Ranking best NFL teams since 2000: Top 25 over past 25 years - ESPN

On Sunday, Sept. 3, 2000, the NFL inaugurated its first season to begin with a «2.» It was, to put things charitably, a different time. There was no opening night with the defending champs on Thursday or an international game on Friday (or any other game outside of the United States all season). No games were watched in high definition. The yellow, on-screen first-down line was roughly two years old. Patrick Mahomes was a pitcher on the Mets; his son was about to turn 5. Tom Brady was a healthy scratch after making the Patriots' roster in training camp; the guy who kept him, Bill Belichick, was taking over his first game as New England's coach.

The NFL we're about to watch in 2025 is very different, both in terms of aesthetic and presentation, than the one you followed 25 years ago. Offenses and defenses have evolved pre- and post-snap, although some innovations are clever repackagings of past concepts. Rules have changed. NFL teams that might not have needed or wanted computers 25 years ago are sorting through player tracking data. It's almost impossible to pluck teams from two decades ago and compare them to the teams playing now.

Good thing it's only almost impossible, because guess what we're doing today? That's right: With 25 seasons in the books since the world celebrated the birth of the third millennium, I'm picking the 25 best teams of the past 25 years of professional football. If you could somehow take those 25 top teams from the past quarter century and get them to play one another, who would end up on top?

Subscribe: 'The Bill Barnwell Show'

That's the question I'm trying to answer below, which requires some explanation. There are lots of ways to try to answer this question. Should it be a measure of which