in one since the 1976 season.
Some teams haven't been like the Vikings and Dolphins at all. For instance, the Lions and Cardinals have never won the Super Bowl, but they are frequently awful and historically poorly run (despite the recent success of the Lions).
The century ( 2000-99) has reached its quarter mark, and I've been wondering if my assumptions were correct. It's easy to point out that the Patriots have been easily the most successful franchise so far this century, but I was curious about something else: not how successful franchises have been, but how functional (that is, non-dysfunctional) they have been.
I chose the standard of 5-11(now 5-12) or worse as a "terrible" season. At 6-11, a team is arguably on the wrong side of mediocre but is probably competitive in the majority of games. A 5-11 team is guaranteed to have at least one three-game losing streak during the season while otherwise winning just one out of every three. The more often a team is 5-11 or worse, the greater indication of incompetence and instability that begins at the top.
So I made a list. Teams with the same number are arranged alphabetically. Beside each are some notes that might put things in context. For example, the Bills haven't been terrible since 2010; the Panthers have been regularly terrible only since the current owner took over.
NFL Teams, Seasons of 5 Wins or Fewer, 2000-2024
Steelers: 0; only two head coaches over the span
Packers: 1; 2005; coach Mike Sherman's last year; non-profit corporation
Seahawks: 2: 2008-09; coach Mike Holmgren's final season and Jim L. Mora's only season
Saints: 2: 2005 (Hurricane Katrina year), 2024
Ravens: 2: no worse than 5-11 (2007 and 2015); owner change in 2004
Eagles: 2: 2012 (AndyReid's last year); 2020 (Pederson's last year)
Colts: 3; none 2000-2010; once each when P. Manning, Andrew Luck missed seasons
Bills: 3: none since 2010; ownership change 2014
Dolphins: 3: once since 2007 (2019)
Patriots: 3: none during 2001-2022
Vikings: 3: none since 2013; ownership change 2005
Broncos: 4; 3 in 2017-2022 span; ownership change 2022
Chiefs 4: 2007-09, 2012
Cowboys: 4: once (2015) since 2002
Falcons: 5; twice since 2008
Titans: 5; 2004-05, 2014-15, 2024
Bengals: 6; Twice (2019-2020) since 2010
Giants: 6: 5 recently (2017-24)
49ers: 6: 3x 2004-07, 3x 2015-18
Rams: 6: 4x 2007-11; ownership change 2010; franchise move 2016
Chargers: 7: none 2004-2014; franchise move 2016
Panthers: 7; 2001, 2010, 5x since 2019 (David Tepper bought the team in 2018)
Bears: 8; 3x 2000-04; none 2005-13, 5x 2014-2024
Buccaneers: 8; all in 2004-2018 span
Commanders: 8; spread out 2003-2023; two name changes, ownership change 2023
Texans: 8 (franchise began 2002); 3x 2002-05, 2x 2006-19, 3x 2000-2022
Jets: 9; 7x since 2014
Cardinals: 11; regular occurrence except under coach Bruce Arians (2013-17)
Lions: 11; none since 2022; ownership changes (same family) 2014, 2020
Jaguars 12; 10 times since 2011; ownership change 2012
Raiders: 12: once since 2018; owner change (same family) 2011; move 2020
Browns: 14: including 11 times 4-12 or worse; owner change 2012
Among the eleven least-dysfunctional teams this century, eight won a Super Bowl; the other three, Dolphins, Vikings, and Bills, never reached the Super Bowl.
It turns out I was wrong about the Chiefs; they did have a bad stretch of three consecutive terrible seasons in the late '00s. Also, I didn't think of the Bills as a functional franchise because they hadn't made the playoffs at all in the century until 2017.
For the century, the Vikings rank twelfth in wins (regular season). The Bills are 15th and the Dolphins 17th. Including playoff wins, both the Vikings (12 winning seasons) and Bills (9 winning seasons) have had five seasons of 12 wins or more. The Dolphins, despite 11 winning seasons, are last in the league with zero seasons of at least 12 wins.
12-Win Seasons (including playoff wins) 2000-25
Patriots 15
Chiefs 10
Ravens 10
Colts 9
Packers: 9
Steelers 9
49ers: 8
Eagles 7
Cowboys 6
Saints: 6
Seahawks: 6
Bills 5
Vikings: 5
Titans 5
Broncos 5
Chargers 5
Panthers 5
Bears: 4
Falcons: 4
Giants: 4
Rams: 4
Bengals 3
Buccaneers: 3
Raiders: 3
Cardinals: 2
Jaguars 2
Lions: 2
Commanders 1
Browns: 1
Jets 1
Texans 1
Dolphins 0
Talk about "rarely bad, never great!" In one sense the Dolphins look like one of the stronger franchises, but in another sense, they've been the saddest team to root for this century.
Finally, I went to Stathead to look at (regular-season) win totals for the past 50 years. The Vikings and Dolphins still rank ahead of the Eagles and Chiefs.
I suppose the sign of hope for the tortured fans of the Dolphins, Vikings, and Bills is that the Eagles and Chiefs did manage to break through.
And at least they're rarely terrible.
.James Leroy Wilson writes The MVP Chase (subscribe). Thank you for your subscriptions and support! Contact James for writing, editing, research, and other work at jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com.
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