Why are some NFL franchises the way they are?

Let's take a Michael Scott approach to the National Football League

On Monday Night Football this week, the Buffalo Bills found a new way to lose, this time to the formerly moribund Denver Broncos. Despite in theory being a MUCH better team than Denver, Buffalo just couldn’t open up a lead and turned the ball over four times. Still, they held a lead at the end, but watched Denver move the ball down the field to take a shot at a game winning field goal.

Denver missed. With just seconds left on the clock, the Bills had a win almost completely secured. But then, no. The Bills had too many men on the field for that field goal attempt, which moved the ball five yards closer and gave Denver another chance, which they made.

For the last few years, the Bills have entered each season as a favorite to make the Super Bowl. The franchise has over the years consistently been a good to great franchise, but it’s never won a Super Bowl. The phrase “Wide Right” sends shivers down Bills fans backs, as it refers to a missed field goal in the Super Bowl that would have won the game - and was the first of FOUR consecutive losses in the biggest game in football. The team has never returned.

The next morning, the Bills fired their offensive coordinator, which hardly explains why they lost the game, but scapegoats gotta get scapegoated.

That said, Buffalo isn’t alone. Off the top of my head, the Chargers and Vikings both consistently have top talent but never quite reach their potential. Other teams seem to consistently be awful with burps of exceptions like the Jets, Browns and Lions. (The Lions may be out of the woods! We will see.)

In short, it begs the question:

The easiest and most likely answer isn’t very satisfying - it’s that a lot of this is about luck, and that it’s VERY hard to win a Super Bowl. It’s why when a team loses and you hear players and fans say, “We’ll be back next year!” I always cringe. That’s almost never true. It’s truly hard to win enough games to get into the playoffs and then win three or four high intensity games against tough opponents, potentially on the road at times. And when other teams find a cheat code player like Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes, it gets harder and harder to topple that obstacle.

But … folks do, right? So why can’t some franchises?

These are trends that have lasted decades with these organizations, through different styles of plays, different coaches, rosters, etc. And then you hear things like “Chargers gonna Charger” and things of that nature.

When you try and sort it out, there is usually only one constant - the owners. (And even that isn’t forever - the Vikings were sold in 2005 and have since had crushing, almost comically unbelievable playoff losses to the Rams and Saints in recent years.)

But if there IS a constant factor, it’s the ownership - they hire GMs who hire coaches who draft players who just can’t get the team over the hump. And while those teams can change things up - hire a defensive minded coach, trade for an impact player or two … they’re still in an organization that materially doesn’t know how to win. And that’s an obstacle until it isn’t.

But really, I think it’s just hard.