We’re going to let the data help end the debate and reveal every NFL franchise’s best team over the past 33 years, according to our historical TRACR.
Let’s not waste any time addressing the elephant in the room.
Can a team be the best in franchise history, or in this case, the greatest since the 1991 season if it didn’t win the Super Bowl?
Of course, it’s debatable.
Why? Because this isn’t Major League Baseball or the NBA. There are no seven-game series in the NFL, so even the elite teams – like the undefeated 2007 New England Patriots – can be knocked off in a single-elimination situation.
It’s the reason “on any given Sunday” has become such a popular expression. So it’s important to note that our historic TRACR measures performance over the entirety of the season; we’re not just listing title winners here.
TRACR (Team Rating Adjusted for Competition and Roster) normalizes performance from league environmental factors that can either inflate or deflate its numbers, making it possible to compare teams across eras.
It uses advanced metrics and other factors to calculate how many points per 10 drives better or worse teams are or were compared to the league-average club during a season, including the playoffs. From that output, we’ve created an offensive TRACR (O-TRACR), defensive TRACR (D-TRACR) and overall TRACR. Lower is better for D-TRACR.
Our historical TRACR for the NFL goes back to the 1991 season, so this list won’t include Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers, the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys, the great San Francisco 49ers teams of the 1980s, the ’85 Chicago Bears or the ’86 New York Giants.
We mentioned earlier that our model measures performance over the entirety of the season, but we’ll oblige for a moment below if you’d like to know which title teams are the NFL’s best during the historical TRACR era.
For others, we’re revealing the most dominant NFL seasons for each franchise over the past 33 years. They’re ordered from the best (the highest single-season TRACR) on down.
Jump to a Team
New England Patriots/Green Bay Packers/Baltimore Ravens/Los Angeles Rams/Washington Commanders/San Francisco 49ers/Seattle Seahawks/Dallas Cowboys/Indianapolis Colts/Minnesota Vikings/Kansas City Chiefs/New Orleans Saints/Tampa Bay Buccaneers/Buffalo Bills/Las Vegas Raiders/Pittsburgh Steelers/Denver Broncos/New York Jets/Atlanta Falcons/Carolina Panthers/Los Angeles Chargers/Philadelphia Eagles/Chicago Bears/Jacksonville Jaguars/Tennessee Titans/New York Giants/Cincinnati Bengals/Detroit Lions/Houston Texans/Arizona Cardinals/Miami Dolphins/Cleveland Browns
2007 New England Patriots (20.6 TRACR)
We mentioned earlier that not every team that finished with an elite TRACR during this span won the Super Bowl. And that includes the dominant 2007 Patriots that had top TRACR recorded since 1991. With Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Wes Welker leading the way, New England made history with a 16-0 regular season but were stunned by Eli Manning and the New York Giants 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Arizona.
1996 Green Bay Packers (16.5)
At the height of Brett Favre’s greatness, the Packers shook off back-to-back losses at Kansas City and Dallas in November of 1996 to win their last eight games by an average of 21.2 points. Favre, who won his second NFL MVP in ’96, threw for 246 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-21 win over the Patriots. It marked Green Bay’s first title since Super Bowl II in 1968. Among Super Bowl winners, these Packers finished with the highest TRACR of the past 33 years.
2019 Baltimore Ravens (15.4)
It’s safe to say the Ravens soared into the playoffs in 2019. After a 2-2 start, they won 12 in a row – including eight by double digits – behind NFL MVP Lamar Jackson. But a team that seemed destined for a run to the Super Bowl after one of the most impressive regular seasons the NFL has seen over this time frame suffered a stunning 28-12 loss to Derrick Henry and the Tennessee Titans in the AFC divisional round. Henry ran for 195 yards and Jackson threw for 365 yards and a touchdown but also had two interceptions in Baltimore’s first loss in more than three months. Despite the disappointing finish, the 2019 Ravens ended up ranking as one of the best in TRACR over this period.
