Ranking the dynasties

**MarkS** · 05-13-2020, 01:03 AM

Sooo, interesting site. But I have one HUGE gripe: Apologies to any Vikings, Rams or Bills fans, but there is no way in hell any team should ever be called a "dynasty" without winning even one single championship.

**Rygar64** · 05-13-2020, 01:19 AM

Originally Posted by darb72

Us and Chiefs because we have the best two QB's in the league and both are real young.

If the Ravens and Chiefs can get 10+ year careers and multiple titles out of the two of them that would be phenomenal and the NFL would be forever grateful...they are already calling this year's matchup the Game of the Year.

**seraph** · 05-13-2020, 01:58 AM

Originally Posted by MarkS

Sooo, interesting site. But I have one HUGE gripe: Apologies to any Vikings, Rams or Bills fans, but there is no way in hell any team should ever be called a "dynasty" without winning even one single championship.

If you win a Super Bowl championship and then go last place the following season and then stay mediocre with mostly the same team and coaching regime you shouldn't be considered a dynasty either.

**darb72** · 05-13-2020, 04:48 AM

Originally Posted by MarkS

Sooo, interesting site. But I have one HUGE gripe: Apologies to any Vikings, Rams or Bills fans, but there is no way in hell any team should ever be called a "dynasty" without winning even one single championship.

Bills went to the Superbowl four times in a row, and the playoffs 8 times in 11 years. That's a dynasty, though not a great one.

**jonboy79** · 05-13-2020, 06:13 AM

Dynastic mediocrity...

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**edromeo** · 05-13-2020, 07:55 AM

Originally Posted by HotInHere

Five of the top 25 are Packers. Imagine that. Five different dynasties that are among the greatest stretches of all time in the NFL. That's pretty crazy.

Gjennings85 must be proud reading that list.

All from the only team in the NFL that is allowed to be owned by citizens of Green Bay.

**Culex** · 05-13-2020, 07:58 AM

Originally Posted by edromeo

All from the only team in the NFL that is allowed to be owned by citizens of Green Bay.

Doesn't give them any sort of power though or does it?

**darb72** · 05-13-2020, 08:00 AM

Originally Posted by Culex

Doesn't give them any sort of power though or does it?

The team cannot move.

**MarkS** · 05-13-2020, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by darb72

Bills went to the Superbowl four times in a row, and the playoffs 8 times in 11 years. That's a dynasty, though not a great one.

"We're number 2!!! We're number 2!!!" Doesn't quite roll off the tongue, does it?
Literally at no point during that run were they ever the best team in the NFL. That's definitely not a dynasty in my book, but it's semantics, so I guess we'll agree to disagree.

**JimZipCode** · 05-13-2020, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by MarkS

I have one HUGE gripe: Apologies to any Vikings, Rams or Bills fans, but there is no way in hell any team should ever be called a "dynasty" without winning even one single championship.

Originally Posted by seraph

If you win a Super Bowl championship and then go last place the following season and then stay mediocre with mostly the same team and coaching regime you shouldn't be considered a dynasty either.

The article discusses that, in the three or four paragraphs after the big table. The part about a big-tent vs small-tent way of looking at it. The writer suggests one cutoff for "dynasty points, where about the top 15 (or 17?) really are "dynasties".

It's almost the wrong word. They're not saying that all 56 team-groups on the list were dynasties. They're proposing a method to rank all the various "runs of achievement" by teams. This lets you get everybody on a list, including the Mike Holmgren Seahawks and the Marty Schottenheimer Chargers. Then with all these "runs of achievement" ranked, you decide where the "dynasty" cutoff is.

**Kyle Cactus** · 05-13-2020, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by HotInHere

So stuff that happened in 1975 counts, but 1965 doesn’t?

It’s completely arbitrary, just because they merged with the AFL and came up with a fancier name than “NFL Championship.” How is something that happened 45 years ago any more relevant that something that happened 55 years ago?

I would say it all counts, but I think the number of teams weighs heavily in the difficulty of winning a championship. In 1965 you were 1 of 14 teams. In 1975 you were 1 of 26. In 1935 there were only 9 teams!

I only skimmed the FO methodology, but it seems like they don't adequately control for this. But what they did is still insightful and interesting. Thanks for posting it JZC.

fivethirtyeight also did a dynasty ranking a while back. NE's current dynasty and SF's 80s dynasty are 1 and 2 on both lists. The 70's Steelers also rank top 5 in both lists.

**HotInHere** · 05-13-2020, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by Kyle Cactus

I would say it all counts, but I think the number of teams weighs heavily in the difficulty of winning a championship. In 1965 you were 1 of 14 teams. In 1975 you were 1 of 26. In 1935 there were only 9 teams!

I only skimmed the FO methodology, but it seems like they don't adequately control for this. But what they did is still insightful and interesting. Thanks for posting it JZC.

fivethirtyeight also did a dynasty ranking a while back. NE's current dynasty and SF's 80s dynasty are 1 and 2 on both lists. The 70's Steelers also rank top 5 in both lists.

The other way of looking at that is that before the merger, the Steelers played in the NFL for 33 years. In that time the number of teams in the NFL ranged from 8 to 16. For most of that time the top two teams from each division (4-8 teams) made the playoffs. Given your logic that it is easier to win a championship when there are fewer teams, how absolutely absurd is it that in those 33 years years, the Steelers played in ONE playoff game? And of course they lost it. (1947)

That's why they don't like to talk about the pre-SB era. Because I do not think there is anywhere in the wide world of sport a 4-decade level of incompetence that comes close to what the Pittsburgh Steelers put together.