How Does the Owner of Your Favorite NFL Team Rank?

Some fans complain that the owners of their favorite teams are the worst in the league. Everybody can’t be right but two groups, the Score and Bonusfinder, did independently rank the owners.

Bonusfinder (https://www.bonusfinder.com/best-and-worst-nfl-owners/) scored the owners based on several metrics–5-Year Growth; 5-Star Reviews; Average Active Cash (millions, 2018-2020); Win Percentage; the number of Super Bowl Rings; and the amount of the Salary Cap they used since 2011 or when acquired. The Bonusfinder rankings are based on data from August 2021.

The Score rankings (https://www.thescore.com/nfl/news/1975934) are based on the opinions of their football staff. The site provides their rationale for their rankings, which were made in 2020.

The plot at the top of this article shows the rankings. The Bonusfinder ranks are represented on the vertical axis. The ranks from the Score are represented on the horizontal axis. The best owners are in the lower left of the plot. The worst owners are in the upper right of the plot. (This may seem counterintuitive to some because the best isn’t at the top. The reason for this is that both Bonusfinder and the Source ranked which owners were worse, not best. The graph reflects their analyses.)

The green line in the graph shows where the two rankings are thwe same. Four team owners received the same ranks from both organizations–the Green Bay Packers, the Minnesota Vikings, the Arizona Cardinals, and the Las Vegas Chargers. 14 of the Bonusfinder rankings, based on metrics, were higher than rankings from the Score. 14 of the rankings by the Score, based on expert judgements, were higher than rankings from Bonusfinder. If nothing else, the rankings from the two organizations, using different approaches, appear to be balanced.

The red lines in the graphs arbitrarily divide the owners into groups to facilitate analysis. Both Bonusfinder and the Score consider the ownership of the Patriots, Packers, and Steelers to be the best. They consider the owners of the Bengals, Browns, Jaguars, and the Washington Football Team (WFT) to be the worst. The center group of teams–the Colts, Broncos, Panthers, Bills, Rams, Buccaneers, Texans, and 49ers–are considered middle-of-the-road. The Chargers, Cardinals, Jets, Lions, Dolphins, Raiders, and Titans are below average. The Vikings, Falcons, Chiefs, Bears, Giants, Ravens, Cowboys, Seahawks, Saints, and Eagles are above average.

Like many big businesses, some NFL teams don’t have a single owner. They might have a nominal head who represents other family members or trustees of an estate. The Cardinals, Broncos, Texans, Chiefs, Steelers, 49ers, and Seahawks are examples. The Packers are owned by Green Bay Packers, Inc., a publicly-held nonprofit corporation.

The following table summarizes some of the data used in the rankings. Additional information is provided in the links to Bonusfinder and the Source.