NFL’s Greatest Teams During Superbowl Era

[cincy]

I previously started a thread titled “1985 Bears More Dominant than 2007 Patriots” but it was really about ranking the Superbowl champions based on the most dominant single season performances.

I expressed how I really don’t like the term greatest team or best team because it is too subjective for me. For example, does the greatest team need to have multiple championships? If so, how many championships in how many years? And what does greatest team mean? Does this mean the most dominant team over multiple seasons, the team with the most talented players or is this the team that plays best together as a unit and achieves performance that exceeds the individual talent levels.

So why the hell am I starting a thread titled NFL’s Greatest Teams when I don’t even like that term. I guess it is because I have trouble rationalizing the Bears as the greatest team when they only won one championship (during the Superbowl era). So now I will attempt to rank the teams based on a longer timeline and see what we get.

Let’s start with a 2 year period. There were 8 teams that won back to back championships. I will include a chart below based on my ranking order. I will not include all the columns that are used to develop the ranking order because it will be too confusing without the column separators.

1. Team
2. 1st Championship Season
3. 2nd Championship Season
4. Regular Season Win %
5. Regular Season Point Dif
6. Playoff Point Dif

MIA 1972 1973 93% 14.5 11.5
PIT 1978 1979 81% 9.8 17.0
DEN 1997 1998 81% 11.8 14.6
DAL 1992 1993 78% 9.8 18.8
SF 1988 1989 75% 8.3 25.7
GB 1966 1967 77% 10.5 15.2
PIT 1974 1975 80% 11.7 11.2
NE 2003 2004 88% 9.0 8.3

As you can see, I rank the 1972-1973 Dolphins as the top team based on a 2 year period with the 1978-1979 Steelers 2nd. It is interesting how the 49ers had the worst regular season performance but then destroyed everyone in the playoffs.

[cincy]

Now I will include my rankings for a 3 year period. No team has won 3 straight championships so this includes all the teams that won 2 championships over a 3 year period. The column titled playoff advancement ranks the teams based on how they did the season they did not win the championship. The Dolphins were the only team to win 2 championships and make it to the Superbowl the other year so they have a 1 ranking for playoff advancement. Three other teams won 2 championships and made it to the conference championship the other season so they have the next best ranking.

1. Team
2. 1st Season
3. 3rd Season
4. Regular Season Win %
5. Regular Season Point Dif
6. Playoff Advancement Ranking (1=Best)

MIA 1971 1973 86.9% 13.0 1
PIT 1974 1976 77.4% 12.6 3
MIA 1972 1974 88.1% 12.3 8.5
DEN 1996 1998 81.3% 10.3 8.5
SF 1988 1990 79.2% 7.9 3
DAL 1992 1994 77.1% 10.0 3
PIT 1973 1975 77.4% 11.0 8.5
SF 1987 1989 78.7% 10.0 8.5
DAL 1993 1995 77.1% 9.5 8.5
NE 2003 2005 79.2% 6.8 8.5
PIT 1977 1979 76.1% 7.7 8.5
DAL 1991 1993 75.0% 7.2 8.5
NE 2002 2004 77.1% 6.7 15
GB 1966 1968 66.7% 8.3 15
PIT 1978 1980 72.9% 7.4 15
DEN 1997 1999 66.7% 7.8 15
NE 2001 2003 70.8% 5.1 15

As you can see, I rank the 1971-1973 Dolphins as the top team based on a 3 year period with the 1974-1976 Steelers 2nd.

[cincy]

Now I will include my rankings for a 4 year period. This includes all the teams that won at least 2 championships and reached the conference final in another year over a 4 year period. The column titled playoff advancement ranks the teams on how they did in the playoffs based first on Superbowl championships then conference championships then divisional playoff championships, etc.

1. Team
2. 1st Season
3. 4th Season
4. Number of Championships
5. Regular Season Win %
6. Regular Season Point Dif
7. Playoff Advancement Ranking (1=Best)

DAL 1992 1995 3 76.6% 9.7 1
NE 2001 2004 3 75.0% 6.6 2
MIA 1971 1974 2 84.8% 11.8 3.5
MIA 1970 1973 2 83.0% 11.0 3.5
NE 2004 2007 2 81.3% 10.6 8
PIT 1972 1975 2 77.7% 11.3 8
PIT 1973 1976 2 75.9% 11.9 8
SF 1987 1990 2 81.0% 9.3 8
NE 2003 2006 2 78.1% 7.4 8
PIT 1976 1979 2 75.0% 9.3 8
DAL 1991 1994 2 75.0% 8.0 8
SF 1988 1991 2 75.0% 8.3 12

Note: Table assumes NE wins the upcoming Superbowl but they can simply be deleted if the NYG win

Only 2 teams won 3 championships over a 4 year period so I think these teams need to be at the top even though their regular season performance was not as strong as some other teams. As you can see, I rank the 1992-1995 Cowboys 1st, the 2001 to 2004 Patriots 2nd and the 1971 to 1974 Dolphins 3rd based on a 4 year period.

[cincy]

It is too time consuming for me to continue the math for longer time periods but if anyone knows a website where I can query a database for best team performances over a specified time period please let me know about it. The easiest way for me to look at a longer time period is to just consider how long it took teams to win 4 or 5 championships. The results are below:

4 Championships:
PIT only teams to win 4 championships in 6 years
NE 4 championships in 7 years if beat NYG
SF 4 championships in 9 years
DAL 4 championships in 19 years

5 Championships:
SF only teams to win 5 championships in 14 years
DAL 5 championships in 25 years
PIT 5 championships in 32 years
Note: NE has an opportunity to top the chart with a few more championships

[cincy]

So here are my conclusions:

Most Dominant Team for one season: 1985 Bears followed by 1989 49ers

Best Team over a short time period: 1971-73 Dolphins followed by 1974-76 Steelers

Greatest Team over a moderate time period: Cowboys of early/mid 1990s, Steelers of mid/late 1970s, Patriots of 2000s

Greatest Franchises during the Superbowl era: Cowboys, Steelers and 49ers

The Patriots certainly have an opportunity to take over the bottom 3 categories if they can capture a few more championships in the next few years. However, I think it will be tough for them to have a complete season (regular season and playoffs) as dominant as the 1985 Bears.

[SHAWN GOTTI]

STEELERS

PATS COULDNT SCORE AGAINST THE STEEL CURTAIN!!!