There’s a new article out from BleacherReport.com that asks a good question. Which team will be the next NFL dynasty? It’s a tough call. A crop of teams are hot going into the 2024 season, and many of them have a lot of cap space to work with, too. But, looking at the rosters and coaching staffs, it’s starting to become apparent which teams might dominate the next five or 10 years in the NFL.
The Next ‘NFL Dynasty’
Let’s start by talking about the teams of the past that have been an NFL dynasty. The New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys have won the most Super Bowls over the years. So, you could call them the teams with the longest legacy and the longest-standing winning records. But, now, there are new teams that are stepping up and starting to win more than these legacy teams. I mean, look at how bad the New England Patriots were last season. It’s going to take a while for them to rebuild. The Cowboys and Steelers are rebuilding, too. Now, the 49ers are another story.
Let’s get into BleacherReport.com’s No. 1 pick first. Because, why tease? The team that they picked for No. 1 is already a heritage team, if you ask me. Author and NFL expert Kristopher Knox has the San Francisco 49ers as the team with the best chance of being the newest NFL dynasty. But, as I mentioned earlier, they have already won more Super Bowls than most teams. So, they’re kind of the old dynasty, if you ask me.
So, Knox has the 49ers as No. 1. But, he actually mentioned some big problems they have for the next few years. “The 49ers are potentially closer to the end of their window than any other team on this list,” he writes, because they’ll probably be $23.4 million over the cap in the next offseason. Ouch. They also have a roster of older players. But, he adds, “The 49ers have a roster without major flaws, a quarterback who can lead the franchise for the next decade-plus and a head coach who has proven he can put his team deep into the playoffs.”
No. 2 on the tally is the Detroit Lions. That’s a team everyone has been buzzing about for the past year and a half. The Lions are a team that’s never been a NFL dynasty, but this could be their era. He writes that, “On paper, the Lions have one of the most complete rosters in the NFL, and they locked up key players like Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Penei Sewell this offseason.” He adds that Detroit has managed all of this without impacting cap flexibility. He adds, “Thanks to ascending stars like St. Brown, Sewell, Jahmyr Gibbs, Aidan Hutchinson, Jack Campbell and Sam LaPorta, the Lions can actually be classified as a ‘young’ team. They had the fourth-youngest roster among playoff teams last season behind only Green Bay, Dallas and the Los Angeles Rams.”
Going further down on the list, the Houston Texans are No. 3 and the Philadelphia Eagles are No. 4. The Green Bay Packers are No. 5.