Brad Oremland is a sportswriter and football historian. You can follow him on Twitter @bradoremland.
Like many of you, I’ve been following the release of the NFL’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team with interest. American football is a team sport, and great players, by definition, are those who make their teams better. I was curious how the NFL 100 team relates to the greatest dynasties in pro football history, and what follows is an examination of that subject.
This will be very similar to an article I wrote last year, Top 30 NFL Dynasties and the Hall of Fame. If you’ve read that, you can skip this introduction on how I rate and define dynasties. The usual definition of a “dynasty” is something to the effect of a succession of rulers. To me, sports dynasties are measuring sticks. If you wanted to win a World Series in the 1940s, you had to beat the Yankees. In today’s NFL, someone has to beat the Patriots. And so on. And to be the measuring stick, to establish a legacy that might merit that word, dynasty, you have to sustain greatness: you need a series of great teams — a succession of rulers.
The 1997-98 Denver Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls, but they didn’t win a playoff game for six years before those Super Bowls, and they didn’t win a playoff game for six years after those Super Bowls. Those Bronco teams were excellent, but they weren’t excellent for long enough to qualify as a dynasty. They never became the measuring stick.
On the other hand, there are teams that never won championships but did become measuring sticks. The 1990-93 Buffalo Bills played in four consecutive Super Bowls. Every team in the AFC circled Buffalo on its schedule. The Minnesota Vikings played in four Super Bowls from 1969-1976. They went 11-3 or better in six of those eight seasons, and 10-4 in a seventh. From 1969-78, the Cowboys or Vikings represented the NFC in nine out of 10 Super Bowls. To me, that’s more of a dynasty than the Terrell Davis-era Broncos. Teams were intimidated by the Vikings.
I know that some people disagree with my interpretation of the term dynasty. Even if that’s the case, though, anyone with an interest in pro football history should get something out of what follows here. I applied a relatively simple formula to determine the most dynastic teams in NFL history. Each season scores “points” according to the team’s results:
For teams that made the playoffs, a winning percentage over .500 is worth 1 point. That rises to 2 points if the team finished at least .750, and 3 points if it was over .850. Prior to playoff expansion (1967 in the NFL, 1969 in the AFL), the latter bonuses apply regardless of postseason status. Teams that made the playoffs with a winning percentage of .500 or lower score zero.
A championship victory is worth 3 additional points, but a championship appearance is worth 1 even if the team loses.
A record over .667 is worth 1 point even if the team missed the postseason. Teams that missed the playoffs with a winning percentage between .501-.667 score zero for that season. A .500 season or a losing season incurs a -1 penalty, unless the team made the playoffs. A season more than one game below .500 incurs (e.g. 6-10) a -2 penalty. That drops to -3 if the team finished below .300, and -4 at or below .150. Dynasties don’t go 2-14 in between championships.
Furthermore, consecutive seasons with negative scores incur an additional -1 penalty — dynasties don’t have back-to-back losing seasons.
This is easier to digest in chart form:
> .500 without playoffs 0 > .667 without playoffs +1 > .500 with playoffs +1 ≥ .750 +2 > .850 +3 CSA +1 CS +3 ≤ .500 with playoffs 0 ≤ .500 without playoffs -1 < 1 game below .500 -2 < .300 -3 ≤ .150 -4
In today’s league, teams score for going at least 9-7, 12-4, or 14-2, for making the Super Bowl, and for winning the Super Bowl. They lose points for missing the playoffs, having a losing record, going 6-10, 4-12, or 2-14, and for having consecutive seasons at or below .500. Good teams get high scores and bad teams get low scores, especially if the bad teams have been bad for a while. The methodology is not perfect, but I think it generally measures what it’s supposed to.
