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2021: Which NFL franchise is currently the most dysfunctional? (1 Viewer)

Which NFL Team gets your vote as the #4 dysfunctional organization?

  • New York Jets

    Votes: 31 14.5%

  • Washington Football Team

    Votes: 26 12.1%

  • Detroit Lions

    Votes: 44 20.6%

  • Cleveland Browns

    Votes: 3 1.4%

  • Houston Texans

    Votes: 11 5.1%

  • Dallas Cowboys

    Votes: 16 7.5%

  • Jacksonville Jaguars

    Votes: 33 15.4%

  • Cincinnati Bengals

    Votes: 17 7.9%

  • Chicago Bears

    Votes: 24 11.2%

  • Other Team (please post which team)

    Votes: 9 4.2%
  • Total voters
    214
Faust

Faust

MVP
The 2020 NFL Regular Season has ended and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been crowned as Super Bowl champions! 

Link to my last poll:
 

2020: Which NFL franchise is currently the most dysfunctional?

Dysfunctional traits within NFL teams can be found in a few different aspects within these organizations:

1. Ownership 

2. Front Office and General Management 

3. Coaches 

4. Players 

5. Fans

Recent dysfunctional traits will carry the most weight; however, for a few select organizations which always seem to have systemic & perpetual dysfunction  - wiping the slate clean and removing those stains clean is not always something that can be done over the course of a season or two - so for those who give some weight to historical dysfunction - that is okay when you cast your vote.

I am looking forward to the discussion on this topic.

 
The WFT, the Jets, the Lions, and the Browns tend to get the long term dysfunctional voting; however, the Browns have not had a lot of recent issues other than the ongoing Odell Beckham Jr. drama. 
 

The Houston Texans have come a long way over the past year as they were not even a poll choice on my 2020 poll.

 
The Jets are trying to turn the corner on their chronic dysfunction issues:

Woody Johnson returning as Jets owner after four years in Trump administration
 

Woody Johnson is back. Hold your applause.

Woody’s brother Christopher, who has led the Jets to disastrous results in his absence, announced the news on Thursday at the press conference to introduce Robert Saleh as head coach.

The elder Johnson has been absent from his day job as Jets owner for the last four NFL seasons while serving as Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.

To be fair to Christopher, the Woody-only Jets were bad, too. The decade outside the playoffs began in Woody’s watch in 2011. But Woody’s old team, like his administration, hit new lows over the last four years. Todd Bowles and Adam Gase combined to go 18-46, a hideous record that was actually padded by Gase’s propensity for meaningless December wins.

“He’s on a plane right now coming back to the States, I think he lands in another few hours. When he is officially principal owner, we’re not exactly sure,” Christopher Johnson said of his brother Thursday. “That’s something that has to run through the league. He will be assuming his duties quite soon.”

Christopher did take advantage of his final days running the franchise to implement a much-needed change. Saleh will answer to GM Joe Douglas, who will answer to ownership. In the past, coach and front office have separately reported to the Johnsons, creating dual and unwieldy power structures and frequent dysfunction. Going forward, ownership has essentially placed a huge bet on Douglas instead of hedging it with a powerful coach like in the past.

Part of the dysfunction of the early Gase days stemmed from Christopher Johnson’s disengagement from the team, which led to Johnson ultimately firing GM Mike Maccagnan and apologizing, saying he was going to become “deeply embedded.”

“He will be chairman,” Christopher said of Woody. “I’m gonna be vice chairman. I’m gonna be doing an awful lot of the day-to-day stuff. All the final decisions will be his.
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Robert Saleh is a breath of fresh air after the stale track record of the recent Jets head coaches:

The reason Robert Saleh chose the NY Jets, and why his plan should have fans excited

 
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Based on the last 60 years the obvious answer is the Lions.  But I do see a path out of the jungle for them.  It's just going to take time.