2001 St. Louis Rams (15.3)
Of course, one of the “Greatest Show on Turf” teams had to rank pretty high on the list. Led by Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce, the 2001 Rams went a league-best 14-2 and have the 11th-best O-TRACR since 1991. The offense was so good that the Associated Press named Warner the MVP, while Faulk won the MVP vote from the Pro Football Writers of America. But in something of a coming out party for the great Bill Belichick, the Patriots devised a plan to slow the Rams in a 20-17 upset win in Super Bowl XXXVI.
1991 Washington (14.6)
Washington, which has had three different names during this time, had some great teams in the 1980s, including a pair of Super Bowl winners. But it probably doesn’t make the now Commanders fans feel good that the franchise’s best team since 1991 played… in 1991. Washington went 14-2 and cruised to three straight double-digit playoff wins, capped with a 37-24 win over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI in Minneapolis. Mark Rypien threw for 292 yards and two touchdowns on the way to winning the game’s MVP honors and Gary Clark and Art Monk both finished with over 100 receiving yards.
1994 San Francisco 49ers (13.3)
The 49ers had some legendary players like Joe Montana and Jerry Rice in the ’80s and their success carried into the ’90s after Steve Young replaced Montana. And the Young era reached its peak in 1994 when the team went 13-3 in the regular season with Rice, Ricky Watters, Brent Jones and John Taylor also playing key roles for an offense that posted the ninth-highest O-TRACR of the past 33 years. San Francisco put up 44, 38 and 49 points in the postseason on the way to the franchise’s fifth title. Young won his only Super Bowl MVP after throwing for 335 yards and a record six TDs.
2013 Seattle Seahawks (13.3)
Behind their “Legion of Boom” defense, Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch, the Seahawks reached back-to-back Super Bowls at the end of the 2013 and 2014 seasons. The data shows the run to the franchise’s first championship was the more impressive campaign, ranking 10th in TRACR since 1991. The team’s dominant defense shows out in the rankings as well with the fourth-best D-TRACR over this span behind only the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2000 Baltimore Ravens and 2015 Denver Broncos.
1992 Dallas Cowboys (13.0)
When you think about NFL in the 1990s, the NFC rivalry between the Cowboys, 49ers and Packers with Pat Summerall and John Madden on the call probably comes to mind. The Cowboys were dominant in the early part of the decade with Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin leading the way offensively. Dallas won consecutive titles in Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII, but it was the team’s 1992 season that proved to be its best. The Cowboys went 13-3 and won their three playoff games by at least 10 points, including a 52-17 victory over the AFC champion Bills. That’s still tied for the third-largest rout in Super Bowl history. Aikman threw for four touchdowns to take home the MVP.
2007 Indianapolis Colts (13.0)
Peyton Manning and Tom Brady took part in a great rivalry during the 2000s, with Manning and the Colts finally breaking through with their first Super Bowl title at the end of the 2006 season. But it was the following 2007 campaign that had the highest TRACR of this 33-year stretch. Manning threw for 4,000 yards, Joseph Addai ran for 1,000 yards and Reggie Wayne had 1,500 yards receiving in a 13-3 season. Indianapolis, however, fell short of its bid to repeat in a 28-24 loss to the Philip Rivers-led San Diego Chargers in the AFC divisional round.
1998 Minnesota Vikings (12.5)
You know the story. Randall Cunningham. Cris Carter. Randy Moss. John Randle. Seemingly unstoppable. But the Vikings suffered what remains one of the most devastating losses in franchise history while becoming the first team in NFL history to finish the regular season 15-1 and not win the Super Bowl. Gary Anderson, who was the first kicker in league history to convert every field goal and extra point in a season, missed a potential clincher and Atlanta marched down for a touchdown to tie the game before finishing off the upset in overtime.
2019 Kansas City Chiefs (12.3)
With four Super Bowl appearances in the past five seasons, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have been the kings of the NFL in recent years. At the end of the 2023 season, they became the first team since the 2003 and 2004 Patriots to win back-to-back titles. However, Kansas City’s first championship season of this dynasty was its greatest, according to the data. Mahomes finished with 4,030 passing yards and a career-low five interceptions in 14 games and Travis Kelce had 97 receptions for 1,229 yards as the Chiefs won their last nine games after a 6-4 start. Mahomes won the first of his three Super Bowl MVPs as KC rallied past San Francisco 31-20 in Miami.
