Worst NFL owners right now: Ranking 10 worst owners in NFL

Virginia Halas McCaskey, daughter of Chicago Bears founder George Halas, has served as team owner since 1983. The Bears did win one Super Bowl title during their tenure (Super Bowl XX of 1985 season) but it largely came from the work done before her. Since 1986, the Bears have been to the Super Bowl just once with two losses in the NFC Championship Game.

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However, this storied franchise has been in a tailspin for more than a decade now. The Bears’ last playoff came on January 16, 2011. The team also has just one winning season (12-4 in 2018) since 2013 with two playoff appearances in the last 14 seasons. Chicago is now struggling to replace Soldier Field in part because of the McCaskey Family and there’s friction in the front office with the new team president. From an awful on-field product to bad hires at every level of the organization, the Bears are stuck with one of the worst owners in the NFL.

The Spanos family is certainly hated far more in San Diego than it is in Los Angeles. Then again, fans in Los Angeles probably don’t have a great deal of respect for Dean Spanos either. The saga that led to the Chargers leaving San Diego to become the second NFL team in Los Angeles that doesn’t have the community’s allegiance is part of a long line of poor decision-making by the Spanos family. Dean oversaw the team from 1994-2014 with his son John taking control of day-to-day operations in 2015.

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The franchise has just one AFC Championship Game appearance since 1995 and a lack of investments into scouting, training, the coaching staff and player development has plagued this franchise for years. Fortunately, things do seem to be changing under head coach Jim Harbaugh and his very hiring kept the Spanos family from being even lower on our list.

One problem with NFL franchises being passed down through generations is things can get worse quickly but the reputation from the family’s name is still there. John Mara took control of the New York Giants in 2005. Things started out great, with the Giants winning Super Bowl XLII (2008) and Super Bowl XLVI (2012). In the years since this has been one of the most poorly run NFL teams.

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Since that Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots on Feb. 5, 2012, the Giants have won a single playoff game in the last 13 seasons. Mara has overseen four head-coaching searches, with each of the head coaches he picked lasting less than three years. With New York poised to finish at the bottom of the NFL standings this year, another Giants coaching search is imminent. This once-storied franchise lost the confidence of its fan base years ago and now NFL coaches and executives are taking shots at Mara. It can take decades to build a great reputation, Mara has destroyed it in a few years. Unfortunately, as with many of the worst NFL owners, selling the team isn’t on the table.

The son of Cincinnati Bengals co-founder Paul Brown, a big part of the problem for Mike Brown is how much money is now necessary to run a championship-caliber team. While Browns made the list of the Forbes 400 richest people in America, a large majority of that $3.9 billion net worth is tied to the Bengals’ franchise value ($3.5-plus billion). Not having the money to spend like the most cash-rich teams in football comes with sacrifices.

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The Cincinnati Bengals have one of the smallest scouting departments in the NFL. That impacts both the quality of talent the Bengals front office can retain and the quantity of scouts to work across the country. As a result, Cincinnati scouts a smaller pool of prospects with a majority of their draft picks coming from premier powerhouse Power 4 teams. The lack of financial flexibility also shows up in the team’s issues re-signing their homegrown talent (Jessie Bates) and needing to sell the naming rights to their stadium just to be able to afford the Joe Burrow contract. It also means less money to upgrade the team facilities, with the cafeteria (F-), locker room (D+) and nutritionist (F-) receiving some of the lowest grades in the 2024 NFLPA report card. Unless the team is sold, the issues aren’t going away.

One of the interesting things when a team is passed down a generation is seeing which member of the family gets control of the club. An NFL franchise is worth billions of dollars in a league that is now generating nearly $20 million in revenue annually. Even the worst-run teams can rake in the cash, meaning those who aren’t quite as business-savvy can’t do as much damage financially.

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Former Houston Texans owner Bob McNair had his son Cary take over McNair Industries as CEO and chairman. Meanwhile, son Cal McNair took over as CEO and chairman for the Texans. In 2019, McNair hired former NFL team chaplain and character coach Jack Eastery as vice president of player development. Easterby quickly formed a close bond with McNair, rising to power in the franchise even while many working inside the organization viewed him as a snake oil salesman. Easterby has since left the team and the Texans now have a franchise quarterback, but the team has fallen off after a breakthrough 2023 season.

