The Kansas City Chiefs were already a dynasty when they took the field for Super Bowl LIX. A win over the Eagles only would have elevated the Chiefs’ status as one of the greatest teams of all time.
The Chiefs lost, though, missing out on their chance to make history by becoming the first team to win three straight Super Bowls. Kansas City also missed out on joining the 1970s Steelers as the only teams to win four Super Bowls in a six-year span.
While the loss hurts on several fronts, it doesn’t completely diminish what the Chiefs have done. Not even close. Since 2019, the Chiefs have won three Super Bowls and have played in two more, a stretch of success that the sport has rarely seen.
A win would have catapulted the Chiefs near the top of the NFL’s all-time great dynasties list. Here’s where this Chiefs run ranks following Sunday night’s 40-22 loss to the Eagles.
NFL’s greatest dynasties of the Super Bowl era
Had they beaten the Eagles, the Chiefs would have slingshot past the 49ers, who won five Super Bowls over a 14-year span. While the loss prevented them from doing that, the Chiefs are still ranked ahead of the ’90s Cowboys, who also won three Super Bowls.
Each of the NFL’s best Super Bowl dynasties has their own unique distinction. The Dolphins were the first team to play in three Super Bowls and boast the NFL’s only perfect team (the ’72 squad). The ’70s Cowboys was the first team to play in five Super Bowls. Washington won three Super Bowls and played in a fourth one during an extremely competitive era in the NFC. They won each of their Super Bowls with a different starting quarterback.
The Raiders’ first Super Bowl win came at the expense of the Steelers, who at that time had come the closest of any team to win three straight Super Bowls. The 1980 Raiders were the first wild-card team to win the Super Bowl. Three years later, they upset defending Super Bowl champion Washington in one of the most shocking Super Bowls in history.
The ’90s Cowboys were the first team to win three Super Bowls in a four-year span. The ’92 team completed the greatest turnaround in NFL history as Dallas had gone 1-15 just three years prior. The team the Cowboys dethroned, the 49ers, had taken the league by storm on the strength of Bill Walsh’s revolutionary “West Coast” offense. San Francisco became the first team to win five Super Bowls after extracting a measure of revenge on Dallas in the 1994 NFC title game.
Ranking every Chiefs team during current dynasty: Where 2024 Kansas City squad ranks after Super Bowl LIX loss
Tyler Sullivan
With the Chiefs’ loss on Sunday night, Vince Lombardi’s Packers remain the last NFL team to win three straight Super Bowls. The Packers, which at one point boasted 11 Hall of Fame players, dethroned the Browns in the 1965 NFL title game before defeating Tom Landry’s Cowboys in back-to-back NFL titles games while also defeating the AFL’s first two Super Bowl representatives by a combined score of 68-24.
The 1970s Steelers, comprised of 10 Hall of Fame players, are the only team to win back-to-back Super Bowls twice. Pittsburgh dominated an era that also included several other iconic teams that included John Madden’s Raiders, Landry’s Cowboys and Don Shula’s Dolphins. The Steelers are ranked ahead of the ’60s Packers because of that competition as well as the fact that each of their titles were won during the Super Bowl era.
Kansas City doesn’t have as many future Hall of Famers, but it has found the blueprint to win in today’s NFL. The Chiefs have the game’s best quarterback today in Patrick Mahomes, who has largely been complemented by teammates that have been good enough to win championships. Like the Patriots before them, the Chiefs have reinforced the fact that you can have dynasties in the NFL’s salary cap/free agency era.
Is the Chiefs’ dynasty over? It’s hard to say that as long Mahomes is still their quarterback. But the dynasty took a big hit on Sunday night, and it’s fair to wonder whether or not the Chiefs can make it back to the Super Bowl next year, given the competition that exists in the AFC, especially at the quarterback position.
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