SI.com ranked the NFL teams from this decade today and put the Giants at five and the Jets at 15.
The Patriots deservedly led the pack with their three Super Bowl titles. Here is how the rankings were determined:
“Using six categories as a barometer got the job done in most cases. I went with regular-season winning percentage, playoff wins/record, playoff seasons, winning seasons, losing seasons, and Super Bowl appearances/wins. We’ll see how much 2009 might serve to re-frame the debate. But for now, let the NFL team-of-the-decade discussion and disagreement begin.” The Giants ended up at the five spot with two Super Bowl appearance, which included their stunning 2008 Super Bowl win over undefeated New England. In the first nine seasons of this decade the Giants put together an 80-64 and four other playoff appearances besides the two Super Bowl years. Big Blue edged out the Ravens, who dominated the Giants in the 2001 Super Bowl, to end up in the top five.
“The Giants present us with our first real judgment call, because No. 6 Baltimore owns three more regular-season wins, not to mention that Super Bowl XXXV lambasting of New York in January 2001. But we’re giving a slight nod to the Giants based on their two Super Bowl trips this decade, and that monumental upset of New England two years ago. New York also has one more playoff season than the Ravens (six to five), albeit one of them was of the cheapie, 8-8 variety.”
The Jets have no Super Bowl appearances this decade, but did go to the playoffs four times, which made them the second-to-last team in the top half of SI’s rankings. Their best chance at a Super Bowl title came in the 2003-’04 season when Gang Green was a Doug Brien field goal away from advancing to the AFC Championship game. Brien had two cracks in the final two minutes to eliminate the 15-1 Steelers, but missed from 47 and 43 yards. The Jets’ other run to the Divisional Round came the season before when they were beaten 30-10 by the Raiders.
The Jets enter this season at 71-73 through the first nine seasons of this decade.
“The Jets crack the top half of our rankings because they’ve somehow scratched and fought their way to six winning seasons and four playoff trips in the first nine years of the decade. Having just three losing seasons should count for something, even though when it’s bad, New York has a tendency to be very bad (three double-digit loss seasons).”