If we made the list of the worst NFL owners at the beginning of the 2024 season, David Tepper would. be even further down. He was heavily involved in football operations after buying the Carolina Panthers for $2.275 billion in 2018. He hired head coaches and then brought in assistants to undermine the head coach and report directly to him. Reports leaked of Tepper destroying team chemistry and he was volatile in public. He was fined $300,000 after tossing a drink on fans in 2023 and he knocked off a fan’s hat and complained to staff members over a sign criticizing him at a Charlotte bar early in 2024. He also backed out on a deal for a $100 million practice facility in York County, leaving it unfinished.

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However, Tepper seems to have learned from some of his mistakes. He hired a search firm this past offseason to land head coach Dave Canales and the Panthers are now trending in a positive direction. Tepper could become an example of what happens when an NFL owner takes a step back and lets football people run the organization.

Once known as one of the most cash-poor owners in the NFL, Mark Davis has at least changed his own circumstances. Moving the franchise from Oakland to Las Vegas netted him a huge influx of cash, with an NFL franchise in Las Vegas generating some of the highest stadium revenue in the NFL. As reported by Forbes, the Raiders led the NFL in 2022 in ticket sales ($90 million) and non-NFL stadium revenue ($70 million) and they finished with the second-highest revenue in the league ($729 million). Davis also received hundreds of millions of dollars in 2024 by selling minority ownership stakes of the Raiders.

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However, the on-field product hasn’t got any better. The team has failed to achieve a winning record in four-of-five seasons since moving to Las Vegas and the Raiders franchise hasn’t won a playoff game in 21 years. While there’s hope that Davis’s cashing in will lead to more money being put into the roster, the decision-making at the top of the organization is the problem that won’t go away.

On-field results should be the ultimate factor that determines who some of the worst NFL owners are. It’s just one of the many reasons why Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is near the bottom of our list. Haslam officially took over the Browns in August 2012. Over that span, Haslam has had six head coaches, including two one-and-done.

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Haslam also pushed for the Deshaun Watson trade and decided to give Watson a fully guaranteed five-year contract worth $230 million. Both the trade for Watson and the contract extension are widely viewed as two of the worst moves in NFL history. As for Haslam’s investment into the Browns facilities, the 2024 NFLPA report card ranked the team 26th in treatment of families (D-), 30th for the weight room (D), 23rd in team travel (D), locker room accommodations (D+) and nutrition (C+) and 20th for the training room (C+). In short, it’s difficult to find anything good Haslam has done for this franchise.

Shahid Khan bought the Jacksonville Jaguars purchased the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2011 for $770 million, a relative bargain compared to what an NFL franchise costs now. it came after a failed attempt to purchase the Los Angeles Rams, with that proving to have a very impactful outcome on the future of the NFL.

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Khan has since made London the partial home of the Jaguars, playing multiple games at either Tottenham Hotspur Stadium or Wembley Stadium. Since taking over control of the club in 2011, Khan has burned through five head coaches – Mike Mularkey, Gus Bradley, Doug Marrone, Urban Meyer and Doug Pederson – with all of them recording losing records. He’s also been accused of ignoring the club’s on-field performance at times, allowing Pederson to stick around for the entirety of the 2024 NFL season when many thought he should’ve been fired in-season. While there will be a Jaguars coaching change in 2025, Khan’s continued presence suggests more losing seasons – 10 in 13 years – are probably inevitable.

The worst NFL owner has to be the one who has overseen the longest playoff drought in pro sports. Woody Johnson inherited the team from his father, who was the benefactor of the fortune accumulated by Johnson & Johnson founder Robert Wood Johnson I. Woody Johnson purchased the New York Jets for $635 million in 2000 and it’s been one of the worst franchises in pro sports since.

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We’ll certainly highlight the fact that the Jets haven’t recorded a winning season since 2015. On top of that, New York’s last playoff appearance came on January 23, 2011. While Woody does genuinely care about the on-field product, it’s clear he has no idea what he’s doing. From using Madden ratings to influence key decisions on player acquisitions to Johnson, his wife and sons bashing players in the Jets locker room. The Jets are the epitome of dysfunction under Johnson. Unfortunately for the fan base, there’s little hope on the horizon. Woody has long demonstrated he can’t run an NFL franchise competently and assuming Brick Johnson inherits the club down the line, things will be just as bad.