What is a Super Bowl Caliber Roster?
A Super Bowl Caliber roster is a roster that is… well… good enough to win a Super Bowl with.
Contrary to what most NFL fans think, QBs don’t just “will” a team to a Super Bowl trophy. Coaches can’t always turn any bad roster into an elite one.
If you look at most Super Bowl teams throughout history, there are common trends:
Most Super Bowl Teams have multiple All-Pros and pro bowlers – on both sides of the ball
Off the top of our head – the Kansas City Chiefs Dynasty has had all-pros around the rosters – Pat Mahomes himself at QB, TE Travis Kelce, C Creed Humphrey, and G Joe Thoney are the offensive selections, meanwhile on defense, DT Chris Jones, and secondary members Trent McDuffie and Tyrann Mathieu were staples.
The 2021 Rams had stars like Cooper Kupp at WR (triple crown that year!), and Jaylen Ramsay at CB.
Most Super Bowl Teams Are typically Top 10 on both sides of the ball
By Top 10, we are going by PPG. We may add YPG to compare.
Yes, even the early Pats dynasty – which has a reputation for being defensively driven – still had good offensive production. They were ranked 6th, 12th, and 5th in PPG in 2001, 2003, and 2004, respectively.
The Chiefs do stick out for not accurately meeting this trend. In 2019, the Chiefs’ defense was 15th in PPG, and in 2023, their offense was 16th.
Conclusion
So if you want to predict who is making the Super Bowl, there is typically a shortlist of teams that will realistically make it come playoff time, towards the end of the regular season.
You can also judge the “quality” of a QB’s rings based on this metric too. For instance, many praise Mahomes’s 2022 ring as being his strongest because that defense was not a good scoring defense. But many can overall still acknowledge that the all-pros he has had on defense have still been able to make plays in crucial teams.
You can also defend QBs who haven’t won rings using this metric. For example. Josh Allen’s Bills have had very few All-Pro players most years. In 2020 they had up to 5! But since then, they have typically had 2 or less. In 2024, when Allen won MVP, he was the only All-Pro on his whole team. Although Lamar had better numbers, that could explain why Allen still had a good case for MVP (along with the winz).
