greatest NFL team of last 30 years

[Ken Gargett]

first, no idea why only 30 years.

the winner? the glorious 1991 Redskins!

this is something i have never doubted, but have been prepared to accept i may have had burgundy coloured glasses, given that it was only a year or two before this that i started following the skins (when i arrived in DC). so nice to have it confirmed. always believed this team snuck under the radar because it was a real team and not a collection of a few superstars with a supporting cast. and yes, i accept that there are all sorts of ways to judge a team and obviously i like this one (because they got it right).

what is a bit surprising is by how far ahead of any other team in the last thirty years they were rated. there is a bigger gap between them and the 2nd team, the 07 Pats, than there is between those Pats and the 11th rankled team.

the downside of becoming a skins fan back at that time is that it has meant decades of subsequent hell and bog averageness.

it is also a reminder of the greatness of joe gibbs as a coach. nothing against guys like bellichek, who is obviously a supremely talented coach, but would he have been as successful if he did not have Brady for such a long period? gibbs got three rings with three different QBs and three different RBs. not bad.

here are some thoughts from an article.

 

"According to ESPN's Football Outsiders, Joe Gibbs' Super Bowl-winning squad was ranked as the No. 1 team in the last 30 years in the NFL, beating the 2007 New England Patriots by a massive margin. 

The ranking system, compiling individual statistics called the defense-adjusted value over averages -- or DVOA -- is the “measure success on each play based on down and distance, then comparing it to an NFL average baseline adjusted for situation and opponent. It's built to balance a measurement of how well a team has played in the past with a forecast of how well a team will play in the future.”

After adding up the stats, the Redskins were far and away the best team in the NFL during the last three decades, placing high in offense, defense and special teams 

Via ESPN.com:

At plus-56.9 percent, the 1991 Redskins have the best regular-season DVOA of the past 30 years, and their lead as the greatest team in DVOA history only gets larger when we add the postseason. Washington's two losses came by a combined five points, and one of those losses came when the Redskins sat their starters at halftime of a meaningless final-week game. It's astonishing in retrospect that only two Redskins were selected as first-team All-Pros that season: left tackle Jim Lachey and cornerback Darrell Green. In fairness, six others did make the Pro Bowl.

The Redskins high-octane offense certainly helped propel them to success, as the team was the highest-scoring unit in the league that season, while their defense wasn't far behind with the second-best scoring mark that season. Gibbs' innovated approach on both sides of the ball was the main catalyst, as the team sent out the Hall of Fame coach with a Super Bowl ring. 

Those days may be in the past, but it's a firm reminder of benchmark that's set at one of the NFL's premier franchises. 

[daustinhartman]

A great team but my guess would have been the 1989 49ers....they dominated the playoffs (126-26 outscoring of opponents), were undefeated on the road and went 14-2 on the season, those 2 losses were by a combined 5 points.

[Ken Gargett]

6 minutes ago, daustinhartman said:

A great team but my guess would have been the 1989 49ers....they dominated the playoffs (126-26 outscoring of opponents), were undefeated on the road and went 14-2 on the season, those 2 losses were by a combined 5 points.

it was late that season when i arrived in the states so i remember them very fondly. great team.

unfortunately my internet access does not allow me to see the list - only an article with the above info. so i don't know where they rank. but presumably very high.

[Easttide]

I'll take greatness over a decade + and more likely, all time, then your moment in the limelight. 

Brady's run out of fingers on one hand. Here's to the other.

 

[Ken Gargett]

29 minutes ago, Easttide said:

I'll take greatness over a decade + and more likely, all time, then your moment in the limelight. 

Brady's run out of fingers on one hand. Here's to the other.

 

i don't think anyone would contest that. much rather have a decade of success (just ask nsw). but that was not the topic.

[Easttide]

The strongest team is one that can cohesively overcome the greatest odds in the clutch, imo. Not one determined by a computer generated alogorithm. 

[MahDooRow]

I have to assume the '85 Chicago Bears were not eligible for this poll because the 1985 season is outside of the 30 year window of consideration.  However, I wonder how the Bears' defense-adjusted value over averages -- or DVOA -- would compare to the '91 Redskins.  I don't have a horse in that race and I'm not picking sides.  Both teams were absolute monsters of their time.  I'm just genuinely curious which of these two teams would come out ahead.

[BrightonCorgi]

When the Pats win next year's Super Bowl; they'll be the best ever!  Heck, the Pats are already the best ever!

[Colt45]

Don't pay much mind to these kind of rankings, but.....

just call 'im five time, greatest of all time

haters made up crap, tried droppin' dimes

in jail for four games, sat back and took names

came back better than ever, tougher than leather

 

 

 

[JohnnyO]

Only one player on that team was a pro bowler/Hall of Famer.... Darrell Green. The rest were just a bunch of tomato cans

[foursite12]

16 minutes ago, JohnnyO said:

Only one player on that team was a pro bowler/Hall of Famer.... Darrell Green. The rest were just a bunch of tomato cans

What are you smoking? Rypien, Byner, Lachey, Clark, Schlereth, Lohmiller and Green were all pro that year. Millen, Collins and Marshall as your linebackers? Joe Jacoby? Art Monk? Hardly tomato cans.

[JohnInCleveland]

Browns.  Next question.

