Top 9 Best NFL Franchise Moves: Are Chiefs Better Off?

Fresh off consecutive Super Bowl championships, it’s hard to argue that the Kansas City Chiefs are anything but the class of the NFL right now. However, that wasn’t always the case for one of the founding clubs of the old AFL.

While recent times have been kind to the Kansas City Chiefs, it’s hard to paint with that type of broad brush when it comes to the franchise’s 62-season run in the Show Me State, with a 532-439-12 (.541) record in total with four Super Bowl championships in six appearances.

Those stats come after a three-year stretch from 1962 to 1964 when the franchise was located in the heart of Texas and went by the Dallas Texans name in the old AFL when the club posted a record of 25-17 (.595) and won the league championship in 1962.

In the 62 years since the Chiefs moved north, they’ve seen four title teams (1969, 2019, 2023 and 2024) and countless stars pass through the hallowed grounds of Arrowhead Stadium, but that on-field success can’t negate the fact that KC has seen its win percentage drop by .056 since moving, going from .595 in Texas to .539 in K.C. between 1963 and 2024.

BetKansas.com, home to everything Kansas sports betting, wanted to see if the Chiefs move from Dallas would prove to be a positive shift. Using Sports-Reference.com, we found the nine NFL teams that were in the previous city for at least 2 seasons before their relocation into their current city. We then ranked the franchises based on the average win-loss percentage change between the previous city to current city.

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Best NFL Franchise Moves

Rank	Team (Past Home/Name)	Avg. Win-Loss % Change
1	Los Angeles Rams (St. Louis Rams)	.141 up
2	Las Vegas Raiders (Oakland Raiders)	.078 up
3	Tennessee Titans (Houston Oilers)	.055 up
4	Washington Commanders (Boston Redskins)	.031 up
5	Los Angeles Chargers (San Diego Chargers)	.003 up
6	Indianapolis Colts (Baltimore Colts)	.013 down
7	Kansas City Chiefs (Dallas Texans)	.056 down
8	Arizona Cardinals (St. Louis Cardinals)	.074 down
9	Detroit Lions (Portsmouth Spartans)	.187 down

Chiefs Among Least Successful NFL Movers

Of the nine NFL teams that have moved, the Chiefs’ -.056-win percentage in their “new” digs versus where they were before ranks as the third biggest drop-off, ahead of the Arizona (formerly St. Louis) Cardinals, who fell by .074, as well as the Detroit Lions, who saw their win percentage in the Motor City drop .187 from when the club competed as the Portsmouth Spartans.

Leaguewide, the most successful relocating teams were the Los Angeles (formerly St. Louis) Rams, who gained .141 on their collective win percentage figures, followed by the Las Vegas (formerly Oakland) Raiders (+.055), the Tennessee Titans (formerly the Houston Oilers) (+.055), the Washington Commanders (formerly the Boston Redskins) (+.031) and the Los Angeles (formerly San Diego) Chargers (+.003).

Some seven decades and four Super Bowl championships later, it’s hard to argue that the Hunt family made the wrong choice in relocating to Kansas City way back in 1963, though that’s the high bar that NFL franchises have to clear when they move on to new markets, as the Chiefs rank as one of the league’s worst when it comes to on-field success in their new home versus where they stood beforehand.

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USA Today photo by Kirby Lee.

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Author

Christopher Boan

@cgboan

Christopher Boan is a lead writer at BetKansas.com specializing in covering state issues. He covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years.