After winning a third championship in five seasons, Patrick Mahomes doesn’t seem to think his Kansas City Chiefs are a “dynasty.” (OK, he does, but not necessarily for the reason you’d expect.)
No matter what happens next, these Chiefs have cemented themselves in NFL lore as a legendary team. They have thrived so much in January and February that they’ve made winning in single-elimination football seem almost impossibly routine. This is definitively their era, their titanic reign sitting on the sport’s biggest throne.
But where do the Mahomes Chiefs rank all time in NFL history? That answer might not be so simple because they’re not the first team to completely envelop half a decade or more.
Let’s take a look at some of the best NFL dynasties ever and where the Chiefs slot in. For what it’s worth, I decided to mainly keep this to the modern Super Bowl era because rewarding teams like the pre-World War II Chicago Bears and post-war Cleveland Browns feels a little silly, considering the league was a literal shell of what it is now.
5
San Francisco 49ers (1981-1994)
The 49ers of the late 20th century won 19 playoff games, played in nine separate NFC title games, and won four Super Bowls. They never finished with fewer than 10 wins in a single season and successfully transitioned from one great coach and quarterback (Bill Walsh and Joe Montana) to another duo (George Seifert and Steve Young).
Until relatively recently, these 49ers were recognized as a gold standard. And for good reason.
4
Kansas City Chiefs (2018-Present)
The Chiefs do not necessarily have the sheer longevity of some of the teams on this list, but their success to this point is hard to argue with. Since 2018, Kansas City has played in every AFC title game. Every single one. They’ve won at least one playoff game every winter, have captured four separate conference championships, and now have three Super Bowl victories in five years. Oh, and in Patrick Mahomes, they might have the best player ever on their side. Ho-hum.
The terrifying part? Mahomes doesn’t turn 29 until September. These Chiefs are not done stacking trophies. Far from it.
3
Green Bay Packers (1960-1967)
In the early 1960s, the NFL was not yet the overwhelming cultural titan it is today. Without the consistent dominance of Vince Lombardi’s Packers, there’s an argument that the NFL never becomes synonymous with the United States’ social fabric.
Five championship wins in eight years, including the first two Super Bowls. One year shy of the NFL-AFL merger from being the first NFL team ever to record a Super Bowl “three-peat.” (They would’ve done it. There’s no debate.) A 157-60 scoring margin (!) in six championship appearances.
Put another way: There’s a reason they call it the Lombardi Trophy.
2
Pittsburgh Steelers (1972-1979)
We come to the Steel Curtain. Rife with Hall of Famers on both sides of the ball, no one quite owned the 1970s like the black and gold. Fourteen playoff wins. Six appearances in the AFC title game. Four Super Bowl victories in six seasons, with two separate back-to-back runs. Even adjusted for the statistics of the era, the Steelers were so exceptional that they reached the NFL’s summit multiple times with a quarterback who completed less than 52 percent of his passes.
Take a bow, Chuck Noll.
1
New England Patriots (2001-2018)
Never say never, BUT it’s hard to imagine anyone ever replicating what the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady Patriots accomplished during the first part of the 21st century.
A playoff berth in 16 of 18 seasons. A 30-12 record in playoff games. Sixteen division titles (2019 not included). Seventeen double-digit win seasons. Twelve separate appearances in the AFC title game, including eight straight from 2011 to 2018. Nine Super Bowl berths and six wins. Any other NFL franchise would hope to enjoy even a tiny fraction of this incredible success.
These Patriots were the class of the NFL for nearly two decades. They were a mainstay in any conversation about the sport despite fighting the salary cap and other all-time great quarterbacks and teams like the Peyton Manning Indianapolis Colts and Ben Roethlisberger Steelers.
They are unequivocally the best team in the history of pro football.