What I’m doing here is evaluating which dynasties may be over- or under-represented on the NFL 100 roster. Last year, I realized that several great dynasties, including the Lombardi Packers and the Steel Curtain, peaked at eight seasons, so all teams are evaluated by their best eight-year results. What follows are the top 30 NFL dynasties — actually 31 because of a tie — presented by ascending score. In order to be listed as part of the dynasty, a player or coach must have appeared in at least 50% of the team’s games.
t29. Philadelphia Eagles, 1944-51
58-30-3 (.659), 2 championships, 3 title appearances
14 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Steve Van Buren
Other HOFers: Greasy Neale, Pete Pihos, Alex Wojciechowicz
I’ve included head coaches, like Greasy Neale, among each team’s list of Hall of Famers, even though the 10 coaches named to the NFL 100 team bring the total to 110 instead of 100. Steve Van Buren, whom I ranked last summer as the 68th-best player in history, was the key to the Eagles’ dynasty and a lock for the 100th Anniversary roster. The only teammate who might have joined him was Pete Pihos, who has a borderline case as one of the 10 best wide receivers in history — assuming you rank him as a WR, where the selection committee named him as a finalist. The modern tight end position is generally traced to the early 1960s, but Hall of Fame coach George Allen called Pihos “the first great tight end.” Pihos was also an All-Pro defensive end in 1952.
The Eagles won back-to-back NFL titles in 1948 and 1949, but they probably were never the best team in professional football. Those two seasons, the Cleveland Browns went 23-1-2 in the AAFC, and they swept the Eagles in 1950 after a partial merger between the leagues. The Eagles rate much better as a six-year dynasty than they do at eight years.
t29. Buffalo Bills, 1988-95
87-41 (.680), no championships, 4 title appearances
14 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Bruce Smith
Other HOFers: Marv Levy, Jim Kelly, Andre Reed, Thurman Thomas
The 1944-51 Eagles were champions of the 10-team NFL twice. The 1988-95 Bills were champions of the 14-team AFC four times. It’s not obvious to me that the former is a greater achievement than the latter.
This minor dynasty is over-represented in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The ’90s Bills have more HOFers than any of the teams that beat them in the Super Bowl, and that’s without including James Lofton (59 regular-season games from 1989-92). Neither Kelly nor Reed was at all close to the NFL 100 roster, but Thurman Thomas was a finalist among running backs. On the basis of team success, there is a very credible argument that Thomas is underrated. He was an impressive rookie in ’88, and his last 1,000-yard season was ’96, so the Bills’ success essentially reflects his own. Kelly and Levy joined the Bills in ’86, and Reed and Smith in ’85, but they didn’t start winning until Thomas came along.
t29. Green Bay Packers, 2009-16
87-40-1 (.684), 1 championship, 1 title appearance
14 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: none
Other HOFers: none so far
The Packers are an interesting contrast with the Bills. Whom was more dynastic? They have essentially the same record, so the question becomes whether you prefer Buffalo’s four Super Bowl appearances, or Green Bay’s Super Bowl victory. The Packers don’t have that succession of rulers I mentioned at the beginning. If you asked me to name teams that might be considered dynasties, I’d bring up the K-Gun Bills before the Aaron Rodgers Packers.
Aaron Rodgers was an NFL 100 finalist at quarterback, but it’s not obvious that anyone else from this team is bound for Canton. Clay Matthews III is probably the strongest contender. David Bakhtiari didn’t quite play enough games (62) to qualify in this time frame, but he might have a shot one day. Charles Woodson (54 games) and Julius Peppers (48 games) didn’t nearly play enough to qualify, though Woodson played a significant role in the team’s success. The Packers’ relative lack of superstars suggests that Rodgers may deserve even more credit than he typically gets, since it appears that he sustained a minor dynasty without much support.
t26. Detroit Lions, 1950-57
61-33-2 (.649), 3 championships, 4 title appearances
15 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Jack Christiansen, Joe Schmidt
Other HOFers: Lou Creekmur, Yale Lary, Bobby Layne, Doak Walker
The lowest winning percentage of any team in the top 31. They won three NFL championships and played in a fourth, but they only had the outright best record in their conference twice. Like the Steve Van Buren Eagles, they do a lot better at six years (1952-57) than eight.
The Lions, not known as a great offensive team, have three Hall of Famers on offense (Creekmur, Layne, and Walker), not to mention 39 games from HOF guard Dick Stanfel. Creekmur and Stanfel were NFL 100 finalists, which is silly; neither would have been a credible selection to the team. The real stars were Layne, Christiansen, Schmidt, and Lary. Layne, a finalist at QB, was the best dual-threat passer-runner of his generation. He was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 1967, going in ahead of contemporaries like Norm Van Brocklin and Y.A. Tittle (both 1971, and neither first-ballot). Layne is underrated by analyses that focus on traditional passing stats: he didn’t take a lot of sacks, and he led all QBs in rushing three times.
