Football season has been over for some time now (although the talking heads on First Take are still arguing about whether the Ravens committed holding on the last play of Super Bowl 47....) So this will be my last football article until the start of the 2013 season, which will culminate in a (bold prediction alert) Texans-Giants Super Bowl, when the Giants will play on home turf but will not be the home team.
I developed a set of power rankings which rank teams’ performances in the Super Bowl era (the 1966 season and later), and another set ranking their “all-time” performances in the playoff era (1932 and later). The Super Bowl rankings are more meaningful (and more accurate), so I’ll show those here. The all-time rankings were flawed, mainly because they hurt the older NFC teams, so I discarded those.
Many of the teams’ positions will not surprise you. Some of them will be controversial. Here’s how I calculated their rankings in the Super Bowl era:
(Number of playoff appearances PLUS number of conference titles PLUS number of Super Bowl wins) DIVIDED BY (years of existence in the Super Bowl era). Multiplying this by 100 and rounding to the nearest tenth gives a team’s Success Score™. I think it’s both fair and unfair to relatively young teams. It strongly benefits the Ravens (9 playoff appearances, 2 AFC titles, and 2 Super Bowl appearances in only 17 years) but hurts the Texans (2 playoff appearances in 11 years). No ranking system is perfect, and I’ll admit that this one is limited, because it doesn’t take into account a team’s overall winning percentage. Da Chicago Bears have the highest winning percentage but the same number of Super Bowl wins as the team with the worst winning percentage (the Buccaneers). Yet Da Bears are not ranked too much higher than the Bucs.
Super Bowl era rankings, starting from the bottom: (SB = Super Bowl record, PA = playoff appearances, SS = Success Score™)
32. Cardinals: SB: 0-1, PA: 6, SS: 14.9
They have not won a championship since 1947, when they were in Chicago. Kurt Warner could get into the Hall of Fame just from having led this perpetually pathetic team to the Super Bowl.
31. Texans: SB: N/A, PA: 2, SS: 18.2
30. Lions: SB: N/A, PA: 10, SS: 21.3
The Lions have only won one playoff game in the Super Bowl era (the 1991 divisional round game)!
29. Saints: SB: 1-0, PA: 9, SS: 23.9
26 (tie): Falcons, Chargers, Bengals. SS: 27.7
ATL: SB: 0-1, PA: 12. SD: SB: 0-1, PA: 12. CIN: SB: 0-2, PA: 11.
25. Panthers: SB: 0-1, PA: 4, SS: 27.8
A team whose young age definitely helped them in the rankings.
24. Browns: SB: N/A, PA: 14, SS: 31.8
I took into account the three years (1996-1998) that were stolen from them in order to create the Ravens.
23. Buccaneers: SB: 1-0, PA: 10, SS: 32.4
22. Jaguars: SB: N/A, PA: 6, SS: 33.3
You know who coached them to their first four playoff appearances? Tom Coughlin.
21. Jets: SB: 1-0, PA: 14, SS: 34
20. Seahawks: SB: 0-1, PA: 12, SS: 35.1
The only team to switch conferences twice.
19. Bears: SB: 1-1, PA: 14, SS: 36.2
Their position really surprised me, but they haven’t been nearly as good in the Super Bowl era as they were in the 30’s and 40’s.
17 (tie): Bills, Chiefs. SS: 38.3
BUF: SB: 0-4, PA: 14. KC: SB: 1-1, PA: 15.
16. Titans/Oilers: SB: 0-1, PA: 18, SS: 40.4
15. Eagles: SB: 0-2, PA: 19, SS: 44.7
The Iggles might be the laughingstock of the NFC East, but they’re an above-average team. Remember that they’re playing in the toughest division; their rivals have 12 Super Bowl wins combined.
14. Giants: SB: 4-1, PA: 15, SS: 51.1
When they make it to the playoffs, they get the job done (Super Bowl 35 excluded.)
12 (tie): Rams, Redskins. SS: 53.2
STL: SB: 1-2, PA: 21. WAS: SB: 3-2, PA: 17.
10 (tie): Broncos, Colts. SS: 57.4
DEN: SB: 2-4, PA: 19. IND: SB: 2-2, PA: 21
The Colts are the only team in the AFC South to have won a Super Bowl. The Titans are the only other team in that division to have even made it there. Interestingly, the Broncos lost their first four Super Bowls before winning two in a row.
8 (tie): Packers, Patriots. SS: 59.6
GB: SB: 4-1, PA: 19. NE: SB: 3-4, PA: 18.
6 (tie): Dolphins, Raiders. SS: 61.7
MIA: SB: 2-3, PA: 22. OAK: SB: 3-2, PA: 21.
The Raiders have not made the playoffs since 2002; their best years are behind them.
5: Vikings: SB: 0-4, PA: 27, SS: 66
Most playoff appearances by a team that’s never won the Big Game. You probably didn’t expect to see the Vikings ahead of the Packers….
4: 49ers: SB: 5-1, PA: 23, SS: 72.3
3: Ravens: SB: 2-0, PA: 9, SS: 76.5
The Ravens stole the title of “only team to win more than one Super Bowl without losing” away from the Niners.
2: Steelers: SB: 6-2, PA: 26, SS: 85.1
1: Cowboys: SB: 5-3, PA: 30, SS: 91.5
They’ve only won one playoff game since ’96, their owner is arguably the worst in the NFL, and their quarterback gets a lot of undeserved criticism, but America’s Team has many laurels to rest on. (I shouldn’t have ended that sentence with a preposition.)
-AQ
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