2009 New Orleans Saints (12.0)
At 13-0 heading into Week 14 of the 2009 season, it may not have been a surprise that the Saints ended up winning the Super Bowl. But it was what occurred along the way that made the season quite remarkable. New Orleans lost its final three games of the regular season, had to pick off a Brett Favre pass to force overtime in the NFC championship game and then used a surprise onside kick to open the second half to key a 31-17 win over Peyton Manning and the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. Drew Brees tied a Super Bowl record with 32 completions for 288 yards and two touchdowns and was named the game’s MVP.
2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (12.0)
Tampa Bay’s first season in the NFC South was one to remember. After falling short in three straight playoff appearances in their final three seasons in the NFC Central, the Buccaneers went 12-4 and finally got past the Eagles 27-10 in the conference championship game after losing to Philadelphia by a combined 52-12 margin the previous two postseasons. 2002 was Jon Gruden’s first season in Tampa after taking over for Tony Dungy, but Dungy’s defensive influence remained. So did Derrick Brooks, Ronde Barber, John Lynch, Warren Sapp and Co., which held opponents to 10 points or less 11 times and ranks No. 1 in D-TRACR over the past 33 years.
2021 Buffalo Bills (11.9)
The Bills won the AFC championship in 1991, 1992 and 1993 (and 1990), but believe it or not, it was the 2021 team that ranks No. 1 for the franchise and 18th overall during the historical TRACR era. Buffalo finished a hardly spectacular 11-6 during the regular season, but five of those losses were by seven points or less and the team’s plus-218 point differential was its largest of this era. In fact, it’s the 20th-best point differential for any team over the past 33 years. After stomping the Patriots 47-17 in the wild-card round, the Bills went toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs before finally running out of gas in a 42-36 overtime loss that is considered one of the most memorable playoff games of all time.
1997 Denver Broncos (11.6)
Though the Broncos had Peyton Manning and the third-best defense of this span (per TRACR) during their 2015 run to the Super Bowl title, it was the ’97 team that featured John Elway, Terrell Davis, Shannon Sharpe, Steve Atwater and Bill Romanowski that was the franchise’s best. Denver, which finished 12-4 in the regular season, knocked off Brett Favre and the Packers 31-24 behind Davis’ 157 yards rushing and three touchdowns for its first championship. Second on this list was the ’98 team that went 14-2 and crushed the Atlanta Falcons to become the second franchise to win consecutive titles in the ’90s.
2000 Oakland Raiders (11.5)
Over the time period we’ve laid out, the Raiders have only made the playoffs seven times and only won 12 or more games twice. They did reach the Super Bowl behind NFL MVP Rich Gannon at the end of the 2002 season before losing 48-21 to former coach Jon Gruden and the Buccaneers, but it was the 2000 team that was the franchise’s best during this time. That club finished 12-4 and reached the AFC title game before falling 16-3 against a Ray Lewis-led Ravens defense that ranks second in D-TRACR over the past 33 years.
2005 Pittsburgh Steelers (11.3)
There’s a lot to choose from in Pittsburgh. The Steelers have won two Super Bowls and only suffered four losing seasons during the historical TRACR era. They posted their best record in 2004, finishing 15-1 before losing 41-27 to Tom Brady and the Patriots in the AFC championship game. However, it was the 2005 team that beat the Seahawks 21-10 in Super Bowl XL in Detroit that tops the list. With Ben Roethlisberger in the captain’s chair, Pittsburgh rattled off eight straight victories after a three-game skid dropped it to 7-5 heading into Week 14.
1998 New York Jets (10.3)
Great defenses helped the Jets reach back-to-back conference championship games in 2009 and 2010, but the 1998 team coached by Bill Parcells with Vinny Testaverde, Curtis Martin, Wayne Chrebet and Keyshawn Johnson on offense bettered those squads by finishing with a franchise-best 12-4 record before falling to John Elway and Denver in the AFC title game.