Christiansen had at least 8 INTs in a season four times, and he was probably the greatest punt returner in history, with 8 TDs on just 85 returns. Schmidt was the most decorated LB of the NFL’s first half-century, with 10 Pro Bowls, 9 All-Pro selections (including 6 consensus), and even a tie for the United Press MVP award in 1960. Lary was dynamic, an all-around contributor. He was a safety with the coverage skills of a cornerback (50 INT), but he could hit. He was a great punt returner (3 PR TDs) and one of the best punters of his generation, with a 44.3 gross average that still rates among the best ever. He was an NFL 100 finalist as both a safety and a punter, the only player named as a finalist at multiple positions. I’m a great admirer of both Layne and Lary, but this minor dynasty doesn’t need more NFL 100 representation than it got. Even Christiansen was a borderline choice.
t26. Cleveland Browns, 1954-61
66-28-4 (.702), 2 championships, 3 title appearances
15 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Paul Brown, Jim Brown
Other HOFers: Lou Groza, Mike McCormack, Bobby Mitchell
This time period represents the transition from the Otto Graham era (1946-55) to the Jim Brown era (1957-65). The ’55 Browns had four Hall of Famers who aren’t listed above: Graham, Len Ford, Frank Gatski, and Dante Lavelli. The ’61 Browns had HOF guard Gene Hickerson. McCormack (1954-62) is the player who bridges the two eras, but Graham and Brown are two of the greatest players in history, and there’s a sound argument that they carried the dynasty: in its one season with neither Graham nor Brown (1956), the team went 5-7.
Jim Brown, sometimes cited as the greatest player in NFL history, was a mortal lock for the 100th Anniversary roster. The same goes for Paul Brown, arguably the greatest coach in history. Groza, an All-Pro tackle and kicker, had a plausible but unlikely case in the latter role. McCormack is underrated today, but never a serious contender for the top 100 roster. Mitchell was very similar to the Colts’ Lenny Moore, who did make the team, but not an obvious snub. He wasn’t even a finalist, though, which I think was a terrible mistake.
t26. Los Angeles Rams, 1973-80
86-31-1 (.733), no championships, 1 title appearance
15 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: none
Other HOFers: Tom Mack, Jackie Slater, Jack Youngblood
Hall of Fame defensive tackle and NFL 100 honoree Merlin Olsen played 56 of the 59 games necessary to qualify as part of this dynasty, so he just misses the cut. Mack and Slater were excellent players, but Youngblood is the one who could have made the official all-time team. A 7-time All-Pro (4 consensus), he’s also famous for playing in Super Bowl XIV with a broken leg. Mack was a finalist, but he was never going to make the final roster. He’s underrated today, an 11-time Pro Bowler who’s all but forgotten.
Of course, this isn’t really a dynasty. The Rams made the playoffs for eight seasons in a row, including three 12-win seasons, but they only reached one Super Bowl. They were a very good team, but if you made me choose between the Jack Youngblood-era Rams and the Mike Ditka-coached Bears (who were less consistent but won a Super Bowl), or the 1960s Chargers (who reached the AFL title game five times), I wouldn’t pick the Rams. The Bears and Chargers scored 13 dynasty points each, if you’re interested.
t24. Washington, 1982-89
83-37 (.692), 2 championships, 3 title appearances
16 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Joe Gibbs, Darrell Green
Other HOFers: Russ Grimm, Art Monk
This dynasty’s other Hall of Famer, John Riggins, didn’t play enough games in this time period (49 of 120) to qualify. It’s also unfortunate that the eight-year cutoff omits the 1991 season, when Washington went 14-2 and won Super Bowl XXVI.
Gibbs, who won three Super Bowls with three different QBs and three different lead rushers, was the only obvious selection to represent this dynasty. Green was a borderline choice to the 100th Anniversary roster; I probably wouldn’t have taken him, and I love Darrell Green. Neither Grimm nor Monk was a finalist, though Monk probably should have been.
t24. San Francisco 49ers, 1991-98
95-33 (.742), 1 championship, 1 title appearance
16 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Jerry Rice
Other HOFers: Steve Young
I know this team only played in one Super Bowl, but the 49ers had a substantially better record than the Cowboys of the same period (86-42, .672) — that’s a difference of more than one win per season. The Niners won double-digit games every year, 12-4 or better in five of the eight seasons. Beating the 49ers was a big deal.
