Our data pool consists of all team's seasons starting with the 1970 season, the first "merged" season where the AFL became the AFC of the NFL. I typically refer to this period as the "modern" age of NFL football because we have 26 to 32 teams instead of half and there is cross conference games in the regular season.
We group each team's seasons into three categories depending on their record. For seasons where the team won 60% to 100% of the games we label that a "good" season. 40% to 59% is an "average" season, 39% or less is a "poor" season.
In a 16 game season a good season would be any record with double digit wins. An average season would be 9-7 down to 7-9, a poor season would be double digit losses.
The totals for each team's categories are totaled and presented as a percentage ratio.
For example:
45-15-40 would mean there were 45% good seasons, 15% average seasons and 40% poor seasons.
The purpose of this excercise to find which teams were consistently good....or poor....or even average. Also, which teams were not.
An historically successful team would not be successful all the time, that is impossible with the parity checks and balances the NFL has employed such as the draft, free agency, salary cap, ect..... Instead, a highly successful team would have the highest percentage at "good" seasons, the second highest at "average" and the lowest at "poor".
Of course poor teams would be the opposite, average teams would be loaded in the middle of the ratio.
These are the results:
TeamQuality Ratio
Cowboys 56-27-18
49ers 56-16-29
Steelers53-36-11
Dolphins49-40-11
Patriots49-24-27
Broncos47-38-16
Ravens47-32-21
Eagles47-24-29
Colts 44-20-36
Redskins42-29-29
Raiders40-33-27
Rams 40-24-36
Vikings38-44-18
Packers38-33-29
Titans33-31-36
Bears31-36-33
Giants31-33-36
Bills 29-31-40
Chiefs27-40-33
Bengals27-38-36
Panthers25-55-20
Jaguars25-30-45
Browns24-31-45
Seahawks23-51-26
Chargers22-44-33
Saints22-42-36
Falcons22-33-44
Jets 20-42-38
Bucs 18-23-59
Lions 16-42-42
Cardinals16-33-51
Texans15-38-46
The Dallas Cowboys lead the NFL in quality seasons. They are tied for 2nd when you subtract the poor seasons from the good ones. The Steelers lead by 4% in this "good-poor margin.
Although many have accused the Cowboys of being "mediocre" lately, the King of Medicore would have to go to either the Seahawks or Panthers, more than 50% of their seasons were average with the good and poor percentages almost even. Such a symmetrical ratio indicates that, not only were they mostly average, but each good season was cancelled by a bad season.
Then again, mediocre could also be equal percentages in all three categories in which case the three most mundane teams would be the Titans, Giants, and Bears.
The most pathetic would have to be the Bucs, followed by the Lions, Texans, and Cardinals.
Another interesting team would be the Rams, who were either really good or really bad, hardly ever average.
The poor seasons for the Cowboys took place mostly in the early 2000's, plus Landry's last year, Johnson's first year, and Switzer's last year. When you can count the poor seasons over 45 years on your fingers then your team was almost always competitive.
In all, the most consistently good teams over the past 45 years have been the Steelers, Cowboys, Dolphins, and Broncos.