Where Do Patriots Rank Among Super Bowl Champions?
It's officially the offseason for all 32 NFL teams with Super Bowl LVIII in the rear-view mirror, which means its time for the tried and true offseason tradition of trying to figure out who the best team in league history is.
ESPN was the first outlet to take a stab at such a task, releasing a ranking of all 58 Super Bowl champions by DVOA. The New England Patriots are naturally well-represented on the list with six championship seasons, tied for the most in the Super Bowl era, but only one can reign supreme. According to ESPN's formula, the 2004 Patriots are the best in franchise history by a significant margin, coming in at No. 7 on the overall list.
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"By DVOA, this was clearly the best of the six championship Patriots teams. This was the first season that Brady was Tom Brady, ranking fifth in pass DVOA after ranking outside the top 10 in his first three seasons as the starter. The Patriots also ranked third in rushing and fourth in rushing defense, although they were abnormally above average on special teams."
Fresh off their second title in three years, the Patriots aimed to cement themselves as a dynasty in 2004.
Tom Brady and co. bulldozed their competition en route to a 14-2 regular season, but the real test would in the playoffs. After two convincing wins in the postseason, the Patriots outlasted the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX to win their second-straight title and third in four years. New England was the last team to go back-to-back for almost 20 years, until the Kansas City Chiefs broke the drought on Sunday.
"They [the Patriots] played one of the five hardest schedules of any Super Bowl champion, in part because the NFL was so imbalanced with all the best teams (except Philadelphia) in the AFC. DVOA put them ahead of the 15-1 Steelers, and their only losses were 34-20 to the Steelers at midseason and then a shocking 1-point loss to the 4-12 Miami Dolphins on a late-season Monday Night Football.
"The playoffs started with a 20-3 divisional round win over the Colts in which the Patriots held Peyton Manning to just 5.7 yards per pass. Then came a trip to Pittsburgh and a 41-27 victory in the AFC Championship Game. Finally, the Patriots held off the Eagles 24-21 in Super Bowl XXXIX."
Surprisingly, all five of the Patriots' other championship teams found themselves in the lower half of the rankings. The 2016 team ranked 37th, the 2014 team 41st, the 2003 team 46th, the 2018 team 49th and the 2001 team 56th.
With the Patriots in rebuild mode, it will likely be a while before they can add another ring to their collection. However, the fact they have so many already is worthy of praise by itself.