How does such a great team only produce two Hall of Famers? Granted, Jerry Rice and Steve Young are not just normal Hall of Famers, but true all-time greats. Nonetheless, I’d like to see George Seifert and especially Bryant Young get more serious HOF consideration in the future. Young probably should have been on the NFL 100 team.
t21. Cleveland/Los Angeles Rams, 1945-52
61-28-4 (.685), 2 championships, 4 title appearances
17 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: none
Other HOFers: Tom Fears, Bob Waterfield
Two more Hall of Famers — QB Norm Van Brocklin and receiver Crazy Legs Hirsch — barely missed the cutoff to qualify in this group, playing 46 games and 44, respectively, rather than the 47 needed to qualify. Hirsch made the NFL 100 roster, though I would have been more sympathetic to Van Brocklin. Fears and Van Brocklin were also finalists.
Here’s a curiosity: the Rams had five different head coaches during this period: Adam Walsh (1945-46), Bob Snyder (1947), Clark Shaughnessy (1948-49), Joe Stydahar (1950-52), and Hampton Pool (1952). None of the five had a losing season, and three of them got replaced within a year of reaching the championship. Pool went 9-2 in 1952, followed by 8-3-1 and 6-5-1, then lost his job to Sid Gillman in 1955. Five coaches in seven years would be recklessly impatient in a bad team, but the Rams were terrific.
t21. Oakland Raiders, 1967-74
84-21-7 (.794), no championships, 1 title appearance
17 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Willie Brown, Jim Otto, Art Shell, Gene Upshaw
Other HOFers: John Madden, Fred Biletnikoff, George Blanda, Ken Stabler
Let’s compare the 1967-74 Raiders to the 1991-98 49ers. The Raiders were even more dominant in the regular season, and even less effective in the postseason. The Raiders score 17 dynasty points, the Niners 16, essentially equal.
Yet the Raiders have four NFL 100 representatives and eight Hall of Famers, while the 49ers only have one NFL 100 rep and two HOFers. And sure, most of the guys listed in this dynasty were on the team that won Super Bowl XI. But a lot of the Niners played on the teams that won back-to-back titles in 1988-89. This Raider team, which only reached one Super Bowl (and lost by three touchdowns), is tied for the second-most NFL 100 players of any dynasty in history. They’re overrated, and none of the others were legitimate contenders to join the 100th Anniversary roster. Stabler is probably the worst player in the Hall of Fame. Madden and Biletnikoff were NFL 100 finalists, but I have zero sympathy for their candidacies.
t21. Pittsburgh Steelers, 2004-11
89-39 (.695), 2 championships, 3 title appearances
17 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: none
Other HOFers: none so far
I suspect that Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, and Alan Faneca will eventually make the Hall of Fame, but only Faneca is eligible so far. Head coach Bill Cowher is the most plausible of several other possible enshrinees. Polamalu was a finalist for the NFL 100 team, and I’d guess he was one of the last cuts to the list of six safeties who made the team. I think they were right to omit him, but it’s a close call. Roethlisberger wasn’t a QB finalist, but he could have been. With only 10 QBs named to the official team, however, he was never a serious candidate. Faneca is a deserving HOFer, but not an NFL 100 contender.
If you’re not familiar with some of the older teams in this piece, the Steelers can be a frame of reference for teams with 16-18 dynasty points. This was a consistently good team that won a couple Super Bowls but never really seemed like the best in the league. The Patriots and Colts were the great AFC rivalry of this era. The Steelers’ major rival, the Baltimore Ravens, was for control of the division, not the conference.
t19. New York Giants, 1933-40
62-27-6 (.697), 2 championships, 5 title appearances
18 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Mel Hein
Other HOFers: Steve Owen, Tuffy Leemans, Ken Strong
Our first Pre-Modern Era dynasty. The 1933 Giants lost the first NFL Championship Game on a controversial pass by the Bears’ Bronko Nagurski. They won a rematch the following year by switching their shoes at halftime — the famous “Sneakers Game.” Hein, the 1938 NFL MVP, was the team’s centerpiece, the best center of his era and one of 11 players in the inaugural Pro Football Hall of Fame class. If you don’t know about him, please consider reading my profile from the Greatest Players in History series (#26). Owen, an NFL 100 coaching finalist, was the only contender to join him.
