Kansas City Chiefs Cemented a Dynasty, But How Does it Compare?

With a Super Bowl LVIII win over the 49ers, the Chiefs cemented themselves as a dynasty. How do they stack up to dynasties of the past?

With three seconds remaining in overtime of Super Bowl LVIII, Patrick Mahomes found a wide-open Mecole Hardman in the right flat for a championship-winning and dynasty-cementing touchdown.

The Kansas City Chiefs have won three of the last five Super Bowls, making them the current NFL dynasty. As Mahomes said on the field when asked if it was a dynasty, "Yeah, it's the start of one. We're not done." While that's great for Chiefs fans and scary for the rest of the NFL to hear, it's essential to look back at how special the last handful years have been for Kansas City compared to past NFL dynasties.

1993 was the start of current free agency in the NFL. Before that, players were mainly forced to stay on the same team throughout their careers, making it easier for teams to remain at the top of the league. Not to take anything away from Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers of the '60s, the Pittsburgh Steelers of the '70s and Joe Montana's San Francisco 49ers of the '80s, but they won't be included in today's comparison. Therefore, in modern NFL history, there have been three or four dynasties depending on how you look at the New England Patriots' run of dominance.

The Patriots are tricky to look at because they won three Super Bowls between 2001 and 2004, then didn't win another one until 2014 but rattled off three from 2014-2018. The run of dominance spans over an incomparable 20 years but can be broken up into two separate dynastic runs. The three dynasties that this Chiefs run can be compared to are the '90s Cowboys, 2000s Patriots and 2010s Patriots.

	'90s Cowboys	'00s Patriots	'10s Patriots	'Chiefs
Years	4	4	5	5
SB Wins	3	3	3	3
SB App.	3	3	4	4
CCG App.	4	3	5	5
Missed Playoffs	0	1	0	0
Back-to-Back	Yes	Yes	No	Yes

The Chiefs' run is extremely comparable to the Patriots' run before them. The most significant difference is that Kansas City captured the elusive back-to-back titles that the 2010s version of the Patriots couldn't capture. Now, looking at New England's run in the early 2000s, they won the same amount of Super Bowls in a shorter amount of time. However, missing the playoffs between their first and second Super Bowl titles is a significant blemish when comparing the best runs of all time. In the last five years, the Chiefs didn't miss the playoffs and never failed to miss even the AFC Championship Game. While the Patriots' entire run is the standard of success for NFL franchises, the Chiefs' last five years trump it when broken up.

The '90s Cowboys are fascinating to look at. The years between their first and third Super Bowl was only four and, unlike the 2000s Patriots, they didn't miss the playoffs the year they didn't win the Super Bowl. They made the conference championship game that season. Dallas also won back-to-back Super Bowl championships during their run. So they have the best four-year run in modern NFL history, but adding that fifth year gives the Chiefs an argument. The Cowboys didn't make the conference title game on either side of their four-year run, while the Chiefs made that game yearly.

Also, the Chiefs have the most overall wins and playoff wins within five years in NFL history. That's all while being tied for the most conference game appearances, Super Bowl appearances and Super Bowl wins in five years. Therefore, there is an extremely strong case that the Chiefs are not only a dynasty but just completed the best five-year run in NFL history while, as Patrick Mahomes said, not being done.

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