Does a Super Bowl Win This Year Put Green Bay Packers Among All-Time Dynasties?

Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers have begun to garner premature discussions about being the NFL’s next dynasty. The defending NFL champions remain undefeated and look nearly unstoppable on offense, but the dynasty talk seems a bit much.

The Packers won the Super Bowl this past February in a matchup between two of the NFL’s most popular franchises. Attaining the Lombardi Trophy and bringing it back to its birthplace in “Titletown” has invigorated a proud franchise that has been relatively irrelevant since the mid-1990s.

Green Bay accomplished this feat with a good chunk of their roster standing on the sideline in green and gold jumpsuits rather than being suited up with their helmets on Sundays last fall. Several key players were noticeably missing throughout the regular season, yet the Packers hung around.

All of a sudden the Green Bay Packers got hot. Do-not-touch-it-or-get-burned kind of hot.

They rode that wave into the playoffs and cruised into the offseason as world champions.

However, we’re talking about dynasties here. Any team can get hot, execute near flawlessly and have a fantastic run of form for a short period of time. It happens in every sport and it happens in football practically every year. Sometimes the hot team wins it all and sometimes the team with the better coach or the better overall talent extinguishes the fire.

The Green Bay Packers have clearly been both in the last calendar year. They haven’t lost a game since December 26 and are currently on a 13-game winning streak.

There’s no denying Aaron Rodgers is among the upper echelon of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL. Mike McCarthy has proven to be one of the best head coaches in the game right now. Ted Thompson—the Packers GM—could arguably be the most valuable part of this equation.

As one of the best-ran organizations in the league, the Packers have been ahead of the curve in the new era of the NFL with all the rule changes skewed to a more offensively finesse league. Nurturing Rodgers during the end of Brett Favre’s career has paid significant dividends and the Packers front office are looking to extend their football wealth for a few more years by building an explosive team around him.

The big question remains unanswered. Is this team considered a dynasty if they win back-to-back Super Bowl titles?

Opinions may vary on this but my definition of a dynasty coincides with the power of three. There have been great teams throughout all arenas of sport to win consecutive titles, but to win the third championship within the same era separates dynasties from great teams.

Look at the previous dynasties to come before this current Green Bay Packers team. This same franchise dominated the NFL in the 1960s, which is why that coveted trophy is named after the legendary head coach Vince Lombardi. 

That Packers team won five championships between 1961 to 1967. That team won three consecutive championships from 1965 to 1967, including the first two Super Bowls.

The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s won four Super Bowls in six years from 1974 to 1979. The Dallas Cowboys won three Super Bowls in four years from 1992 to 1995.

The San Francisco 49ers from 1981 to 1994 won five Super Bowls with two different head coaches and two different quarterbacks. That 49ers team appeared in six of seven NFC Championship games from 1988 to 1994 and had an 18-game road winning streak, which is an NFL record.

The most recent NFL dynasty is the New England Patriots, who won three Lombardi Trophies from 2001 to 2004. They won 10 straight playoff games and 21 consecutive games from October 5, 2003 to October 31, 2004, which is an NFL record.

These teams have set the NFL precedent for what it takes to be a dynasty in this league. Certainly, Packers fans are aware that to label this current team a dynasty right now would be premature and naïve.

However, do not be mistaken because this team contains the right foundation to become the NFL’s next dynasty. That being said, there remains a long road ahead for the Green Bay Packers to navigate before we start throwing around the "D" word with absolute validity.

To answer the headline’s question directly, the Green Bay Packers would warrant talk about a possible dynasty for the next five to six years.

That is easier said than done with the balance of power seemingly shifting to the NFC as we start a new era in the NFL. Most of the NFL’s future elite at the quarterback position reside in the NFC and will be gunning for the Packers year in and year out.

Let’s all agree that this team scares the living daylights out of defensive coordinators and as long as Aaron Rodgers stays healthy, this team will be a threat for the next decade. Until we see Rodgers putting on his now-infamous championship belt a couple more times on one of those makeshift Super Bowl stages, let’s slow down with the dynasty hyperbole.