Ranking The Last 10 Super Bowl Winners
Everyone is a winner, but only one winner is the winner. Clear?
Every Super Bowl winner, and Super Bowl path, is different.
Some years, you get to play against a third string QB in the Championship Game. Who then gets hurt, so you play against the 4th string. Who then gets hurt, so you play against the injured 3rd string who can’t throw. Sometimes it’s even more of a challenge than that.
And while every winner is deserving, they are certainly not equal. Some aren’t even deserving if you ask me.
Naturally, I decided to pit them against each other. Join me for a short jaunt down memory lane as we rank the best of the best from the last ten Super Bowl winners, and if you’re looking for some extra fun, take a shot every time I have to write “Brady.”
1. The 2015 New England Patriots
Start drinking. When I first made this list, a natural place to start was the Seahawks dominant 2014 win over Peyton’s Broncos (we’ll get to them soon), but then I remembered there was a team that beat a very similar Seattle team just one year later. This is also happens to be one of the best, and most dramatic, Super Bowls of all time. Tom Brady was a maniac, throwing for 330 yards and 4 TDs against one of the best defenses ever. New England couldn’t get anything going on the ground, but Brady was able to do just enough on offense, leaning heavily on Edelman, Gronk, and Shane Vereen(!). Of course, the Seattle team on the other side could easily be the #1 team in this spot, too. Had they run the ball. On the 1 yard line. With Marshawn Lynch.
2. The 2014 Seattle Seahawks
Few NFL games, let alone playoff games, let alone SUPER BOWLS have felt as “over” as quickly as this game did. Seattle scored seven seconds into the game, forcing a safety on defense. They then proceeded to score 11 more times before Denver scored a single point, breaking the 36-0 shutout as the clock struck 0 in the 3rd quarter. Seattle scored every way possible, too. They had a pick six, a KO return TD, a safety, a rushing TD, two passing TDs, and seven (!) FGs. The defense was truly the story though, forcing four turnovers in the game and holding Peyton Manning and the Broncos to 11 total yards in the first quarter. It was a murder party from start to finish, and the only reason they’re #2 is because their 2015 team couldn’t beat Brady.
3. The 2021 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Purely roster wise, this is maybe the best team of anyone on this list. I even strongly considered putting them at the #1 spot. Ultimately, I think this team suffers a little bit due to the lack of quality in their opponent, but I also think this team did a great job of making the Chiefs look worse than they were. This Super Bowl was a domination from the Bucs start to finish. The Chiefs scored the first three points of the game, and then proceeded to get outscored 31-6. Tampa Bay’s defense was swarming, fast, and huge. Mahomes struggled to find any time to throw, getting absolutely bullied by the defensive line. It felt like an SEC team playing a BIG 12 team. On offense, Tampa could do pretty much whatever they wanted. Brady completed close to 75% of his passes and threw for 3 TDs. The Bucs ran for just under 150 yards. Maybe most impressive though? They kept Mahomes out of the end zone for the entire game. This team is probably the last in my top tier of winners.
4. The 2017 New England Patriots
Not much more needs to be said besides 28-3. One of the most iconic, and infamous, scores in NFL history. Tom Brady and the Patriots scored on 4 straight drives to close out the second half, including going 2/2 on two point conversions (somehow forgot this??). The Patriots were down 19 points going into the 4th quarter, before Brady led two separate scoring drives of 72 and 91 yards (and one 25 yard drive from a Matt Ryan fumble) to bring the score to a 28-28 tie and force OT. In overtime, Patriots won the coin toss and Brady didn’t even face a third down on a 8 play, 75 yard game winning TD drive. Brady finished with 466 yards passing, and the Patriots ran double the offensive plays (93) than the Falcons (46). While this wasn’t the best team Brady won with, it was definitely the most memorable.
