10 Best NFL Teams of All Time

There are varying opinions as to which aspect of a team is most vital to its success. What is commonly known is that to be considered among the greatest teams to ever play in the NFL, you can’t sail smoothly without a leak in the ship. All the choices below made it through to a championship…except for one.

Here’s the one. And one is a number that can best be associated with the best team to never win a title. These Patriots saved the worst time for their only loss. The New York Giants prevented New England from a perfect regular and postseason by claiming the Super Bowl trophy in a 17-14 upset that ranks at the top.

The Pats put together one of the most dominant offenses of all time — scoring 69.7% more points than the league average. That was bound to happen when you pair the man many say is the greatest quarterback ever, Tom Brady, with one of the greatest wide receivers ever, Randy Moss. The combined forces allowed Brady to set the single-season passing touchdown total and Moss to set the single-season receiving TD mark. The defense, although overshadowed, did its part by allowing 17.1 points per game (fourth-best in the NFL).

But when it mattered most, the offense was relatively absent. New England managed just 14 points against the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, its lowest point total of the year.

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What the Pats couldn’t accomplish, the ’72 Dolphins did. Granted, they had two fewer regular-season games. However, the feat done by Miami and head coach Don Shula can’t be discounted.

Miami was the best in the league in points scored and points against, a very rare accomplishment for any team. All this was done mostly with a backup quarterback. Earl Morrall took over for Bob Griese and kept the ship afloat by winning nine games and being named first-team All-Pro. It helped to have a bruising Hall of Famer in Larry Csonka and a speedster in Mercury Morris carrying the ball. They became the first duo to rush for 1,000 apiece in a single season.

The “No-Name Defense” went without a headline-maker yet had four All-Pros and nine Pro Bowlers. A healthy Griese took over for the playoffs and the Dolphins didn’t miss a beat — even winning on the road in the AFC Championship when home-field advantage had not been established.

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You could make a case this isn’t the best Steelers team. Pittsburgh won four titles in the 70s after four decades of misery. The ’74 and ’75 teams prevailed mainly on strong defense. The teams of ’79 and this one had more balance and utilized the big play on offense.

The “Steel Curtain” defense of Jack Lambert, Joe Greene, Jack Ham, Mel Blount, and others was still the best in the league in points allowed, holding teams to 10 or fewer seven times in the newly expanded 16-game schedule. Terry Bradshaw had emerged as the best quarterback — a polished big-game performer with the best throwing arm around.

Bradshaw had two remarkable receivers who could catch those throws: Lynn Swann and John Stallworth. If he needed to hand it off, there was Franco Harris able to rush for another 1,000 yards. Pittsburgh dominated Denver and Houston in the playoffs before edging Dallas in one of the best Super Bowls.

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Just as the Steelers were the team of the 1970s, the 49ers were the team of the 80s.

San Francisco won its first Super Bowl after the 1981 season behind the brains of head coach Bill Walsh and quarterback Joe Montana, among others. Three years later, Walsh and Montana and company got even better.

The Niners became the first team to ever win 15 games in a regular season and then capped it off with a dismantling of Dan Marino and his potent Miami Dolphins offense. They were efficient in all phases. Montana threw 32 touchdowns and limited his turnovers. The entire team, in fact, had the least amount of giveaways in the sport.

Defensively, San Francisco allowed the fewest points in the league at 227. It was especially talented in the secondary, as all four starting defensive backs — including Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott — made the Pro Bowl.

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Five years after title number two, they were after their fourth of the decade. Bill Walsh retired following a championship-winning 1988 season and the transition from him to George Seifert did not yield any debilitating effects.

One significant change from ’84 to ’89 was the drafting and ascendence of Jerry Rice. In his fifth season, the wide receiver from Mississippi Valley State had emerged as the most unstoppable in the game. Between him, Montana, running back Roger Craig, and a defense that forced more interceptions than touchdowns allowed, no team in the NFL could stop it.