2016 Atlanta Falcons (10.1)
It’s likely still difficult for Falcons fans to swallow. The 2016 Falcons won the NFC South. Matt Ryan won league MVP. Impressive double-digit playoff wins over Seattle and Green Bay. A 28-9 lead over Tom Brady and the Patriots heading into the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LI in Houston. The rest, as they say, is history. It might be no consolation, and probably makes it worse, but it ranks as the franchise’s best team of the past 33 years.
2015 Carolina Panthers (9.7)
He could run. He could pass. He could win MVP… and lead the Panthers to the Super Bowl. At the peak of the Cam Newton era, Carolina opened the 2015 season with 14 consecutive victories before finishing with the best record in franchise history (which started in 1995) at 15-1. The Panthers went on to beat Seattle and Arizona in the playoffs before falling short to Peyton Manning’s Broncos in Super Bowl 50. Newton, however, was the league’s biggest star that season, throwing for a career-high 35 touchdowns and adding another 636 yards and 10 scores on the ground.
2006 San Diego Chargers (9.6)
The two seasons with the most wins in franchise history both ended in disaster during the LaDainian Tomlinson-Philip Rivers-Antonio Gates era. Tomlinson rushed for career highs with 1,815 yards and 28 touchdowns in 2006, leading the then-San Diego Chargers to a franchise-best 14-2 record. The team rolled into the playoffs with a 10-game winning streak before – stop us if you’re heard this before – Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots pulled off a 24-21 win in the AFC divisional round. Three years later, the Chargers went 13-3 before suffering another stunning defeat – 17-14 to the Jets – in the 2009 divisional round. Where is the 1994 team that reached the Super Bowl? Surprisingly, not that high – only the franchise’s 11th-best TRACR since 1991.
2017 Philadelphia Eagles (9.3)
There haven’t been many teams that could get past Tom Brady and the Patriots during this time frame, including the Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid-led 2004 Eagles that lost 24-21 to New England in Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville. However, in 2007, Nick Foles and the Eagles outdueled Brady and the Patriots 41-33 in Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis. Foles put together the performance of his life, throwing for 373 yards and three TDs on the way to being named the game’s MVP.
2006 Chicago Bears (7.8)
Your first thought is likely, “Where are the ’85 Bears?!” But remember, we’re only looking at the best teams during the historical TRACR era. That removes some of the franchise’s glory days under George Halas in the ’40s and Mike Ditka in the ’80s. But the franchise enjoyed some success under Lovie Smith earlier this century with only two losing seasons over a seven-year span. In 2006, the Bears went 13-3 and marched all the way to the Super Bowl in typical Chicago fashion – with an elite defense led by linebacker Brian Urlacher. The Bears lost to Peyton Manning and Colts on a rainy night in Miami, but they were who we thought they were.
1999 Jacksonville Jaguars (7.6)
It’s fair to wonder about the NFL’s expansion process when the Jaguars and Panthers entered the league in 1995. In the team’s first five seasons, Jacksonville reached the conference championship game and won 11 or more games three times. The Panthers also reached the conference championship game in its second season in 1996. But Jacksonville’s best season to date remains the 1999 campaign when it finished a franchise-best 14-2 and blasted the Dolphins 62-7 in Dan Marino’s last game before losing 33-14 to the Tennessee Titans in the AFC title game. Mark Brunell’s offense featured a pair of strong running backs in James Stewart and Fred Taylor and receivers in Jimmy Smith and Keenan McCardell.
2008 Tennessee Titans (7.3)
The Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans have finished a franchise-best 13-3 three times. The first time came in 1999 when Steve McNair and Eddie George led them to the Super Bowl, the second occasion was the following year and the third in 2008. With an offense that included Kerry Collins and Chris Johnson and a defense that had Jevon Kearse, Albert Haynesworth and Cortland Finnegan, Tennessee earned the No. 1 seed with an NFL-best 13 wins in that 2008 campaign. The Titans, though, stumbled down the stretch after a 10-0 start and lost 13-10 to the Ravens in the divisional round.