[Ken Gargett]

2 hours ago, foursite12 said:

What are you smoking? Rypien, Byner, Lachey, Clark, Schlereth, Lohmiller and Green were all pro that year. Millen, Collins and Marshall as your linebackers? Joe Jacoby? Art Monk? Hardly tomato cans.

charles mann was no mug either.

there would not be many teams over the years when ricky sanders couldn't get a start.

my two fave stats from the year - i think it was something like a total of 7 sacks that were allowed by the O line. that is pretty special, especially remembering that in those days, the NFC east was far and away the most dominant and powerful division in football (and may have been the most dominant division ever). playing lawrence taylor, leon lett, ken norton, reggie white et al, twice a year was no picnic. unless someone thinks they were even bigger tomato cans.

the other is rypien. 15 runs for a total of 6 yards. give it up.

people, i'll type really slowly so you can keep up. no one is going to dispute the pats as the greatest team over the last 30 years (or no one should). this is not a post about that. it is about focusing on a single year. and as i said right up front, lots of ways to evaluate this. this method is but one. they just got it right.

[Colt45]

1 hour ago, Ken Gargett said:

they just got it right.

 

Hey, did you see the pic of TB12 tossin' the pigskin on the great wall of China?

 

P.S. your team is the best!

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, Colt45 said:

Hey, did you see the pic of TB12 tossin' the pigskin on the great wall of China?

 

P.S. your team is the best!

that would be "was" the best. lately ('lately' being a euphemism for several decades), not so much. but we live in hope. we are just trying to see if we can get our back-up QB up to a salary of $30 mill g'teed a year. then, look out.

ta re the pic. had heard he was there trying to arrange an NFL game to be played there. i'm sure he is not on commission.

[kuma]

One of the best; DALLAS w/ E. Smith, Michael Irvin, T. Akman; coach; Jimmy Johnson. Pat's would get killed by these boy's.....

[Easttide]

1 hour ago, kuma said:

One of the best; DALLAS w/ E. Smith, Michael Irvin, T. Akman; coach; Jimmy Johnson. Pat's would get killed by these boy's.....

That's what everyone said this year about the Cowgirls. Dream on.

[Corylax18]

Pretty shotty list. How do you include so many teams that were clearly not even the best in the given ear, let alone all time. People seem to forget that both the "Undefeated" (18 wins - 1 GIANT loss) '07 patriots and the '11 patriots lost in the superbowl. To the SAME TEAM. My vote goes for the '07 New York Giants, they were the best when it mattered most. 

I do have serious respect for what the patriots have done though. If it weren't for the other 2 time super bowl MVP Manning brother(and some other amazing players), the pats would only have 2 clean fingers left. The superbowl last year was one of the best, if not The best, NFL games ever.  

[JohnnyO]

Only one player from that team was a pro bowler (that year) and a hall of famer in his career....Darrel Green. The others could have been pro bowlers ten years before or ten years after and might have been the 7th alternate that got in because of injuries. Some might have been pro bowlers that year but are not hall of famers. Only one player from the '91 team achieved both accomplishments. Class dismissed

[joeypots]

The '07 Giants beat the undefeated  Pats in the super bowl in a huge upset.  I believe the best team is the team that wins. If you beat the team with the best season ever, you are the best.  I don't believe we can do any thing but conjecture about the best team, player, or coach in any sport. That said, it is reasonable to say that there aren't enough football games played each year to truely determine the best team. 16 games and the playoffs? How about 82 for NBA teams? 82 for NHL teams? Plus playoffs. Thats a big difference. Look at baseball, the extreme in games played.  162 games  and an endless play off season. I suggest that on any given Sunday anything can happen and it can affect the whole season for a football team.  At the end of the baseball season, though, after all of those games, it's pretty hard say that the winning team isn't the best. Basket ball and hockey less so but still, they play 5 times as many games as football..

[Ken Gargett]

On 29/06/2017 at 1:40 AM, JohnnyO said:

Only one player from that team was a pro bowler (that year) and a hall of famer in his career....Darrel Green. The others could have been pro bowlers ten years before or ten years after and might have been the 7th alternate that got in because of injuries. Some might have been pro bowlers that year but are not hall of famers. Only one player from the '91 team achieved both accomplishments. Class dismissed

as i have said, there are endless ways of assessing this and we will never have something that makes everyone happy, but if we use your system, i am assuming that if the skins had so few that year, other teams had more (i could not be bothered finding out). that makes them better teams? even though the skins won the superbowl?

that makes absolutely no sense at all.

[Easttide]

How many of these posts were the Patriots mentioned in? Argue all you want. Let's be sure to bump this thread come January.

[Ken Gargett]

11 hours ago, Easttide said:

How many of these posts were the Patriots mentioned in? Argue all you want. Let's be sure to bump this thread come January.

this misses the point. no one, as i have said, or at least no one with any sense, would argue against the pats as the great dynasty (and i remember them from when i first started seriously watching nfl as the easy beats but that is irrelevant). that must be unquestioned (perhaps steelers fans to an extent). from the skins, we had a good run for a while, a long time ago. but no serious argument.

but that is irrelevant here. they could win the next 8 superbowls but it is still irrelevant. i'll happily join a thread on that topic and we would agree but you are missing the point here.

[Baldy]

On 6/23/2017 at 1:55 PM, JohnInCleveland said:

Browns.  Next question.

Agree!  Takes real skill, talent and ability to be so bad for so long.  A dynasty for sure.

In the salary cap era, the Pats for sure. To be consistently that good for that long is a hell of an achievement. And it's not over yet.

[JohnnyCigar]

Green Bay