 
Proud to say this, Washington shouldn't even be on this list. Snyder is no longer running the show, its clearly Ron, and he's respected by everyone in this league. Washington has also hired a ton of minorities in lots of different positions. Just a lot to like about what they are doing, changing the culture and rapidly improving as a football team. Dallas and Philly are FAR more dysfunctional right now...And all Skins fans would be happy to see Dan Snyder removed. He's the only thing left over from our toxic culture that ran things into the ground for decades....

 
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Texans are temporary dysfunctional.

Lions are long term dysfunctional.

Jets are a bit of both.

 
ffmail4me said:
Proud to say this, Washington shouldn't even be on this list. Snyder is no longer running the show, its clearly Ron, and he's respected by everyone in this league. Washington has also hired a ton of minorities in lots of different positions. Just a lot to like about what they are doing, changing the culture and rapidly improving as a football team. Dallas and Philly are FAR more dysfunctional right now...And all Skins fans would be happy to see Dan Snyder removed. He's the only thing left over from our toxic culture that ran things into the ground for decades....
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The team that was within 1 score (and a 2 pt conversion) of beating the bucs, with their 4th quarterback, doesn't belong on this list. 

 
In order, I have the Texans, Jaguars, Jets, and Detroit

I really think that Sal Khan and Urban Meyer have just hinted at their potential for dysfunction. I keep reading comments about T. Lawrence going to the Jets and how it'll ruin him, but everything I've ever read or known about Meyer and Khan just screams "dumpster fire" worse than even the Johnsons. The only thing elevating the Jags will be Lawrence and already inherited offensive weapons. It's Meyer's job to simply not #### everything up, which he already seems bent on doing with that strength coach hire. 

 
Yeah, the leader in the clubhouse is Houston and it’s not even close. As a Skins fan, I know dysfunction, and Houston is in rarified air right now.

Other franchises here have your garden variety dysfunction, but I’ve never seen a team self detonate themselves like Houston. They are running future Hall of Famers out of town at a shocking rate. And their upper management, led by Jack Easterby for no good reason, appears to be almost implementing a cult like atmosphere at the top of the franchise. Houston might be a few pairs of Nike sneakers away from a Heaven’s Gate episode at this rate. 

 
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Johnny Utah #9 said:
Yeah, the leader in the clubhouse is Houston and it’s not even close. As a Skins fan, I know dysfunction, and Houston is in rarified air right now.

Other franchises here have your garden variety dysfunction, but I’ve never seen a team self detonate themselves like Houston. They are running future Hall of Famers out of town at a shocking rate. And their upper management, led by Jack Easterby for no good reason, appears to be almost implementing a cult like atmosphere at the top of the franchise. Houston might be a few pairs of Nike sneakers away from a Heaven’s Gate episode at this rate. 
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What McNair has allowed Easterby to do to an entity that really owes itself to the public -- in a meaningful sense other than original capital outlay -- is a travesty of not only football and the league, but in the aforementioned unwritten private/public trust that is owning a sports team.

 
Faust said:
The WFT, the Jets, the Lions, and the Browns tend to get the long term dysfunctional voting; however, the Browns have not had a lot of recent issues other than the ongoing Odell Beckham Jr. drama. 
 

The Houston Texans have come a long way over the past year as they were not even a poll choice on my 2020 poll.
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I wanna point out that the "ongoing Odell Beckham Jr. drama" is not due to anything he or the team has said.  The fans and talking heads are the ones fanning this fire.  

 
I left off WFT because they actually got so dysfunctional that they were forced to start being more functional and have since seemed to start the clean up act. So far.

Instead I went:

Houston-  Easterby  followed by BOB makes this to easy. Cal just has to be glad teams are a private business and no criteria needs to be met by the league to inherit one.

Jags-I went with them because with Lawrence, draft capital and cap space they offered an incredible job instead they felt need to pay Urban possibly around $12M. That got them the fiasco with the racist player endangering coach and Trent Baalke as the GM.

