Same old Giants, different town: Last weekend in New Jersey, the New York Giants beat the Cleveland Browns and are, statistically, the worst team in the NFL. This weekend in New Jersey, the New York Jets beat the Cleveland Browns and are, statistically, the best team in the NFL. Which of these teams is more fun to watch?
Turns out, some. The Giants scored a 17-3 victory over the Browns, and according to the New York Post, they drew the fewest page views among NFL teams during that week:
As of Saturday, Giants fans turned in 993,835 page views, by far the fewest of any team in the NFL, according to data from Visible Measures. The next-most viewed team was the Los Angeles Rams at 1.15 million, followed by the Kansas City Chiefs (843,805), Seattle Seahawks (763,348), Oakland Raiders (761,004), Denver Broncos (702,057), Miami Dolphins (570,238), Philadelphia Eagles (517,116), Denver Broncos (510,153), Green Bay Packers (488,041), and Jacksonville Jaguars (477,826).
Three of the three players who scored touchdowns in Week 1 are still on the team, including …
Johnny Manziel, QB
But when we analyzed the total views for all 35 teams during the 2015 regular season — in April, just before the draft — the Giants had the most viewers, with 3.6 million views to its name. It also ranked ahead of all other teams, with fourth place Steelers ranked as the second-most viewed team, with 2.2 million views. That said, it looked like the Patriots and Steelers were back in the saddle in May — an early May analysis by Forbes estimated that they accounted for more than 16 percent of the NFL’s total viewership. The team that reported the most in each of the six figures was the Dallas Cowboys, but they still came in behind 15 other teams.
All of which brings us to the Jets, who are ranked as the 10th-most viewed team, with only 1.6 million views. Here’s what that looks like compared to the other top NFL sites:
Again, there’s a big drop after the top 20 sites, a trend that seems to mirror a drop in NFL viewership in general. Other than the Steelers and Rams, teams that saw a big drop in viewership last year include the Buccaneers (down 67 percent), Patriots (45 percent), Redskins (38 percent), Bears (37 percent), Steelers (35 percent), Panthers (31 percent), Colts (25 percent), Seahawks (22 percent), Bills (21 percent), Chargers (21 percent), Lions (19 percent), Jets (19 percent), Falcons (18 percent), Giants (17 percent), Bills (16 percent), Chiefs (15 percent), Broncos (13 percent), Packers (11 percent), and Chargers (11 percent).
None of that is an earth-shattering metric, and I don’t think it’s too late to make a case for either team. So we’re here, deciding. What does viewership mean for “attention-getting, self-promoting pleasure machines that are otherworldly performers who can barely do their jobs as a group — and on Sundays, even more so”? Or is “attention-getting” all just a big pile of baloney and “self-promoting pleasure machines” just about everybody they’re playing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.