Leemans led the league in rushing as a rookie, and he was a good passer. Strong was an explosive runner and receiver early in his career, but he was mostly a kicker and blocking back after 1934-35. Strong was probably the most accomplished postseason RB of the 1930s. Leemans and Strong were great players, but neither was an NFL 100 finalist, which I think is fair.
This was a very different era of pro football. In 1933, the schedule wasn’t even fully regulated. The Giants played 14 games, with a league-best 11-3 record. But the Eastern Division’s second-place team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, only played 10 games. The Eagles only played nine. The Giants were a dynasty, but at a time when that didn’t mean as much as it does today.
t19. Dallas Cowboys, 1991-98
86-42 (.672), 3 championships, 3 title appearances
18 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Larry Allen, Emmitt Smith
Other HOFers: Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin
Hall of Famer Charles Haley came up one game short of qualifying for this time period, while Deion Sanders came up one season short. Sanders made the NFL 100 roster.
The Cowboys were a magnificent six-year dynasty (1991-96), but they don’t rate nearly as well over eight years. They had losing records in 1990 and 1997, and they didn’t win a playoff game between 1984-90 or 1997-2008. They rank tied for 19th on the eight-year list. From that perspective, I think four gold jackets — five if you include Haley — and two 100th Anniversary players is reasonably fair. Aikman and Irvin were both finalists, but Aikman was never a serious contender to rank among the 10 QBs named to the team. Irvin was a borderline call at WR; he probably would have made my list, but I’m not bothered that the official voters left him off.
t14. Green Bay Packers, 1925-32
72-22-10 (.766), 3 championships, 0 title appearances
19 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Curly Lambeau
Other HOFers: Mike Michalske
This was before the NFL instituted an official championship game, so Green Bay won three league titles simply by having the best record.
The minimum number of games to qualify for this dynasty is 52. NFL 100 selection Cal Hubbard played 51, while fellow Hall of Famer Johnny Blood played 49. End Lavvie Dilweg will probably be in the Hall of Fame a year from now, but he was not an NFL 100 finalist. Michalske was, but Lambeau, Hubbard, and Blood were the biggest contributors, with Michalske and Dilweg just behind them. I wish Blood had made the official team: he was a character and a half, but he was also a hell of a player in all three phases of the game. Please don’t try to look smart by calling him John McNally; both newspapers and team publications called him Blood, and he embraced the name even after his career. Calling him McNally is like saying “George Ruth” instead of Babe, or “Vincent Jackson” instead of Bo.
Lambeau’s six NFL championships are more than Vince Lombardi, more than Chuck Noll, more than Bill Walsh and Don Shula put together. If you doubt that he should have been among the 10 coaches named to the team, stop doubting.
t14. Boston/Washington Redskins, 1936-43
60-24-4 (.714), 2 championships, 5 title appearances
19 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Sammy Baugh
Other HOFers: Ray Flaherty, Turk Edwards, Wayne Millner
By the rating formula used for this project, the third-best team of 1936-43. During those years, no one else except the Giants won an Eastern Division title, and no one but the Bears and Packers won a Western Division title. Washington’s superstar was Sammy Baugh, perhaps the greatest all-around player in the history of the game. Baugh was the league’s best passer, but he was also its best punter, and a good defensive back. In 1943, Baugh led the league in passing, punting, and interceptions (as a safety).
Flaherty was not a coaching finalist, an unfortunate oversight from the committee that did nominate Weeb Ewbank (who went 130-129-7) and Fritz Pollard (who was more accomplished as a player). In seven seasons, Flaherty led the team to four championship appearances, including two wins. Later, he coached the AAFC’s New York Yankees, perpetual runners-up to Paul Brown’s Cleveland dynasty, and the 2nd-best team in the All-America Football Conference. He retired with a 80-37-5 (.676) record, one of the highest winning percentages in history.
t14. Baltimore Colts, 1964-71
84-23-5 (.785), 1 championship, 3 title appearances
19 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Don Shula, John Mackey, Johnny Unitas
Other HOFers: none
The 1958-65 Colts went 69-36-1 (.657) and won back-to-back titles in 1958-59, plus a championship loss in 1964. That eight-year iteration of the Colts scored 14 dynasty points. This era has one fewer championship win, but a winning percentage 128 points higher. The dominant teams of the early ’60s were the Packers and Giants. In the late ’60s, no one was better than the Colts.
