My NFL franchise ranking is now in its third year, despite the tardiness this season. So if you’ve read the 2013 or 2014 editions, you know what to expect here.

Also, be sure to check out all my other great sports lists as well!

The Criteria

The categories and point values are as follows:

• 25 points for a championship game/Super Bowl win, 15 points for a championship game/Super Bowl loss (starting in 1932).
• 5 points for a season with a playoff appearance (starting in 1967), and 8 points for a season with a playoff win.
• 1 point for a winning regular-season record, -1 point for a losing regular-season record.
• 3 points for any year with a regular-season winning percentage of at least .750, -3 points for a regular-season winning percentage of .250 or less.
• Consecutive winning regular seasons are worth 2 points starting with the second, 3 points for the third, 4 points for the fourth, and so on. The counter is reset after any non-winning season. So if a team has three winning seasons in a row, they get a total of 5 points.
• I apply a unique multiplier to a franchise’s all-time winning percentage, such that anything below .500 essentially incurs a penalty.

Feel free to share your thoughts on my rankings in the comments below. And as I did last year, I must give credit to two sites that helped form the basis of my own formulations — Bob’s Blog and Page 2.

All rankings are current through the end of the 2014 NFL season. Last year’s ranking in parentheses.

The Top 10

#1.  Dallas Cowboys (#1) — 15.26 avg.

#2. Baltimore Ravens (#2) — 11.93 avg.

#3. Green Bay Packers (#4) — 10.78 avg.

#4. Oakland Raiders (#3) — 10.67 avg.

#5. New England Patriots (#6) — 10.58 avg.

#6. San Francisco 49ers (#5) — 9.63 avg.

#7. Miami Dolphins (#7) — 8.94 avg.

#8. Indianapolis Colts (#10) — 8.28 avg.

#9. Chicago Bears (#9) — 8.04 avg.

#10. Minnesota Vikings (#8) — 8.00 avg.

The big gainer this year is Indy, which jumps ahead of the Bears and Vikings to claim the #8 spot, thanks to a great run to the AFC Championship.

More than a decade of futility is taking its toll on the Raiders, who have slipped to #4 behind the Packers. Same for the 49ers, who now enter a great period of uncertainty following Jim Harbaugh’s departure.

The Mediocre 12

#11. New York Giants (#11) — 7.87 avg.

#12. Denver Broncos (#13) — 7.22 avg.

#13. Cleveland Browns (#12) — 7.16 avg.

#14. Pittsburgh Steelers (#14) — 7.06 avg.

#15. Washington Redskins (#15) — 5.91 avg.

#16. Kansas City Chiefs (#17) — 5.88 avg.

#17. St. Louis Rams (#16) — 5.82 avg.

#18. Seattle Seahawks (#20) — 5.78 avg.

#19. San Diego Chargers (#18) — 5.34 avg.

#20. Tennessee Titans (#19) — 5.02 avg.

#21. Buffalo Bills (#21) — 4.62 avg.

#22. Philadelphia Eagles (#22) — 4.36 avg.

Lots of jostling in this group, mainly between teams moving by just tenths of a point. The Browns, Rams, Chargers, and Titans all moved down a spot while the Broncos, Chiefs, and Seahawks all moved up. Seattle jumped two spots and is up four altogether over the last few years.

The Bottom 10

#23. Carolina Panthers (#26) — 2.90 avg.

#24. New York Jets (#23) — 2.73 avg.

#25. Detroit Lions (#25) — 2.65 avg.

#26. Jacksonville Jaguars (#23) — 2.13 avg.

#27. Cincinnati Bengals (#27) — 1.79 avg.

#28. Atlanta Falcons (#28) — 1.33 avg.

#29. New Orleans Saints (#29) — 1.32 avg.

#30. Arizona Cardinals (#31) — 0.61 avg.

#31. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (#30) — 0.48 avg.

#32. Houston Texans (#32) — -1.13 avg.

For winning their division (despite a losing record) and winning a playoff game the Panthers are rewarded by moving up three spots in the bottom tier. They’re not an imminent threat to crack into the next group, however, as they trail the Eagles by almost a point and a half.

The Texans finished with a winning record and almost made the playoffs, but are still the only franchise on this list with a negative per-year point average.