5 Year Record

Training camps open this week! Young guys report early, vets report later in the week, and the hitting starts soon. In honor of the collective return to vivid life, here is The List.

In the table below, ties are broken by postseason wins, where applicable, under the theory that one postseason win is worth more than one reg season win. It's a slightly greater accomplishment. Thus Seattle gets the nod over Carolina & Tampa, because of the two playoff wins. Ties remaining after that are broken by the most recent reg season record, under the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately theory. Thus Packers ahead of Steelers; likewise Niners over Vikes, Carolina over Tampa, Miami over Redskins, and Oakland over Buffalo.

For comparison, last year's list is here.

Team	Reg season							Post season							Grand Total
	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	Sum		2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	Sum
New England Patriots	16	11	10	14	13	64		2				2	4		68
Green Bay Packers	13	6	11	10	15	55		1			4		5		60
Pittsburgh Steelers	10	12	9	12	12	55			3		2		5		60
New York Giants	10	12	8	10	9	49		4				4	8		57
New Orleans Saints	7	8	13	11	13	52				3		1	4		56
Baltimore Ravens	5	11	9	12	12	49			2	1	1	1	5		54
Indianapolis Colts	13	12	14	10	2	51				2			2		53
San Diego Chargers	11	8	13	9	8	49		2	1				3		52
Philadelphia Eagles	8	9.5	11	10	8	46.5			2				2		48.5
Dallas Cowboys	13	9	11	6	8	47				1			1		48
Atlanta Falcons	4	11	9	13	10	47							0		47
Tennessee Titans	10	13	8	6	9	46							0		46
New York Jets	4	9	9	11	8	41				2	2		4		45
Arizona Cardinals	8	9	10	5	8	40			3	1			4		44
Chicago Bears	7	9	7	11	8	42					1		1		43
Houston Texans	8	8	9	6	10	41						1	1		42
San Francisco 49ers	5	7	8	6	13	39						1	1		40
Minnesota Vikings	8	10	12	6	3	39				1			1		40
Jacksonville Jaguars	11	5	7	8	5	36		1					1		37
Denver Broncos	7	8	8	4	8	35						1	1		36
Seattle Seahawks	10	4	5	7	7	33		1			1		2		35
Carolina Panthers	7	12	8	2	6	35							0		35
Tampa Bay Buccnrs	9	9	3	10	4	35							0		35
Cincinnati Bengals	7	4.5	10	4	9	34.5							0		34.5
Miami Dolphins	1	11	7	7	6	32							0		32
Washington Redskins	9	8	4	6	5	32							0		32
Oakland Raiders	4	5	5	8	8	30							0		30
Buffalo Bills	7	7	6	4	6	30							0		30
Cleveland Browns	10	4	5	5	4	28							0		28
Kansas City Chiefs	4	2	4	10	7	27							0		27
Detroit Lions	7	0	2	6	10	25							0		25
St. Louis Rams	3	2	1	7	2	15							0		15

My rule of thumb is, any team with a grand total of 45 or over is doing something right. That's an average winning record, nine wins per year, in a league where winning at all (let alone winning consistently) is extremely difficult. These are the most successful organizations in the sport.

Note technically a total of 40.5 or better represents a “winning” record, barely. That would average out to 4 yrs of 8-8 and one year of 8-7-1. I personally think that is nothing to write home about: but it beats losing. These teams in the 41-44 win category are in a second tier. I anticipate Houston breaking into the next tier up next season. Maybe San Francisco too.

The usual suspects in the top 5 this year. Man, the Packers are coming off a 15-win season, the Steelers have appeared in two Super Bowls during this span, and the Giants have *won* two – and look how far ahead of everybody the Pats are. That's really impressive. They lost their starting QB one of the seasons listed here, they're supposed to have a crappy defense, and they still averaged 12.8 reg season wins plus a playoff win over the span. Unbelievable. Next year the Imperfect Season comes off the books, so they should come back to the pack a little. Or who knows, maybe Belichick will do it again.

Indy takes a bit of a tumble (they were #1 last year), they figure to fall a bit more over a couple seasons. Everyone knows they lost Manning, but the more important figure long-term is Bill Polian, who might be the best GM of all time. Who replaces him? I like Chuck Pagano very much, but who's picking the players?

If the Ravens have another of their typical Harbaugh double-digit win seasons, their win total will increase on this list. Their 5-win 2008 season will come off the books. But their peer group is tough to gain a lot of ground on: they could easily add 5 wins to their total and still move up only 1 spot.

Five full seasons since the Chargers let Marty go, and the reports of their demise have been – well I don't know, we see steady decline over the last three seasons, and it's not clear that AJ Smith is still making great draft picks. They had a decent offseason, for once. We'll see.

Man, the Rams suuuuuuuuuuuuck. 3 wins per year! Nice to see the Lions finally out of the cellar. Notable that they win 10 games and only climb up to second-worst, but they have an albatross. The zero will come off this list in a couple seasons; they seem to be building to last, so they could climb fast once they lose the anchor.

Oakland has had two respectable seasons in a row. Interesting.