The 5 Worst Organizatons in the NFL

Sports, as in life, has an upper level that gets it. They understand what it takes to win and what it takes to succeed. Also, as in life, there is the lower level that doesn't get it. Year after year they fail, in the draft, free agency, front office decisions, and inevitably in the standings.

They begin each season with their fans knowing that the next thing they will have to look forward to is the following April, when their team will have one of the top 10 draft picks.

The following five teams are the teams that year in and year out, largely due to inept ownership, are in the bottom of the standings and are as irrelevant in Week 1 as they are in Week 17.

The following are the five worst organizations in the National Football League.

5. The New Cleveland Browns

Since the new Browns entered the league in 1999, they have made the playoffs just once. Few positive words can be said about the new Browns.

What's worse is that the old Browns, now the Ravens, have won a Super Bowl since they left Cleveland and are now a perennial force in one of the toughest divisions in football, the AFC North.

4. Washington Redskins

Unlike many of the teams on the list, the Redskins have had some success off and on throughout the years. However the last decade has been nothing short of disastrous.  

Dan Snyder wants to win, and spends to win, but spends money in the wrong places and overpays for free agents only to have them bust when they get to the team.

They are on their fifth head coach in the past 10 years and have finished fourth in the division four times out of the past five years.

3. Detroit Lions

Detroit has to be the only city in the United States where the hockey team is more popular than the football team, a testament to what a disaster the Lions have been as a franchise.  

The Red Wings and Lions are nearly polar opposites as far as the organizations go, with the Red Wings rarely missing the playoffs and the Lions rarely, if ever, making the playoffs.  

In the past fifteen years they have finished no better than third in the division. They have had five coaches in the past 10 years and hold the dubious honor of being the only team in NFL history to go an entire season without winning a game.

2. Oakland Raiders

The Raiders, like their fan base, is truly a black hole. Talent goes in but never comes out…at least until they hit free agency.

The Raiders' recent first-round draft picks have become the stuff of legend and have become almost all automatic busts.

They have not made the playoffs in the past nine seasons, and since 2003 have finished no better than third in the division.

1. Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals looked to be shedding their losing ways by making the playoffs and finishing first in the AFC North in 2009, only to return to the division cellar in 2010.  

Their quarterback retired rather than spend another season under the woeful ownership of Mike Brown. They have made the playoffs only twice in the past 20 years, and don’t plan on them being back anytime soon.