How Every NFL Franchise Performs In Different Playing Conditions

January 31, 2023 12:00 PM PST

With the regular NFL season now at an end, the focus turns to the playoffs and who will be competing in the Super Bowl next month. But which teams have performed best in different playing conditions? To find out, Sports Betting Dime analysed how every team performed in the last three seasons when playing in various conditions such as; playing surface (grass or astroturf) and stadium type (indoor or outdoor).

Data for every team was gathered on each metric with the number of games played, amount of wins, win percentage and points scored per game for each playing condition. The study then ranked each team on each of these variable conditions to determine who performed best for each metric.

Here’s how all 32 NFL franchises performed in every playing condition during the last three seasons…

Playing Surface

All NFL games are either played on astroturf (artificial grass) or standard grass, depending on which stadium the game is being held. In fact, just over half of the 32 franchises now play their home fixtures on artificial turf, meaning the split between grass and astroturf is relatively even over the course of a regular season.

Best on Grass

NFL Best Teams on Grass

The best-performing team playing on a grass surface during the last three seasons was the Kansas City Chiefs, with 34 wins in 41 games and 28.83 points per game (ppg). That gave them an impressive 82.93 win percentage, all of which bodes well for their Super Bowl game on 12th February, which will be played on a grass surface.

Green Bay Packers ranked in second place with an impressive grass record of 29 wins from 38 games, giving them a win percentage of 76.32% and 23.3 points per game, which was slightly less than they scored on an artificial surface, scoring around 2.6 more points per game.

Miami Dolphins placed third, gaining 23 wins from 36 games on a grass surface. The Pittsburgh Steelers were close behind them, also getting 23 wind but from 37 games. Tampa Bay Buccaneers rounded off the top five, again having a similar record to the two franchises above them winning 21 from 34.

Best on Artificial Surfaces

When it came to performances on artificial playing surfaces, Buffalo Bills topped the table with 28 wins from 34 games and a ppg of 29.83. Dallas Cowboys were a close second with 27 wins from 38 games giving them a win percentage of just over 71%.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished third when playing on astroturf winning 11 from 16 games and scoring 25.83 points per game since the 2020 NFL season. Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers completed the top five winning 6 from 9 and 10 from 15 respectively.

At the opposite end of the table, Houston Texans and the Detroit Lions both had win percentages of around 15% with the former winning 5 from 32 and the latter 6 from 38 on an artificial surface since the 2020 season.

Stadium Type

There are 10 indoor/ domed stadiums currently in the NFL, meaning just shy of one-third of teams play in that setting regularly.

Best Indoor/Dome Teams

Two teams have a 100% win ratio when playing indoors – Buffalo Bills and the Tennesse Titans. However, both only played 3 and 4 games indoors over the last three seasons with both playing their home matches in an outdoor setting.

The Dallas Cowboys ranked third, but played significantly more games than the top 2 with 13 played (winning 12) giving them a win percentage of 92.31%. Similarly, this year’s Super Bowl competitor Kansas City Chiefs had an impressive win record of 6 from 7 games over the 3 seasons.

The New York Jets were the only franchise to have a 0% win ratio indoors, but have only played 1 game. The Houston Texans and the Amazon Cardinals had similarly dismal records, each having 2 wins from 12 over the last three years.

Best Outdoor Teams

Kansas City Chiefs came out on top, with an impressive outdoor record of 34 wins from 43 games giving them a 79.09% win percentage and scoring 28.4 points per game in the process. Buffalo Bills were a close second, scoring more points per game with 29.3 (the highest of all franchises, but won 32 out of 43 games, meaning they finished behind the Chiefs.

The Green Bay Packers placed third winning 29 from 40 games and scoring 26.63 points per game on average. San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers rounded off the top five winning 26 from 40 and 24 from 39 games respectively.

The New York Jets again finished bottom of the pile for outdoor games with just 12 wins in 46 attempts. Their points per game tally was the second lowest with 16.7, just ahead of Houston Texans, who placed just above them scoring 16.6 points per game on average.