In what order would you rank the Patriots SB teams? From best to weakest

[john4psu]

In what order would you rank the Patriots Super Bowl teams from best to weakest? Since the Pats have far more SB appearances than every other NFL franchise, here's the list as a guide (in chronological order):

'85 loss to Chicago
'96 loss to Green Bay
'01 win over St. Louis
'03 win over Carolina
'04 win over Philadelphia
'07 loss to NY Giants
'11 loss to NY Giants
'14 win over Seattle
'16 win over Atlanta
'17 loss to Philadelphia
'18 win over LA Rams
'25 loss to Seattle

 

[Guts]

07
04
16
03
14
17
01
18
11
96
85
25

Can't put any Brady led teams bottom 3

 

[sieglo]

^^^ This is a pretty damned good ranking.

 

[stephens44]

It would be easier to rank the teams based on the talent if we omitted QB. Brady covered up so much...
Imagine prime Brady on the 85 or 96 team? No offense to Bledsoe, he was a warrior in his SB IMHO.

 

[lancerman]

07
04
16
03
14
17
01
18
11
96
85
25

Can't put any Brady led teams bottom 3

This feels about right, though I might argue 04 was a more balanced team than 07, they just also had a 15-1 Steelers team and that dud Miami game.

I would also argue 14 and 16 should be swapped. 14 was stacked everywhere.

 

[Brady85-23]

03' team was the best squad. Id put money on em to beat every other pats team outside of when the 07' squad was on point.
03' was awesome. Watching Ted Washington eat Interior lineman was a sight to behold

 

[ScottishPatriots]

I didn't see 85 so you'd have to put this years team as worst based on the Super Bowl but the 2011 team was horrible probably quite a bit worse than this years personnel wise only saved because they had Brady in his prime, they had no business even being in the Super Bowl.

The defense was putrid, they were giving up 20 every game for almost 2 months going into the playoffs and had Edelman playing defensive snaps in an AFCCG, the secondary was one of the worst in 20 years.

That was the dark days of Patriots defensive football before guys like Hightower, Chandler Jones and Talib arrived and McCourty moved to safety the personnel defensively in 2011 was some of the worst i've seen.

They also lost to a really bad Giants team, the 2011 Giants were a mediocre football team they would of got worked by this Seattle team too.

 

[oldrover]

I didn't see 85

Apropos of nothing, 1985 might be my favorite Pats AFC playoff run ever... beat the Jets, Raiders, and Fins all on the road as a wild card... and won in Miami for the first time since 1966.

I choose to end my 1985 postseason memories there.

 

[p8ryts]

07
04
16
03
14
17
01
18
11
96
85
25

Can't put any Brady led teams bottom 3

Ironically, the most complete team 07 sucked in the Super Bowl. In 85, 96, 25, they were all devastating. 2004 with Corey Dillon was great. I loved the running game. 03 is one of my favorites, a lot of backups ended up playing, a dog fight, and I'll always remember Russ Hochstein playing the game of his life.

 

[maust]

Apropos of nothing, 1985 might be my favorite Pats AFC playoff run ever... beat the Jets, Raiders, and Fins all on the road as a wild card... and won in Miami for the first time since 1966.

I choose to end my 1985 postseason memories there.

Separating the runs from the Super Bowls is an interesting thought exercise and much better than the lame question posed in the OP. You are correct, the '85 run was phenomenally enjoyable, easily the most entertaining as far as the pre-bowl games go. There's a fair drop off to the '01 run then probably the not thought enough of '18 run as far as entertaining. I found it odd that '14 came to mind but when I looked I realized it had more to do with the divisional game against the Ravens and the SB, the AFCCG was more or less punching the clock for that team.

As for what was the best Pats SB team, the '04 team would not only eat the lunches of all the other Pats SB teams, they could have gone toe to toe with any SB team and only a few would have been tight contests. Thinking '85 Bears, '78 Steelers and '89 Niners and that's saying something as those teams were built pre cap and FA. Not a team in the cap era that would have beaten that '04 team.

