The NFL Network has the 21st century Patriots as the #4 greatest football dynasty, except......

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Not sure how you can say that. As even during the Patriots dynasty the Steelers won 2 Super Bowls after the 2005 and 2008 season. And lost a 3rd in 2010.

While the Colts and Seahawks both won and lost a Super Bowl within a 5 year span.

I stand corrected. I guess the better way of putting it is that two championships in four or five years will be the new standard for a team to be a "dynasty" in this new era. Outside of the Patriots, no team in the last fifteen years has been even close to dynastic in any way. Teams like the Steelers, Ravens, and Giants can't even make the playoffs half the time even though they are the tier below the Pats. The Packers have one Super Bowl appearance despite their consistency with Rodgers. You can already see where the Seahawks are headed...same star players as before, but now these 6-7 guys take up 80% of the cap rather than 20% despite the same production. The nature of the salary cap and free agency along with lower draft positions mean you can only win consistently with other worldly QB play, and even that often comes up short in the playoffs. And then virtually every Super Bowl comes down to the last few drives and is basically a coin flip, which may explain the Colts and Seahawks 1-1 records. Teams sure as heck aren't going 4-0 in Super Bowls anymore. The Patriots have outscored their six opponents by a grand total of five points in all their Super Bowls this era, with the largest margin of victory being four points.

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

We're twenty years into the salary cap and free agency with only one dynasty. The 30 years prior had Pitt, SF, OAK, WAS, DAL, and GB. It's possible this is the greatest dynasty, we just don't have the historical context.

Also, having 32 teams instead of 12 or 14 makes this era much, much harder.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Man if the Pats only won in 07 and/or 11....

5 in 14 or 6 in 14 removes any doubt or discussion.

It would be great, but if you look at their six Super Bowls, here is the average score:

Patriots 22.5
NFC Rep 21.5

Games were decided by 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4 points. It is almost statistically impossible with their overall level of performance over those six games to finish 6-0. They have not been dominant enough in those games to warrant 5 or 6 SBs. There have been times when they were both lucky and unlucky in those games, and most of them were decided by inches on a given play.

I'll take 4-2 based on a razor thin average margin of victory. Another way of looking at it is, had Lynch scored a TD to beat them last year, they would have outscored overall in six SBs 22.6 - 22.5, a virtual dead heat, and finished 3-3. I would say the Super Bowl luck and win probability is just right. It just seems they were unlucky because the Giants got the lion's share in their two games on memorable plays. We forget about things like Kasay kicking the ball out bounds, McNabb puking all over himself and Owens playing injured, Warner getting hit at just the right time causing a pick-6, and of course, the Seahawks laundry list of bruises, and of course, even though Butler's play was incredible and well prepared, I bet he gets an INT less than 1 in 10 times even if he knows the play is coming. So we bemoan Tyree, Eli's lucky fumble bounces, Manningham, Gronk's bum ankle, etc, but overall the luck has been fairly even.

 

[Deus Irae]

Patriots and 49ers

Everyone else is vying for a very distant 3rd