2024 Super Bowl-era Franchise Rankings
Chiefs continue sprint vs history as Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid keep winning.
There is nothing like the pursuit of history in our sports world, and this year, the Kansas City Chiefs have a beautiful opportunity at two different claims if they can win another Super Bowl. I realize I say “another” as if it is now an easy pursuit or something routine, but that is what we are talking about.
The first one is the simple notion of winning an unprecedented 3-peat in the NFL. Now, I should qualify it because two 3-peats have already happened. The 1929-1931 Green Bay Packers were the 3-time champions, but I am not sure we can take pre-World War II NFL terribly seriously. No offense to the friends and families, but since we did not introduce the NFL Championship Game until 1933, we just have no way of comparison for these apples and Volkswagens.
The other 3-peat was 1965-67 and involved those same Green Bay Packers. As you are probably aware, this was the final NFL Championship Game followed by Super Bowls I and II. This one seems much closer to the proper claim, but given that all three did not fall under the umbrella of “the Super Bowl era,” I believe the Chiefs' 3-peat would rightfully be called the modern first of its kind.
The other historical landmark that can be matched if these Chiefs can win another Super Bowl this season would be to win their 4th Super Bowl in six seasons. That has been done just once in the history of that game when the Pittsburgh Steelers ran off Super Bowls IX, X, XIII, and XIV in 1974, 75, 78, and 79.
Several other teams have had a chance at this accomplishment, but the Cowboys, Patriots, and Patriots again could not secure the fourth of the four. But here are the Chiefs with wins in Super Bowls LIV, LVII, and LVIII, and now have a chance at it, and even those Steelers did not have another Super Bowl appearance mixed in. But when you add in the LV loss to the Buccaneers, you see how these Chiefs are something special.
Fifty-eight Super Bowls have been completed, and the Kansas City Chiefs are now our first back-to-back champions of the NFL in 20 years. It is their fourth Super Bowl win, and the past decade has been a busy one — heck, the past few years — as the Chiefs have accomplished more in the last six years than what the franchise had pieced together in its first 52. It happens. Championships are rare and tough to attain. And this version of the Chiefs is quickly on its way to becoming the best we have ever seen in this league.
In the past decade, no franchise has accomplished more than the Chiefs as they finally overtook the New England dynasty this past season, but with Patrick Mahomes running the NFL at the age of 28, the Chiefs are showing few signs of slowing down anytime soon. Well, that is for the last decade, at least, 2014-2023. The Chiefs have plenty of ground to make up if they plan on stealing any of Bill Belichick’s thunder over the past two decades if you want to go all the way back to 2000 or so.
But, as you may be aware, even Belichick and the Patriots still do not sit at the top of the NFL because the Pittsburgh Steelers continue to hold them off — barely.
And then there are two teams in the middle of three-decade droughts since they last held the Lombardi Trophy in their arms: Dallas and San Francisco. In many ways, they are like twin brothers with traditions that mirror one another. In the past 30 years, though, the 49ers have been much more successful and painfully close several times, whereas Dallas has been running in the same unsatisfying circles of frustration. While both teams have won zero Super Bowls since 1995, the 49ers have lost three Super Bowls and five NFC Championship Games. Eight times they were close. Meanwhile, Dallas has been to zero of both of those games and has not been close at all. Somehow, they still sit above San Francisco in this year’s rankings, but the margin has never been smaller.
Such is the “game of thrones” we know as professional football, where these proud franchises attempt to stuff their trophy cases to claim the historical king of the hill by fighting over the same turf year after year.
We love it. We talk about it. We read about it. We argue about it.
So, I tried to do something that could answer the question of who has been the best in these 58 years by creating a system to objectively weigh all 32 franchises against each other based on annual accomplishments.
How would you keep it objective? Everyone is always stumping for their favorite team and slanting things in favor of that agenda. How do you keep opinions out of this?
I put together a scoring system 22 years ago that credited teams for making the playoffs, advancing to the final four of each conference’s championship games, making a Super Bowl, and winning that Super Bowl.
The system had to be more complex than simply counting Lombardi trophies because some teams have a knack for rising up every few years and winning the Super Bowl despite missing the playoffs altogether for several years in between (shoutout to Eli Manning and the New York Giants). At the same time, it is a very big deal to win one of those trophies — let alone several — so any point system should give a great deal of credit to any team winning it all.
The database is updated every off-season after the Super Bowl because, of course, things change. Less and less each year, mind you, as the longer we do this, the more it resembles icebergs racing each other as sample sizes grow: One year is not enough to move very far, but they do, in fact, move. I have tinkered with the system over the years, but this is the one that works best. This objective scoring system (remember, this is all math) includes these point values:
• Winning the Super Bowl: 11 points
• Losing the Super Bowl: 5 points
• AFC/NFC Championship Game: 3 points
• Making the playoffs: 1 point
To be clear, you only get one point threshold per year — you don’t collect on multiple levels. We add up the points from each year in existence (adjusting for expansion), and that leads to the overall standings (you can see season-by-season point totals here). Ties? There are no ties. We break them with Super Bowls, then Super Bowl losses, then championship games, as necessary. Also, we provide rankings for “points per year” at the bottom of this piece, grading on a curve for those teams that have not existed for all 58 seasons.
Obviously, the Chiefs are the big movers recently, climbing from 14th to 9th and now to 6th in just 25 months and almost to the top of Tier 2 (“Light Heavyweights”). With this season’s Super Bowl victory, they hopped all the way to No. 6 all-time and passed divisional rivals Denver and Las Vegas, as well as the Los Angeles Rams.
Other teams that jumped someone in this year’s rankings again include the Miami Dolphins (who moved past the Indianapolis Colts) now up to 11th, the Baltimore Ravens jumped over the Seattle Seahawks for the 17th spot, the Cleveland Browns pushed past the Chargers into 26th, and the Detroit Lions pushed from 31st to 29th with their trip to the NFC Championship Game.
But enough of me spoiling your trip down this list. It’s well past time to unveil the 22nd edition of the Sturm Super Bowl-era NFL Franchise Rankings and, in a way, set the standard for the fresh season of 2024 that is opening very soon.
Tier One
The Heavyweights
1. Pittsburgh Steelers
Last year: No. 1
Total: 117 points
Playoff years: 33 | Final Fours: 8 | Super Bowl losses: 2 | Super Bowl wins: 6
Last decade (since 2014): 9 points
Average: 2.01 points per season
The Steelers remain on top, but the scramble for in the heavyweight division has never been closer. The two teams at the very top are the two teams that have won the Super Bowl six times and Pittsburgh has added a solid consistency post-2000 that is pretty strong stuff. It may be a bit before they win again, but they continue to hold down the top spot which they finally grabbed about a decade ago from Dallas.