Ranking the Rank: The NFL's 10 Worst Franchises Since 2000

Can you believe it is already 2010? It is also the time to Rank the Rank Franchises of the NFL since the year 2000.

I should note that, technically the year 2000 was the last year of its decade, as is 2010. Technically, the new decade does not start until 2011.

The reason why is there was no year 0, while a year, decade, century, or millennium is a fixed unit of time.

Regardless, my criteria for "Worst" franchises is as follows: how deep a team goes in the postseason, how well a team drafts, and how well a team spends money on free agents.

By rule, earning wild card berths in the postseason is not enough to validate a club's vitality.

By rule, if a team recorded a berth in the Super Bowl, that team cannot be considered amongst the Worst since 2000, because that club achieved what every club sets out to do.

In other words, the Arizona Cardinals, Oakland Raiders, and St. Louis Rams are off the hook.

We'll see about the next decade.

And here we go...

10) New York Jets: Decent Record but Not Much to Show for It

9) Jacksonville Jaguars: They Coulda Been a Contender

Since 2000, the Jacksonville Jaguars have posted only three winning records with two postseason berths and one wild card win over the favored Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Jags have long been a darling of pundits, but never seemed to live up to their potential, and they would squander the success of HB Fred Taylor—quite possibly the most overlooked halfback in NFL history.

Part of the blame falls on the Jaguars' publicity department. The other part is because the Jaguars would frequently fail to meet expectations, often upsetting good teams but losing to bad teams.

8) Houston Texans: Upstart Franchise, but That Is No Excuse

7) San Francisco 49ers: Bad Player Relations

6) Atlanta Falcons: Electrifying Games but No Consistency

5) Kansas City Chiefs: A Few Diamonds in the Rough

4) Buffalo Bills: A Team that Was Never Here nor There

3) Washington Redskins: Made It Rain on Flops and Burned Draft Picks

2) Cleveland Browns: Always Coming and Going

1) Detroit Lions: Is This Really a Surprise?