2022 Cincinnati Bengals (7.2)
Cincinnati was just 7-6 in 2021 before winning six of seven during an improbable run to the Super Bowl. So it shouldn’t be that surprising that those AFC champions are not the franchise’s best team of the past 33 years. But the following year, with high expectations, the Bengals went 12-4 after a 4-4 start to win back-to-back division titles for the first time in franchise history. Joe Burrow, who threw for 4,474 and a career-high 35 touchdowns, had the Bengals on the verge of beating Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs for the second straight postseason before Harrison Butker’s field goal with 3 seconds left gave KC a 23-20 win in the AFC title game.
2008 New York Giants (7.2)
The historical TRACR era begins just after the franchise’s 20-19 win over the Bills in Super Bowl XXV, but the Giants have had two legendary upset victories over Tom Brady and the Patriots over this span. Of course, we said upsets. So it should make some sense that the 2007 and 2011 champions, who finished 10-6 and 9-7, respectively, during the regular season, do not top this list. Instead, it’s the 2008 team that’s easily No. 1. Those Giants were 11-1 before losing four of its last five games, including a 23-11 defeat against the Eagles in the divisional round. In case you’re wondering, the 2000 team that lost to the Ravens in the Super Bowl ranks third (4.2).
2011 Detroit Lions (7.1)
In 2023, the Lions won their first division title since 1993 and won their first playoff game since 1991. However, that team ranks third (4.1) when it comes to the franchise’s best during the historical TRACR era. The Barry Sanders-led 1995 Lions (5.5) that included Herman Moore and Brett Perriman won their last seven games to finish 10-6 before falling 58-37 to the Eagles in the wild-card round. But easily the No. 1 Detroit team was the 2011 Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson squad (7.1) that also went 10-6 but lost to the Saints in an NFC wild-card game.
2015 Arizona Cardinals (6.9)
Like Kurt Warner before him, Carson Palmer seemed to be nearing the end of his career before finding new life with the Cardinals. Palmer, the 2015 Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year, threw for career highs of 4,671 yards and 35 TDs and Larry Fitzgerald had 109 catches for 1,215 yards and nine scores for the 13-3 Cardinals. Warner guided the franchise to a Super Bowl appearance (2008) and back-to-back division titles (2008, 2009) for the first time since the St. Louis Cardinals did it in the ’70s. However, those teams rank behind that 2015 club.
2011 Houston Texans (5.5)
Unlike the Panthers and Jaguars, the Texans certainly weren’t gifted success after being added as a franchise in 2002. They only had one winning season in their first nine years and didn’t win a division title until 2011 when Matt Schaub and T.J. Yates quarterbacked them in a 10-6 finish. Of course, the team also had Arian Foster, Andre Johnson and a rookie named J.J. Watt. Houston went 12-4 to win the AFC South again a year later, but it finished with just a 3.4 TRACR to rank a distant second behind the 2011 club.
2003 Miami Dolphins (5.2)
Perhaps this says something about the state of the Dolphins during the historical TRACR era. They’ve only reached the conference championship game once – and that was all the way back in 1992. And since 2002, they’ve only made the playoffs four times – losing all of them. Surprisingly, the franchise’s best TRACR since 1991 came in a season where the team didn’t make the playoffs. In 2003, Ricky Williams had a big season, and Miami had some big names on defense (Zach Thomas, Junior Seau, Adewale Ogunleye, Jason Taylor, Patrick Surtain, Brock Marion) but it lacked at the quarterback position between Jay Fielder and Brian Griese. The Dolphins finished 10-6, but missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker to the Broncos.
1994 Cleveland Browns (5.0)
Obviously, it’s been a rough go for Browns fans over the past several decades. They had those heartbreaking conference championship game losses to the Broncos in the 1980s, and lost their team when the first version of the Browns moved to Baltimore in 1996. Since the team returned in 1999, the Browns have only taken part in the postseason three times (2002, 2020, 2023). But Cleveland’s best team of the historical TRACR era was the 1994 team that went 11-5 and lost 29-9 to the Steelers in the divisional round.
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