Lions-  Lions new owner is unknown and that's really were franchises start, right?  So maybe she turns things around. But I'm dubious about what they put together so far. The GM from the Rams is a little unknown to me but between Speileman's role, Campbell and the slew of coaches who played in the league I'm starting to think this franchise is run by a bunch of meat heads, or maybe put another way a little to blue collared focused. Like the Jags I can't say so far I'm impressed with what the Lions did so far under the new owners first big offseason. Hope to be proven wrong.

Bengals-They are functional in the sense they give coaches very long leashes, same for front office. They also rarely cut players for cap savings so in that sense they offer a degree of stability. But they still run I believe the smallest scouting staff in the league, still operate very much like a mom and pop in a multi billion dollar business.

 
menobrown said:
I left off WFT because they actually got so dysfunctional that they were forced to start being more functional and have since seemed to start the clean up act. So far.

Instead I went:

Houston-  Easterby  followed by BOB makes this to easy. Cal just has to be glad teams are a private business and no criteria needs to be met by the league to inherit one.

Jags-I went with them because with Lawrence, draft capital and cap space they offered an incredible job instead they felt need to pay Urban possibly around $12M. That got them the fiasco with the racist player endangering coach and Trent Baalke as the GM.

Lions-  Lions new owner is unknown and that's really were franchises start, right?  So maybe she turns things around. But I'm dubious about what they put together so far. The GM from the Rams is a little unknown to me but between Speileman's role, Campbell and the slew of coaches who played in the league I'm starting to think this franchise is run by a bunch of meat heads, or maybe put another way a little to blue collared focused. Like the Jags I can't say so far I'm impressed with what the Lions did so far under the new owners first big offseason. Hope to be proven wrong.

Bengals-They are functional in the sense they give coaches very long leashes, same for front office. They also rarely cut players for cap savings so in that sense they offer a degree of stability. But they still run I believe the smallest scouting staff in the league, still operate very much like a mom and pop in a multi billion dollar business.
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Lions new owner isn't really that new. Same family. And they aren't really dysfunctional. They're just not good. 

 
Houston - No brainer

WFT - Institutionalized sexism for almost two decades make this an easy #2. This is ignoring all the other Snyder stuff.

Jacksonville - Last few years of issues and questionable hires may point to a gap in hiring/vetting, also questionable Urban Meyer hiring.

Chicago - Pace.

Actually 3 and 4 could swap for me.

 
Hate to defend the maroon and mustard but the WFT has a Hispanic coach, a black GM, a black team president and hired the first black woman assistant coach.

This is on the heels of changing their team name. 
Oh, they also won a crappy division and gave Brady the biggest scare in the playoffs.

 
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STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
Hate to defend the maroon and mustard but the WFT has a Hispanic coach, a black GM, a black team president and hired the first black woman assistant coach.
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Diversity hiring is one thing, but true reform starts with the ownership. This guy has never been held accountable and it's hard to imagine, even with everybody on his proverbial ###, that he's really given the reins over to others. I'll believe it when I see it.

 
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
Hate to defend the maroon and mustard but the WFT has a Hispanic coach, a black GM, a black team president and hired the first black woman assistant coach.

This is on the heels of changing their team name. 
Oh, they also won a crappy division and gave Brady the biggest scare in the playoffs.
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This is what I meant on my post earlier in this thread when I said I was not voting for WFT because they were so dysfuntional they were forced to already start the clean up process.They now seem on their way to somewhat functionality.

 
I went Houston, Jacksonville, Bears, and Jets. Honorable mention to the Lions.

Jacksonville made an amazing leap to #2 just in the last week.

 
Houston - simple BOB level incompetence would put them in the running for 2nd-3rd but they managed to piss off their young franchise qb to the point where he refuses to ever play for them again and to give up their defensive soul for nothing.  Expect more baffoonery to follow.

