Some fan bases provide exquisite clarity when it comes to the state of their teams, and with that in mind we should all raise a glass to whatever fan—or disgruntled wide receiver??—chose to hire a plane trailing a banner to get the job done. Coaches, execs and owners can spew out all the recycled clichés they want, but when owners like John Mara of the Giants see a banner that reads “fix this dumpster fire,” they get the message loud and clear.
But Mara is by no means alone when it comes to running a broken franchise. He’s got plenty of company at the bottom of the NFL standings, and these are the most egregious example of dumpster fire teams whose flames will continue burning bright into a seemingly endless football night.
The New York Jets are the gold standard for NFL dumpster fire teams
When it comes to dumpster fire flame keepers, Woody Johnson is The Man. Johnson has been setting, fanning and maintaining NFL dumpster fires for a long time, but this year he’s seriously outdone himself.
It takes a special kind of cluelessness to give a guy like Aaron Rodgers the keys to the kingdom, then fire the coach and the GM in midseason. Suffice to say that whatever ray of hope Rodgers might have brought with him vanished a long time ago.
Once again, the Jets face a complete rebuild. The last time they did this, they at least they hired Robert Salah to construct a formidable defense, but that, too, seems to have vanished into the Meadowlands wind. Rodgers will almost certainly be gone next year, but his pathetic legacy in New York will last for a long time.
New York Giants
John Mara engineered the Giants latest rebuild around the idea that Brian Daboll could fix Daniel Jones. The idea seems laughable now, but it was viable at the time, and Mara is compounding that bad decision by keeping Daboll and GM Joe Schoen around long past their respective expiration dates. The Giants will likely draft either Shadeur Sanders or Cam Ward depending on how the draft board falls, but no one knows what will happen after that.
Las Vegas Raiders
One of the best ways to maintain an NFL dumpster fire is to fall for "the assistant trap." There’s always a brief bump when the head man is fired and a hard-nosed assistant takes the reins, but it’s important to remember that bump is short-lived.
Owner Mark Davis missed the memo. He kept tough-guy linebacker Antonio Pierce around as his new headman, and Pierce has slowly been exposed as an assistant who’s in way over his head in his new role. Add in a series of quarterback injuries, and the Las Vegas fire is still burning bright as a new attraction on the Strip.
Tennessee Titans
On paper, the Titans had a sound plan going into this season. The team had clearly gone as far is it could under old-school coach Mike Vrabel, and it seemed like a good idea to further explore the potential of rocket-armed QB Will Levis.
But Levis often makes decisions as if he had mayonnaise for brains, and new coach Brian Callahan has looked overwhelmed for most of the year, despite his reputation as this year’s best new offensive mind. Opinions vary on whether Callahan should get another year with a different quarterback, but the flame has definitely been lit in Nashville.
Cleveland Browns
No list of dumpster fire teams would be complete without mentioning the Browns, mostly due to the Deshaun Watson mess, which definitely doesn't need another rundown at this point.
Jameis Winston has at least made Cleveland entertaining with his ability to keep both teams in the game at once, but Winston is also heading into his 30s with no sign that his turnover tendencies will ever change.
So what happens once the entertainment factor goes away? No one knows, but the one thing we can count on is that it will be bad.