5. The 2020 Kansas City Chiefs
This is where the list starts to get harder in my opinion, but I’m choosing the Chiefs to round out the top five. The Chiefs had an up and down playoff run to even make it to the Super Bowl, (at one point they were down to the Texans 24-0 in their opening game, as well as 10-0 to the Titans in the Championship game) but ultimately it was always Patrick Mahomes and the offense that dragged the team back to pull off the impossible. The Super Bowl was no different, as the Chiefs entered the 4th quarter down 20-10, then proceeded to score three straight times on offense to end the game on a 21-0 run and win 31-20. Damien Williams was a monster for this Chiefs team, and they deserved to win, but ultimately it was Jimmy G’s inability to make big plays when it mattered that held the 49ers back.
6. The 2022 Los Angeles Rams
These guys were just good. As they should’ve been. After all, they certainly paid the price for it this year, and will likely only continue to do so. But when you trade your future away for Matthew Stafford and Jalen Ramsey, you have an offensive genius as a head coach, and you also happen to have the best player in the entire NFL and a WR having one of the best seasons in history…well good things happen. You could even argue this team was better than the 2020 Chiefs and I wouldn’t fight you too much. Aaron Donald, the best player in the NFL and one of the best players ever, period, made the game sealing play and Cooper Kupp caught two TDs. All the stars shined their brightest, and the Rams pulled out a close game against a Bengals team many were surprised to see make it.
7. The 2018 Philadelphia Eagles
I did not know what to do with this team. They led the Patriots almost the entire way, before things got really interesting with 9 minutes left in the 4th and the Patriots crept ahead 33-32. The Eagles score 9 straight to finish with the win over Tom Brady, led by Nick Foles. A sentence I still can’t believe I’m writing even 5 years later. Never forget the iconic Philly special either, Doug Pederson’s 4th and Goal call right before halftime, which sits near the top of best calls by a coach in Super Bowl history (still behind Sean Payton going for an onside kick to start the second half though). I think this was a good team, but I also kinda just think if this game was played 10 times over the Eagles would win 3 of those times at best. Maybe that’s wrong. Maybe I’m not giving them enough credit. But #7 on this list feels just about right.
8. The 2016 Denver Broncos
A theme of these Super Bowl winners have been elite defenses, and maybe no game was more evident of that than this one. Peyton Manning rightfully retired after this season, riding off into the sunset after his dominant 13/23, 141 yards, 0 TD, 1 Int game. Hopefully he paid for back surgery for his entire defense, as they held the 17-1 Panthers to 10 points, forced four turnovers (including 3 from Cam), and even scored on a fumble recovery. Cam completed under 50% of his passes against them, going 18/41 and fumbling twice. The Broncos offense that year is unquestionably the worst unit of any team on this list, but the defense was so good it saves them from finishing last.
9. The 2013 Baltimore Ravens
This game was chaos. This matchup was chaos. There should have been no winner. There was a 30 minute power outage, which most people remember, but there was also a 22 point comeback and near collapse by the Ravens to boot. The Ravens led 28-6, before the 49ers stormed back to bring it as close to 31-29, before eventually falling 34-31 (yes, of course, the game ended with a safety). This game led to Joe Flacco becoming the highest paid player in the NFL, something that actually happened. Ed Reed had an interception on the biggest stage. Jacoby Jones had 206 yards of KO return, including an 108 yard TD to start the second half. Ray Lewis vs Patrick Willis was a thing. Colin Kaepernick was really bad. Idk. You feel caught up? Again, this game led to Joe Flacco becoming the highest paid player in the NFL.
10. The 2019 New England Patriots
Was this the worst Super Bowl of all time? Probably not, I don’t know history that well, but I certainly know this one sucked. I will ALWAYS remember this Super Bowl as the fake news Super Bowl, mainly because my Saints lost out on a chance to compete, and the chance for a Brees Brady matchup, because of a no-call that was so incredibly bad it led to a fundamental rule change in the way the game was played the following year. The Rams, who didn’t deserve to be in the Super Bowl to begin with, put on a pathetic performance against what was yes, a dominant Patriots defense, but an inept offense. The writing was on the wall that Brady’s time in New England was over, but he was too busy walking over the pathetic Jared Goff Rams we were all too annoyed to notice. This is the worst winner unquestionably, and yes, the worst Super Bowl of all time.