HUGE GAP

Jets - going to take a while to wash the Gase smell off

Jags - there's an outside chance that everything comes together, but right now it's not looking pretty and they've spent seasons driving players away

Gap

Cin - decades of poor to mediocre teams/coaches and the moment they pick an exciting young qb they let him get beaten until he's broken gives them a slight (dis)advantage over other teams for this spot.

 
I could flip #1 between Houston & Jets - Coaches & Front Office all confusing how they keep employed (Owners involvement only adds to confusion)

#3 would go to Philly IMO ... They needed  to rebuild last year and now it's too late and the market has shifted.  Poor management skills. 

#4 is Chicago (trade history being a big part of the issue)

 
Eagles should probably be an option.

The Chargers as well - Herbert's success and a meaningless late season winning streak have obscured some of their long standing incompetency/dysfunction.

 
Faust said:
The Jets are trying to turn the corner on their chronic dysfunction issues:

Woody Johnson returning as Jets owner after four years in Trump administration
 

Robert Saleh is a breath of fresh air after the stale track record of the recent Jets head coaches:

The reason Robert Saleh chose the NY Jets, and why his plan should have fans excited
Click to expand...
Hard to argue if this is based upon last 10 yrs....but 2021 feels like it did post Kotite disaster when Parcells came in and quickly restored respectability....for the 1st time in a long while the Jets have both a respected GM and HC....they also have lots of cap space and draft picks....if they have a good FA/draft and even a 8-8 season they could be in very good shape for the next decade.  

 
The Detroit Lions.

Voted the 3rd and 4th most dysfunctional National Football League franchise by the Shark Pool.

Seems like it should be a banner or an advertising campaign.

 
This poll should have short term and long term aspects. In the short term Houston is a clear "winner". No organization put together a worst year in 2020. But in the long term it is tough to beat the Lions.....

 
NFL officials denied reports that an investigation into the Washington Football Team recommended that Daniel Snyder be forced to sell the franchise. 

Someone at 106.7 The Fan supposedly got their hands on the 130-page report, and NBC Sports' JP Finley said the top recommendation of the report is to "force the owner to divest his ownership of the team." The second recommendation, if the league doesn't want to force Snyder's hand, is reportedly to suspend Snyder "for a signifiant period to allow time to repair its infrastructure and culture." An NFL spokesperson told CBS Sports' Jonathan Jones that the report is "absolutely false" and that the league has "received no such report." Investigators are looking into Snyder and the team's toxic culture. Snyder has been accused of denigrating women in the organization and making unwanted sexual advances. Fifteen former female employees have alleged sexual harassment during their time working for the Washington Football Team. 

SOURCE: ProFootballTalk.com 

Mar 5, 2021, 9:41 AM ET
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My team without a doubt - Houston. What’s most frustrating is while they haven’t always been nearly this bone headed, at least they used to be middle of this pack. 

What is most concerning is the obvious lack currently of long term strategy. Any Texans fan could tell you losing Watson is huge on multiple levels from perception to reality to on vs off the field too. 

But what continues to not make sense at all is the duplicative speak - we want Watson but we’re not rebuilding. Huh? Which is it? Fans are left feeling like we’re supporting a rudderless organization with no apparent plan or timetable on fixing things. If you’re rebuilding, do it and do your best to sell it. Half doing everything right now is beyond bizarre and is just maddening. 

 
Sports Illustrated's John Shipley notes the Jaguars have not been awarded a compensatory pick for the 11th consecutive season.

Just wild. Compensatory picks are awarded to teams from a private formula based on free agency gains and losses (and now coaching hires). It's a decent barometer of which teams have been savvy and which teams haven't as the process isn't the easiest to crack. Jacksonville not picking a single one up in over a decade is embarrassing, but there are reasons for hope with Urban Meyer, Trevor Lawrence, and a bunch of capital coming to town.

SOURCE: John Shipley on Twitter

Mar 10, 2021, 4:24 PM ET
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