The modern-day NFL was founded in 1920 and since then there have been many different legendary teams that have come and gone. Some of them however, stand out as being better than the rest. Here are the top ten best teams in NFL History.

10. The 2007 New England Patriots (18-1 overall; Head Coach: Bill Belichick)

Most fans remember this team not by what they did, but rather what they did not do. The 18-1 Patriots will live on in infamy as the best team that never was because of a helmet catch from a backup receiver named David Tyree.

If this team would have beaten the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, then they would probably be ranked number one on this list.

The addition of Randy Moss (98 catches for 1493 yards and 23 touchdowns) on offense propelled quarterback Tom Brady to the best season by a quarterback in NFL history at the time (4808 yards passing and 50 touchdowns) before Peyton Manning broke his records years later with the Broncos.

The Pats had lost in the AFC title game the previous year to the eventual Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts, and seriously needed to upgrade a receiving core that was massively depleted after Deion Branch was traded away to Seattle for a first-round pick.

Belichick then boosted his receiving core from an almost literal garbage can to one of the best in the league. The team first acquired receiver Wes Welker, who would go from backup on the Dolphins to arguably the best slot receiver of the modern era.

After that, they added Moss and former first-round pick Dante Stallworth to create a nightmare for opposing defenses.

With an offense worthy of a king now at the hands of Brady, the Patriots slammed their opposition into the dirt. New England outscored their first eight opponents by 204 points. Wins during this run included a win on the road over then-Super Bowl favorite Dallas 48-27 and a 52-7 thrashing of the Washington Redskins.

The team was barely challenged, and ran their way through the rest of the regular season and playoffs in rout to the Super Bowl, where they finally lost to the New York Giants 17-14.

The team was one win shy of joining the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only undefeated teams in the Super Bowl-era, and would have easily leaped them considering they had played four more games than the Dolphins did.

Considering they did not win the Super Bowl though, this is as high as I could rank them and they are the only team on this list that did not win a championship.

9. The 1950 Cleveland Browns (12-2 overall; Head Coach: Paul Brown)

The 1950 Cleveland Browns were a team ahead of their time. Coming out of recently folded All-American Football Conference (AAFC), the NFL scoffed at the four-time defending champion Browns, who dominated the entire league before being accepted into the NFL.

The NFL wanted to prove just how superior the league was, so commissioner Bert Bell scheduled the Browns to play the defending-NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia. They figured that the Browns would get stomped on and the NFL would prove their point, and oh were they so wrong.

Cleveland not only won the game, but they absolutely smashed Philadelphia 35-10. Quarterback Otto Graham picked apart the Eagles secondary for 346 yards and three touchdowns.

Paul Brown’s squad embarrassed the Eagles to the point where Philadelphia coach Earl “Greasy” Neal lamented that the Browns could not muscle up to beat the Eagles in the trenches. When the two teams met two months later in Cleveland, the normally stoic Brown decided that he would be the pettiest individual alive and that the team would not pass the ball once.

They ran 41 times in the game, and still won 13-7.

The Browns would go onto win the 1950 NFL Championship by beating the Los Angeles Rams 30-28 on a Lou Groza field goal with 16 seconds left, and by doing so cemented their place in NFL lore as one of the best teams of all-time.

Cleveland also made headlines for have African Americans on their team like fullback Marion Motley and defensive lineman Bill Willis at a time where racism was still semi-prevalent in the league despite the color barrier being broken in 1946.

This team was ahead of its time and dominant from the second they set foot in the league to say the least. For everything this team did, it needs to be included.

8. The 1992 Dallas Cowboys (16-3 overall; Head Coach: Jimmy Johnson)

Just three years removed from a 1-15 season, the Cowboys bounced back thanks to a slew of draft picks from trading away Hershel Walker. With those picks in hand on top of their others, they were able to build a team featuring three-future Hall of Fame players in Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin.

“The Triplets” would lead one of the best offenses to the Super Bowl off of one of the most dominant playoff runs of recent history. The Cowboys destroyed their conference-rival Philadelphia 34-10 in the divisional round, knocked off Steve Young and the San Francisco 49ers 30-20 in the conference title game, and then decimated an incredibly good Buffalo Bills team 52-17 in the Super Bowl.

This team secures their spot thanks to their Super Bowl thrashing of Buffalo, who had seven Hall of Famers on their team, including head coach Marv Levy. The Cowboys were not flashy, they just won games, especially when it mattered most.

7. The 1998 Denver Broncos (17-2 overall; Head Coach: Mike Shanahan)

Denver was coming off their first Super Bowl win over Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers the year before and this team surged to even greater heights. Led by future Hall of Famers, quarterback John Elway, running back Terrell Davis and tight end Shannon Sharpe, the Broncos offense blasted through almost everyone in their path.

Davis became one of only a few running backs in NFL history to rush for over 2000 yards in a single season and Elway cemented his already amazing legacy with his second championship.

The team finished the regular season 14-2 and then decimated Miami in the divisional round 38-3, beat the New York Jets in the AFC Championship game, and finally shot down the dirty birds in Atlanta 34-19 to win the Super Bowl.

This team makes it in because it not only seals the Broncos as the team of the late 90s, but their offense was unrivaled by basically anyone.

They had three Hall of Famers on that team and a slew of pro bowlers that propelled them to the number two-ranked offense behind a legendary Minnesota Vikings team (that many forget about) that were upset by the Falcons in the NFC Championship.