The Denver Broncos certainly couldn’t in Super Bowl XXIV. Montana threw five touchdowns in a 55-10 blowout that remains the largest point total and largest margin of victory in the game’s history.

The Niners were so deep, that they even had a Hall of Famer as a backup. Steve Young started three times and won each of them.

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The 49ers represented a period of dominance for the NFC that lasted into the next decade. Perhaps the best team of that time was the ’85 Bears, who still hold a special place in Chicago as the last champions of a historic franchise. A December 2 loss to Miami was their only blemish.

But they didn’t just resonate with Chicago or the Midwest. This was the team that did the Super Bowl Shuffle music video, had a rebel quarterback in Jim McMahon, and had the game’s all-time rushing leader (for the moment) in Walter Payton.

It also had a legendary defense — the “46” defense as it was called. Chicago forced 54 turnovers and allowed 12.4 points per game behind five Pro Bowlers and three first-team All-Pros. The dominance came to the forefront in the playoffs, shutting out the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams before overwhelming the New England Patriots, 46-10, in Super Bowl XX.

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Learning from their humiliating loss to the Bears, the Giants took the reins as the sport’s biggest bullies. New York’s defense wasn’t quite as powerful, but it did have Lawrence Taylor — the most dominant player on that side of the ball. He was such a game-changer that “LT” was named NFL MVP.

Bill Parcells’ team lost the opener to Dallas and a mid-season contest in Seattle. The combined margin of those losses was just eight points. New York played its best when it mattered. A 49-3 dismantling of the 49ers, a 17-0 win over Washington, and finally a second-half surge that led to a 39-20 Super Bowl XXI triumph over the Denver Broncos.

The MVP of the championship victory was quarterback Phil Simms, who completed 22 of his 25 passes. The 88 percent completion percentage remains a Super Bowl record. The Giants celebrated several wins (including the last one) with the Gatorade bath of Parcells, beginning a tradition that continues today.

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The NFC remained the undisputed top conference into the 1990s. The NFC East proved particularly tough. While the Giants prevailed again in 1990 and the Cowboys were soon to follow with their run of three Super Bowl trophies in four years, Washington regained the title with a season better than any it had in the two previous championship runs.

This Joe Gibbs-led team prevailed thanks to a powerful offensive line known as “The Hogs” which was the anchor on an offense that scored well above league average and had two 1,000-yard receivers. Art Monk was one of them and still didn’t make the Pro Bowl, but six others did. Cornerback Darrell Green was an All-Pro and was quickly becoming one of the best to play his position.

The defense ranked second in points allowed as Washington met little resistance on their way to winning Super Bowl XXVI over Buffalo.

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The predecessors to “The Hogs” were the ’76 Raiders, who had two Hall of Famers leading the charge. Gene Upshaw was at left guard while Art Shell lined up alongside at left tackle. Naturally, quarterback Ken Stabler had his most impressive season in guiding an offense that scored the fourth-most points in the league.

Oakland’s reputation for intimidation coincided with superior play from all sides. The Raiders shook off a week four loss to New England with 10 straight victories to close out the regular season, getting revenge on the Patriots in the Divisional round, crushing the Steelers’ hopes of a third straight title, and taking apart the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI.

Head coach John Madden and the Raiders finally got the ring that had eluded the franchise for more than a decade.

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If we had to choose a team from the pre-Super Bowl era, taking one from the dynasty of the 1960s makes sense. From 1961-67, the Packers and head coach Vince Lombardi won five NFL championships, which briefly overlapped with the initiation of the Super Bowl. While it’s hard to judge greatness before the merger, the way these Packers dominated the rest of the league proves why they are amongst the all-time elite.

The Green Bay defense boasted five Hall of Famers and allowed just 10.8 points per game while pitching three shutouts. The Packers also held opposing QBs to a 43.5 rating. Meanwhile, the offense ran Lombardi’s famed power sweep to perfection with Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, and Jim Taylor. Green Bay’s +267 point differential is the best total of any NFL team in the 1960s.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 12th, 2024 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.