Editor’s note: The Final Four polls have closed. Vote in the championship here! You can also check out every team we considered for the bracket and how the NFL has evolved over the past 25 years.
If one thing can be said about our bracket, it’s that we did a decent job with the seeding. The Final Four is set, and it will feature all four no. 1 seeds after a day of chalk in the Elite Eight. The 2013 Seahawks face the 2024 Eagles, and the 2007 Patriots battle the 2019 Chiefs.
Let’s take a closer look at those two matchups. The 2013 Seahawks—our overall top seed—have absolutely crushed their opponents all week. It may seem like Seattle should be a shoo-in against the Eagles as well; since they finished their season just six months ago, they don’t benefit from the rose-tinted lens of nostalgia. But there is a real case for 2024 Philly. Allow me to lay it out.
The Eagles are the most balanced team left in this bracket. Per TruMedia, their offense averaged 0.51 EPA per drive, while the defense put up 0.52 EPA per drive. The 2013 Seahawks had a significantly better defense, at 0.75 EPA per drive, but a much worse offense, at 0.23 EPA per drive. Does that better defense put the Seahawks over the top? Obviously it did against the 2013 Broncos, but against the Eagles, I’m not as sure.
No one will say that the 2024 Eagles offense is one of the best in league history, although it was certainly elite. What the Eagles offense could do, though, was beat teams in so many ways. Between Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert—not to mention the best offensive line in football—the Eagles had more playmaking talent and offensive firepower than arguably any team the 2013 Seahawks ever faced. If anyone would be up to the task, it’d be Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, and Co. But it’s not a given that the Seahawks would crush this offense like they did the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.
On the other side of the ball, the Seahawks, of course, had a physical, ball-controlling offense of their own, led by Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson. They may not have had an elite pass catcher (bet you can’t name their leading receiver without looking it up), but Wilson’s playmaking and Lynch’s ferocious style could grind down an opposing defense, no questions asked. And ultimately, the Seahawks have the quarterback advantage—I like Hurts more than most do, but prime Wilson could make magic happen like few other QBs in league history.
Then we have the 2007 Patriots and the 2019 Chiefs. Kansas City had a supercharged offense that year … but of course, ’07 New England had an even more supercharged offense. Arguably the best we’ve ever seen. You want the EPA numbers? The 2007 Pats put up 1.61 EPA per offensive drive and 0.24 on defense. The Chiefs are at 0.78 and minus-0.3, respectively. Even if you account for the fact that Mahomes missed two games due to an injury, it just isn’t very close. Advanced metrics strongly favor the Pats.
More on the Best NFL Team of the Quarter Century
As for the specific matchups, the Chiefs defense that year was just plain average. The Pats’ Randy Moss would be lining up opposite Charvarius Ward or Bashaud Breeland, guys he’d have no trouble torching. And while the Kansas City pass rush of Chris Jones and Frank Clark could cause some havoc, they certainly weren’t on the level of the 2007 Giants pass rush that gave Tom Brady fits in the Super Bowl.
While the Chiefs offense—complete with Tyreek Hill—could obviously put up points, I think that the New England defense of Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, Rodney Harrison, and Asante Samuel would have more success in slowing down Kansas City than the other way around. This would probably be a high-scoring game, and I just trust the 2007 Patriots offense more.
But maybe it comes down to rings for you. The 2019 Chiefs earned theirs; the 2007 Patriots fell short. Sports is a results-oriented business, and Kansas City’s Super Bowl win may be the result needed to push them forward in this bracket as well. It’s up to you to decide.
As always, we’ll close the polls at 6 p.m. ET. Come back tomorrow to vote in the championship round and crown an overall winner. —Riley McAtee
(1) 2013 Seattle Seahawks vs. (1) 2024 Philadelphia Eagles
2013 Seahawks
Record: 13-3
Result: Won Super Bowl XLVIII (43-8 vs. Broncos)
There are a million things I could write about the peak era of the Seahawks Legion of Boom defense, but perhaps the easiest explanation for just how ludicrously good that unit really was is this: On the biggest stage, in Seattle’s 43-8 blowout victory over the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII, the Seahawks made league-MVP Peyton Manning and the NFL’s all-time highest-scoring offense look like a bumbling JV squad.
The much-anticipated heavyweight bout quickly turned into a lopsided rout. The Broncos, who had racked up an NFL-record 606 points (37.9 points per game) on the back of Manning’s league-record 55 touchdown throws, were left completely disoriented by the LOB's extraordinarily disciplined, hard-hitting style. The Seahawks forced a failed-snap safety on the Broncos’ first play from scrimmage before picking Manning off on his team’s first and third possessions following the safety—the second, a 69-yard pick-six, made it 22-0 and more or less put the game away before the first half even ended. The trio of Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, and Kam Chancellor held things down in the back end, bolstered up front by the likes of Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright, Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril, and a host of others.
