The top teams in every half decade of Super Bowl era

[SeahawkFever]

On another post, I said “most teams that are among the best of their era probably made at least one conference championship game.”

That got me thinking: How would it all stack up if you actually looked into the numbers?

Here are the teams with the nine best regular season records in the NFL in each five year period (except for 1966-1969, which is four years). Those with asterisks made the conference championship game at least once in that five year window:

1966-1969:
Raiders*
Chiefs*
Cowboys*
Colts*
Rams
Browns*
Packers*
Jets*
Chargers

1970-1974:
Dolphins*
Vikings*
Cowboys*
Raiders*
Redskins*
Rams*
Steelers*
Lions
49ers*

1975-1979:
Steelers*
Cowboys*
Rams*
Raiders*
Broncos*
Vikings*
Dolphins
Redskins
Oilers*

1980-1984:
Dolphins*
Cowboys*
Raiders*
Redskins*
49ers*
Steelers*
Broncos
Chargers*

1985-1989:
Bears*
49ers*
Giants*
Broncos*
Redskins*
Browns*
Rams*
Vikings*
Patriots*

1990-1994:
49ers*
Bills*
Cowboys*
Chiefs*
Dolphins*
Steelers*
Giants*
Raiders*
Eagles

1995-1999:
Packers*
Broncos*
49ers*
Chiefs
Vikings*
Jaguars*
Bills
Cowboys*
Steelers*

2000-2004:
Eagles*
Packers
Steelers*
Patriots*
Rams*
Colts*
Broncos
Titans*
Ravens*

2005-2009:
Colts*
Patriots*
Chargers*
Cowboys
Steelers*
Giants*
Bears*
Panthers*
Broncos*

2010-2014:
Patriots*
Packers*
Ravens*
Steelers*
49ers*
Broncos*
Seahawks*
Saints
Falcons*

2015-2019:
Patriots*
Chiefs*
Steelers*
Saints*
Vikings*
Seahawks
Packers*
Ravens
Eagles*

2020-2024:
Chiefs*
Bills*
Packers*
Ravens*
Eagles*
Buccaneers*
Steelers
Cowboys
Vikings

Here are the top nine teams by regular season win totals who didn’t get to a conference championship game:

1966-1969 Rams and Chargers
1970-1974 Lions
1975-1979 Dolphins and Redskins
1980-1984 Broncos
1985-1989 All of the top nine made it this far at least once
1990-1994 Eagles
1995-1999 Chiefs and Bills
2000-2004 Packers and Broncos
2005-2009 Cowboys
2010-2014 Saints
2015-2019 Seahawks and Ravens
2020-2024 Steelers, Cowboys and Vikings

Most of these stretches had only one or two of the top nine who didn’t get that far once, and the first half of the 2020’s is the first half decade of the Super Bowl era where three of the top nine didn’t make a conference championship game in the stretch.