by Rob Toledo Rob Toledo

The NFL preseason, where nobody will be worse than 10-6, a shot at the playoffs seems like a reasonable goal, and a random exciting play by the backup QB can get the most disgruntled fan hyped about the team’s potential for the year.

But outside of the hyped-up “homer” fans, how are each team’s followers feeling about the upcoming 2018-19 NFL season?

We took a sample poll of each team’s fan bases to determine how everyone is feeling about their team’s playoff hopes for the upcoming season. We asked them one simple question:

How likely do you think it is that your team will make the playoffs this season?

  • Yes, we’ll probably make the playoffs
  • No, we’ll probably miss the playoffs

Below you will see the response percentages for each team, from highest to lowest.

Team Responses Yes, we’ll probably make the playoffs No, we’ll probably miss the playoffs
Patriots 156 95% 5%
Steelers 149 90% 10%
Eagles 144 84% 16%
Saints 126 81% 19%
Packers 159 81% 19%
Vikings 118 79% 21%
Rams 118 77% 23%
Jaguars 133 75% 25%
Falcons 148 65% 35%
Panthers 120 60% 40%
49ers 140 59% 41%
Cowboys 171 58% 42%
Titans 154 57% 43%
Chiefs 121 54% 46%
Raiders 137 52% 48%
Seahawks 154 50% 50%
Texans 132 49% 51%
Broncos 139 42% 58%
Chargers 111 41% 59%
Lions 122 41% 59%
Redskins 155 40% 60%
Ravens 119 39% 61%
Buccaneers 120 37% 63%
Cardinals 111 35% 65%
Bengals 116 35% 65%
Colts 115 34% 66%
Bills 125 34% 66%
Giants 143 32% 68%
Bears 129 31% 69%
Jets 140 29% 71%
Browns 132 25% 75%
Dolphins 130 19% 81%

 

Notable findings:

  • Patriot blues – Teams in the AFC East not coached by Bill Belichick seem to be pretty convinced that they won’t make the playoffs. This was by far the biggest discrepancy in a single division, with the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins fans all having pretty negative sentiment toward their own team (even after the Bills made it last year).
  • The Browns are not in last – While they’re not exactly beaming with enthusiasm, following a 0-16 season, some fans seem excited about the current team’s direction, leaving the Dolphins at the bottom of this survey.
  • Seahawks down – We’re based in Seattle, and we try not to bias anything, but two years ago the Seahawks seemed like a sure thing in the NFC West. Now they’re anything but, especially with how the Rams and even the 49ers are playing.
  • The NFC South is up – Such is the nature of the division with the most parity over the last few years. We think it’s the Panthers’ year this year if past trends are any indication of future performance.

Methodology:

  • We polled each team fan base by asking for responses to self-identify with their favorite team
  • The responding person was not shown the question until they identified their favorite team to avoid attempts at gaming the poll
  • Each person was only able to respond once
  • Once the team reached a sample size between 100-150 votes, we removed the team from the poll
  • This poll was conducted in the US only
  • +/- 4% statistical relevance on all responses