That outcome came as no surprise to the uniquely brash, trash-talking Seahawks defense, which had allowed the fewest points (14.4 per game) and fewest yards (273.6 per game) of any team in the NFL that season while generating a league-best 39 takeaways. That unit ranked first in defensive DVOA that year, obviously, and ranks sixth best on the all-time DVOA list. The team’s offense, led by plucky then-second-year quarterback Russell Wilson, carried its own weight, of course, finishing the year tied for eighth in points per game and seventh in DVOA. Wilson paired up with Marshawn Lynch to help reanimate the read option in pro football, and Lynch gave the offense an identity of toughness that rivaled that of their defensive counterparts. Add in the team’s highly efficient special teams group (which ranked fifth in DVOA that year), and it’s clear that the team general manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll built that year will go down as one of the most complete, most fun, and most dominant we’ll ever see. —Danny Kelly
2024 Eagles
Record: 14-3
Result: Won Super Bowl LIX (40-22 vs. Chiefs)
It took a little while, but by the time the 2024 Eagles got to New Orleans to take on the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, it was clear that they were one of the best teams of this century. The Eagles had gotten off to a 2-2 start but then won 16 of their next 17 games, en route to a convincing championship. Vic Fangio’s defense was built from back to front, with suffocating coverage that allowed the pass rush time to get home. And the Eagles held up against top-tier quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Matthew Stafford, and Jayden Daniels. This defense was tested often, and it came out on top over and over and over again.
Offensively, the goal was to be a pick-your-poison unit. Pound the ball with Saquon Barkley and a dominant offensive line until defenses prove that they can stop you. If that happened, Philly could lean on Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and the passing game. In the Super Bowl, Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo effectively loaded the box to limit Barkley’s production. But it didn’t matter because Hurts lit Kansas City up through the air as the Eagles rolled to a dominant 40-22 victory. (Reminder: It was 40-6 before two Chiefs garbage-time touchdowns.)
Overall, the Eagles outscored their opponents by 68 points in the playoffs—the third-best differential of any Super Bowl team this century. From a roster talent standpoint, there aren’t too many teams on this list that stack up to the 2024 Eagles. Howie Roseman built a juggernaut, and when things clicked, it seemed like this team was unbeatable. —Sheil Kapadia
(1) 2007 New England Patriots vs. (1) 2019 Kansas City Chiefs
2007 Patriots
Record: 16-0
Result: Lost Super Bowl XLII (17-14 vs. Giants)
The New York Giants beating the undefeated 2007 Patriots was perhaps the single greatest moment of my life. So as a Giants fan, I feel uniquely qualified to say that the 2007 New England Patriots are unequivocally the best football team of the 21st century, even though they did not win the Super Bowl.
You know the accolades: Tom Brady became the first player to throw 50 touchdown passes in a season. Randy Moss broke the single-season receiving touchdown record. The Patriots offense as a whole scored more points than any other team in league history. And they were the first team to go undefeated in the regular season since the 1972 Dolphins, and the first (and to date, only) team to go 16-0.
The ’07 Patriots also changed the game. They made three-receiver sets the default. They moved offenses from under center to shotgun. Football before and after this team looked different, both on the field and in the record books. Brady may be the best player in the history of football, and 2007 was inarguably the best season of his career. Despite that Super Bowl loss, there is zero doubt in my mind that if you put every team in the 21st century on the same field, the ’07 Patriots walk away champions. —Danny Heifetz
2019 Chiefs
Record: 12-4
Result: Won Super Bowl LIV (31-20 vs. 49ers)
It was tough to pick the best Chiefs team of the Patrick Mahomes era, so in many ways this 2019 team will account for the incredible three-year run that kicked off his career as a starting quarterback. The 2018 squad was a revelation and finished the regular season ranked first in points (565, the third most of the century), touchdowns, total yards, and yards per play. They were explosive and efficient, and by total offensive EPA, they were the seventh-best offense of the century so far. But they came up short in the playoffs, losing at home to the Patriots in the conference championship and robbing us of a Super Bowl matchup against Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams. I may never forgive Dee Ford (or the officiating crew that flagged him for offsides).
The 2019 Chiefs didn’t quite hit the same offensive highs, but this was the year they broke through in the postseason and Mahomes built his legacy as one of the greatest gamers. He led Kansas City back from double-digit deficits in each of their three playoff wins, including the Super Bowl victory over the 49ers. And that 2019 team had defensive closers—Tyrann Mathieu was a huge addition to the secondary, and Chris Jones was an absolute monster in the biggest moments.
The 2020 Chiefs made it back to the Super Bowl, but the offense was a shell of itself by February because of injuries on the offensive line. Ultimately, the 2018 Chiefs might have been more fun, but the 2019 Chiefs were better when it counted, and that’s worth plenty when determining not just the best Chiefs team of the Mahomes era but the best teams of this quarter century. —Lindsay Jones
