The Best NFL Team Ever

Brady’s Patriots? Lombardi’s Packers? What is the best NFL team ever? It’s a question that has caused arguments between best friends and family members for decades, but what is the answer? Join us as we breakdown the greatest football teams of all time.

The greatest NFL teams of all time stand out thanks to single season performance in some cases, while others top the list thanks to historical performance of the franchise. Subjectivity aside, let’s examine the maths, stats, and records to find the best football teams of all time.

• Which Team had the Best NFL Season in History?
• What Franchise is the Greatest of All Time?
• Our Final Answer on the Best Team Ever

The Greatest NFL Teams of All Time

When it comes to single season performance, there are many teams in with a shout of being considered the best team in NFL history. In the pre-Super Bowl era, Vince Lombardi’s 1962 Green Bay Packers stand out, with a 13-1 record and an almost impossible point differential of +267.

Running back Walter Payton led the 1985 Chicago Bears to a 15-1 record and a Super Bowl win, putting that team in with a definite shout of being the best of all time and sports betting fans’ favourite at the 1985 Super Bowl.

Despite losing two games, the defensive juggernaut that was the 1991 Washington Redskins are still considered one of the best ever. The eventual Super Bowl champs had no clear stars, but they won by committee, and did so with style, shutting out three of the first five teams they faced while scoring more than 100 combined points against them.

Another team constantly on the top five lists of journalists and fans alike is the 1989 San Francisco 49ers, a team that won the Super Bowl while outscoring their playoff opponents by a combined 100 points. However, ask most unbiased NFL fans, and they’ll tell you it’s either the 1962 Packers, or one of two other teams:

The Undefeated Two

While all the names mentioned so far could be the best NFL team ever, there are two that stand out. That’s because these are the only teams to have gone undefeated across an entire NFL regular season. The 1972 Miami Dolphins and the 2007 New England Patriots.

The Miami Dolphins went 14-0 in the 1972 season and went on to win the Super Bowl, making this the only perfect season in NFL history. The 2007 Patriots, on the other hand, went 16-0 in the 2007 regular season behind an incredible season from quarterback Tom Brady. But, New England were eliminated by the Giants in a shock upset in the AFL Championship game.

The Dolphins are considered by many to have had a relatively easy season, which is why, despite the lack of a Super Bowl ring, many consider Brady’s 2007 New England Patriots to be the best team in NFL history across a single season.

The Greatest NFL Franchise of All Time

While single season performance is one thing, for a true measure of success, most will look at what a team has done across the decades since its inception. With a number of storied franchises in the NFL, what franchises can be considered among the best football teams of all time?

The Most Super Bowl Wins

One way we could consider the greatest football teams of all time is the number of Super Bowls they have won, and perhaps how many they have appeared in, too. The Patriots and Steelers both top this list with six Super Bowl wins to their name.

However, the Patriots, a constant favorite for bettors at best online gambling sites in the US lead all others in one category. New England is the only team with double digit Super Bowl appearances.

Best NFL Win/Loss Record

Maybe the all-time best team is not distinguished by Super Bowl appearances, but by performance across its history. For this, we could consider the team with the best all-time regular season record as the best NFL team ever.

There are caveats though, for example Dallas has the best win percentage, as shown in the table below, but the franchise is nearly 40 years younger than second place Green Bay. Then again, teams in the 20s arguably faced weaker competition, so perhaps it is Baltimore, born in 1996 and having the third best regular season win percentage, that should take the top spot.

Our Final Answer

Truth be told, there is no definitive way to state which team is the best franchise of all-time. The Athletic’s Bob Sturm has a complex formula that he believes puts the Pittsburgh Steelers as the greatest NFL team of all time, in front of the Patriots, Cowboys, and 49ers, respectively.

However, one look at Sturm’s Twitter feed makes it clear many do not see this system as comprehensive. There is far too much subjective opinion to come up with a firm answer, so the question of what NFL franchise is the best of all time will continue to be discussed in offices, bars, barbers and more, for as long as there is professional football.