Adam Steele is back (sort of) with the results of the greatest team of all time installment of his Wisdom of Crowds project. He was busy and asked me to do the writeup, so I shall do my best to do it justice.

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This wasn’t exactly the busiest ballot topic—we only received 14 ballots, 12 of which were accepted. ^[1]One ballot had just 10 teams, and the other contained a few duplicate teams. So, with the caveat that the sample size is dreadfully small, the Football Perspective readers chose the 1985 Chicago Bears as the greatest team of all time. I don’t think that comes as much of a surprise to anyone. Also expected, the juggernaut 1991 Washington squad that probably gets underrated in most circles due to the lack of a Hall of Fame passer, took silver, and the dominant 1962 Packers snagged a bronze.

Some tidbits:

• 62 teams received votes.
• 8 teams appeared on every ballot: the 1985 Bears, 1991 Washington, the 1962 and 1996 Packers, the 2007 Patriots, the 1984 and 1989 49ers, and the 2013 Seahawks.
• The 1972 Dolphins appeared on all but one ballot (a ballot chosen strictly from a formula).
• The 2007 Patriots are the highest ranked team that failed to win a championship.
• The best regular season record for a team that didn’t earn a vote? That would be .938 from the 2004 Steelers and 2015 Panthers, who both went 15-1.
• The top SRS for a team that didn’t earn a vote? How about 16.9 for the 1961 Oilers in the AFL. For the NFL, the mark goes to the 2019 Ravens at 15.6.
• The worst record for a team that received a vote? The .625 finish off the 2010 Packers, who were terribly unlucky in close games.
• How about the worst SRS for a team that made the cut? That would be the 5.9 mark of the 2006 Colts, who seemed completely incapable of stopping opponents without a healthy Bob Sanders.

I’m sure there are other takeaways, but I’ll let the readers make them.