6. The 1976 Oakland Raiders (16-1 overall; Head Coach: John Madden)

This pick might be questionable to some on this list, but the 1976 Oakland Raiders are a team people not only forget about, but a team that absolutely dominated their opposition.

The 70s Raiders were a dominant team that always sat in the wing of the 70s Steelers, who can be argued by some as the greatest NFL dynasty of all time.

Oakland’s offensive line smashed people in the mouth thanks to two Hall of Fame players on the offensive line in Art Shell and Gene Upshaw, and hall of fame quarterback Ken Stabler led an offensive that included Cliff Branch, Dave Casper and Fred Biletnikoff, who are all enshrined in Canton.

Defensively though, they were just as good. Hall of Famers Ted Hendricks and Willie Hall led a smash-mouth defense that was probably one of the most violent in history.

One of their safeties, Jack Tatum, hit people so hard that one of hits ended up paralyzing Dolphins’ receiver Darryl Stingley (not during the 1976 season but he was a hard-hitter his entire career).

To top it all off though they also had the best punter in NFL history in Ray Guy who gave the Raiders advantageous field position with almost every punt.

The team finally overcame the legendary Steelers in the playoffs with a 24-7 thrashing in the AFC title game, and then smacked Minnesota and their Purple People Eaters defense in the mouth for a 32-14 win for the title.

5. The 1962 Green Bay Packers (14-1 overall; Head Coach: Vince Lombardi)

This team is the peak of Vince Lombardi’s Packers dynasty of the 1960s. The team was covered head to toe in Hall of Fame players, and had one of the most balanced teams ever assembled.

Running back and future Hall of Famer Jim Taylor led the league in rushing with almost 1500 yards and 19 touchdowns, making it the only season that legendary Browns running back Jim Brown did not lead the league during his nine-year career.

Lombardi’s squad only gave up an average of 11 points a game, while scoring the most points in the league thanks to Taylor and Hall of Famers in quarterback Bart Starr and running back Paul Hornung, who won the league MVP award the year before. The team would defeat the New York Giants in the NFL title game 16-7 to win the championship.

4. The 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers (17-2 overall; Head Coach: Chuck Noll)

The 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers were the best team out of the long Steelers dynasty of the 1970s. Pittsburgh had already won two Super Bowls in 1974 and 1975 and were looking to cement their legacy with a third one that had slipped away from them in 1976 and 1977.

Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw his way to the league MVP award and led the team into the Super Bowl with two dominant wins over the Houston Oilers and Denver Broncos.

There the loaded Steelers squad beat a team that also sat in their wing for most of the 70s, the Tom Landry-led Dallas Cowboys, who had a plethora of Hall of Famers of their own including Roger Staubach.

This was the height of the vaunted Steel Curtain defense, and this team could not be stopped by almost anybody.

3. The 1989 San Francisco 49ers (17-2 overall; Head Coach: George Seifert)

The 1989 San Francisco 49ers were a team, much like the ’78 Steelers, that were at the height of their power.

Former head coach and Hall of Famer Bill Walsh may have been out at the time, but George Seifert’s squad was almost untouchable.

Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana led an offensive juggernaut with the best receiver in history in Hall of Famer Jerry Rice.

Top that off with all-pro Roger Craig in the backfield being a duel threat in both the running and passing games, and a star-studded defense led by Hall of Famers in Charles Haley and Ronnie Lott and you have the second-best squad in history.

The team smashed their way through the playoffs to the Super Bowl, where they dismantled a very good Denver Broncos team and John Elway 55-10, which still stands as the largest blowout in Super Bowl history.

2. The 1972 Miami Dolphins (17-0 overall; Head Coach: Don Shula)

The 1972 Miami Dolphins are the only team that has finished the regular season and won the Super Bowl without dropping a single game.

The team was first in both total offense and total defense, and even went undefeated after losing Hall of Famer Bob Greise for most of the season with a broken leg.

They were the first team to have a tandum of running backs eclipse the 1000-yard marker (Hall of Famer Larry Czonka and Mercury Morris), and had one of the best defenses of the Super Bowl-era in the No-Name Defense.

Despite the undefeated regular season, the Dolphins were underdogs heading into the Super Bowl against the Washington Redskins, but even so still dominated the entire game defensively to take home the victory 14-7.

Even today, once a team reaches the 6-0 mark, talk of the 1972 Dolphins come back up, and since that day, no team has finished an entire season undefeated and won the Super Bowl.

1. The 1985 Chicago Bears (18-1; Head Coach: Mike Ditka)

Who would win in a fight? Mike Ditka or the undefeated Dolphins? It is hard to beat perfection, but the 1985 Chicago Bears stand alone as the best team of all-time because they were so far ahead of their time that they literally invented a defensive scheme.

The 46 defense dominated everyone in their path other than one hiccup against Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins. The team was filled with personalities like quarterback Jim McMahon and William “The Fridge” Perry and not only won, but won in style.

When you combine one of the best defenses ever, with Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton you get three things: a title, the Super Bowl Shuffle and one of the best Saturday Night Live skits of all time (DA BEARS).

The Bears had probably the greatest run in playoff history.

They shutout their first two opponents in the playoffs, and then smashed the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl 46-10, which was the record for biggest blowout until the 49ers broke that record a few years later.

When you make a legendary defense, have polarizing figures on the team combined with multiple Hall of Famers, and outscore your opponents 91-10 in the playoffs, you stand alone at the top of the football world.