 

[Hugepatsfan]

Such a shame Ty Law got hurt in 2004. The only thing that holds me back from saying that team could beat damn near any team in history is that against the best of the best all time hard to think Troy Brown at CB wouldn't catch up to you.

 

[TheRainMaker]

It's very hard to rank these teams because the era's were different. My ranking will be on era's:

2007 Pats are the best by far and in a class of their own. Spags wouldn't have blitzed as much had Brady not injured his ankle.

Early dynasty 2000's:

2003. Best defense by far in the BB era, but the offense was weird. Only scored when they had to.
2004. They would be ahead of 2003 if Law and Poole weren't injured.
2001: The worst of the BB era when compared to the other teams. Brady was shaky and relied on the defense to keep games close.

2nd dynasty 2010's:
2016: Brady went on a tear. Looked like it came crashing down in the Super Bowl.
2011: Brady threw over 5,300 yards and Gronk had a record breaking season. Defense was atrocious and would've been even worse without Andre Carter and Mark Anderson. They beat the Giants had Gronk not gotten hurt in the playoffs.
2017: Like 2011 and 2016, Brady lit it up. Defense was mediocre. They would've beaten Philly with Edelman, Hightower, Branch and Butler.
2018: One of the worst in the BB era. Passing game struggled, Gronk was a shell of himself. Gurley hurt made it easy to defend the Rams offense.

Other era's (no ranking):
1996: We seem to underrate this team. They were loaded and arguably the most talented overall. They put up a fight against one of the best teams of the 90's.
2025: They had a really good season. Injuries and facing a superior team exploiting their weaknesses ended it.
1985: Before my time. I was 3 years old. No comment.

 

[XLIX]

The 1976 Patriots were better than some of those Super Bowl teams.

 

[VrabelJr]

It’s so hard to do this because of injuries. I believe our very best team was probably 2015 but injuries decimated them, but since they didn’t make the Super Bowl I’d say the 2016 team which was slightly not as good as 2015, but also didn’t have Gronk late in the season.

 

[john4psu]

It would be easier to rank the teams based on the talent if we omitted QB. Brady covered up so much...
Imagine prime Brady on the 85 or 96 team? No offense to Bledsoe, he was a warrior in his SB IMHO.

This is so very true.

 

[john4psu]

The 1976 Patriots were better than some of those Super Bowl teams.

Robbed in Oakland on that bullsh*t roughing the passer hit.

 

[p8ryts]

Probably one of our more complete teams

The 1976 Patriots were better than some of those Super Bowl teams.

 

[sean10mm]

Winners:

2014 - This might seem like a Hot Take, but we forget how uniformly good this team was, how absolutely locked in Brady was after the first 4 games, and how good the Seahawks team they beat was - they absolutely CLOWNED ON the "best offense in history" Broncos the year before, and the Pats hung in to steal their soul at the last second, which broke the back of that would-be dynasty.

2004 - This team wasn't flashy, but was an absolute mincing machine. Different era that can seem dull now, but on their Super Bowl run they held the best offense in league history to 3, and then hung 41 on the best defense in the league. 2004 was when Brady leveled up and Belichick was absolutely peak.

2016 - Brady's arm was fractionally softer, but from the neck up he was on his own plane of existence, and this team was maybe the most well-oiled machine top to bottom since, well, 2004. Then the wheels fell off in the Super Bowl...until they didn't, heh.

2003 - Very skewed toward defense, and Brady wasn't in his final form yet, but they won 15 straight games and then Brady suddenly went HAM in the Super Bowl.

2018 - The last hurrah, thin on talent and Brady (seemingly, heh) running on fumes, but I give it the edge over 2001 because of just the experience level and how they just choked out the uber-offense of the Rams so utterly. Belichick's final "I'm smarter than everyone in the league" coaching performance.

2001 - Sentimentally this is #1, but they we not good for like the first 2/3ish of the year and the entire playoff run was a series of squeakers that could have gone the other way. But of course they didn't!