Seven members of the mid-60s Colts made the NFL 100 team: Shula, Unitas, Mackey, RB/WR Lenny Moore, WR Raymond Berry, OL Jim Parker, and DE Gino Marchetti. In order to qualify as part of the 1964-71 dynasty, though, players needed to appear in at least 56 regular-season games. Moore (1956-67) played 53 games for the Colts during this time period; Berry (1955-67) played 47; Parker (1957-67) played 45; Marchetti (1952-64, 66) played 18. The 1958-65 Colts, whose dynasty score would tie for 29th if I forgave the 1964-65 overlap, had five NFL 100 players (Unitas, Moore, Berry, Parker, and Marchetti), plus a sixth nominee (head coach Weeb Ewbank). Mackey (42 G), Shula (42 G), and NFL 100 finalists Art Donovan (50 G) and Gene Lipscomb (36 G) didn’t appear in the necessary 53 games to qualify in that time period, but that’s an enormous amount of NFL 100 recognition for a team that barely qualifies as a minor dynasty by my criteria.
Back to 1964-71, though, with three NFL 100 selections, the Colts are still among the most-honored teams in history. Shula had his best years with the Dolphins, and Unitas may have peaked in the late ’50s, but all three were worthy selections. If you’ve never seen highlights of John Mackey, you haven’t truly lived.
t14. Miami Dolphins, 1970-77
83-28-1 (.746), 2 championships, 3 title appearances
19 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Don Shula, Paul Warfield
Other HOFers: Nick Buoniconti, Larry Csonka, Bob Griese, Jim Langer, Larry Little
The greatness of the undefeated 1972 Dolphins overshadows this team’s legacy. They weren’t a one-year wonder: from 1970-75, they had six straight seasons 10-4 or better, and they’re one of only three teams to reach three straight Super Bowls (the 1990-93 Buffalo Bills and 2016-18 New England Patriots are the others). Miami went 104-39-1 in the ’70s, a better record than the Steelers (99-44-1), Vikings (99-43-2), or Raiders (100-38-6).
This is where Shula most belongs, and Warfield was an excellent choice as well. His stats were limited by the team’s successful running game, but Warfield was the greatest deep receiving threat of all time. Langer and Little were both NFL 100 finalists, though I doubt either came especially close to the ultimate roster. Buoniconti could have been a finalist as well, though he obviously wouldn’t have been a contender to make the team. Csonka and Griese were great players, but not top-100 all-time caliber.
t14. Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, 1976-83
80-37 (.684), 3 championships, 3 title appearances
19 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Ray Guy, Ted Hendricks, Art Shell, Gene Upshaw
Other HOFers: Dave Casper
Here are the total number of NFL 100 selections for the 18 teams with 14-19 dynasty points:
None: 1945-52 Rams, 1973-80 Rams, 2004-11 Steelers, 2009-16 Packers
One: 1925-32 Packers, 1933-40 Giants, 1936-43 Redskins, 1944-51 Eagles, 1988-95 Bills, 1991-98 49ers
Two: 1950-57 Lions, 1954-61 Browns, 1970-77 Dolphins, 1982-89 Washington, 1991-98 Cowboys
Three: 1964-71 Colts
Four: 1967-74 Raiders, 1976-83 Raiders
The Raiders had great teams, but were they appreciably better than Miami and Washington around the same time, with only two selections each? I don’t see it. Furthermore, a lot of HOF Raiders played part of this dynasty, including Fred Biletnikoff, Willie Brown, and John Madden (all 1976-78), Ken Stabler (1976-79), Howie Long (1981-83), Marcus Allen (1982-83), and Mike Haynes (1983). Brown and Haynes made the NFL 100 roster as well. This was a great team, but not as great as the reputations of its individual players would imply. If I could kick one Raider off the top 100 all-time roster, it would probably be Ray Guy, though he was a much better player than the other punter chosen, Shane Lechler. Hendricks is probably the least disputable selection from this group.
That’s it for Part I. Tomorrow, we’ll look at the top dynasties in history.