Losers:

2007 - Duh. That being said, you could see their dominance taper off down the stretch.

2011 & 2017 - Push, both teams were stellar offenses with ATROCIOUS defenses. Equal disappoint.

1996 - This still feels like the best non-Brady team, which is admittedly a low bar. Bledsoe was a Pro Bowler that year, and they at least scored >1 touchdown on offense.

2025 - This was a good team, let's not get it twisted, but they had the easiest SoS *in team history* and were just flatly outclassed in the Super Bowl on a basic talent level, especially OL. Maye made a big leap from his rookie year, but was no Brady (which is an insanely unfair comparison, of course)

1985 - Out of the top 5 in points for and points against, quarterbacks were ehhhhhhhhhhhh, and wildly outclassed in the big game.

 

[Steve102]

Winners:

2014 - This might seem like a Hot Take, but we forget how uniformly good this team was, how absolutely locked in Brady was after the first 4 games, and how good the Seahawks team they beat was - they absolutely CLOWNED ON the "best offense in history" Broncos the year before, and the Pats hung in to steal their soul at the last second, which broke the back of that would-be dynasty.

2004 - This team wasn't flashy, but was an absolute mincing machine. Different era that can seem dull now, but on their Super Bowl run they held the best offense in league history to 3, and then hung 41 on the best defense in the league. 2004 was when Brady leveled up and Belichick was absolutely peak.

2016 - Brady's arm was fractionally softer, but from the neck up he was on his own plane of existence, and this team was maybe the most well-oiled machine top to bottom since, well, 2004. Then the wheels fell off in the Super Bowl...until they didn't, heh.

2003 - Very skewed toward defense, and Brady wasn't in his final form yet, but they won 15 straight games and then Brady suddenly went HAM in the Super Bowl.

2018 - The last hurrah, thin on talent and Brady (seemingly, heh) running on fumes, but I give it the edge over 2001 because of just the experience level and how they just choked out the uber-offense of the Rams so utterly. Belichick's final "I'm smarter than everyone in the league" coaching performance.

2001 - Sentimentally this is #1, but they we not good for like the first 2/3ish of the year and the entire playoff run was a series of squeakers that could have gone the other way. But of course they didn't!

Losers:

2007 - Duh. That being said, you could see their dominance taper off down the stretch.

2011 & 2017 - Push, both teams were stellar offenses with ATROCIOUS defenses. Equal disappoint.

1996 - This still feels like the best non-Brady team, which is admittedly a low bar. Bledsoe was a Pro Bowler that year, and they at least scored >1 touchdown on offense.

2025 - This was a good team, let's not get it twisted, but they had the easiest SoS *in team history* and were just flatly outclassed in the Super Bowl on a basic talent level, especially OL. Maye made a big leap from his rookie year, but was no Brady (which is an insanely unfair comparison, of course)

1985 - Out of the top 5 in points for and points against, quarterbacks were ehhhhhhhhhhhh, and wildly outclassed in the big game.

This is a good take.

I always felt the 2018 got by on old man guile. They knew how to win. Kinda limped into the playoffs, going 2-2 in December, then throttled the Chargers before going 15 rounds with the Chiefs, which than became The Next Great Team. I don't think you can underestimate how good the Chiefs were at that point. I'd rank the 2001 team higher, because that was a nasty defense, but the 2018 team destroyed the Rams, so your point on Belichick's last stand is accurate too.

 

[TheRainMaker]

It’s so hard to do this because of injuries. I believe our very best team was probably 2015 but injuries decimated them, but since they didn’t make the Super Bowl I’d say the 2016 team which was slightly not as good as 2015, but also didn’t have Gronk late in the season.

There was talk of the 2015 team going undefeated prior to injuries. I think they would've had a very good chance or lose two games at worst. They would've had the #1 seed and easily taken care of Denver at home. The 2015 was on their way of being the best team of the 2nd dynasty until injuries got out of control.