ESPN's Best NFL Teams Of The Decade List Is Not Great

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[I]t's time to identify the best teams and players of the past decade using Football Outsiders metrics: DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) for teams. ...

DVOA measures success on each play based on down and distance, then compares that to an NFL average baseline adjusted for situation and opponent. ... Ratings each year are normalized, accounting for changes in the NFL's offensive environment. ...

It's important to remember that DVOA is measuring efficiency on a per-play basis, rather than looking at top-line wins and losses. And while we are including playoff performance here, it doesn't render the regular season moot. So we have a lot of teams ranked higher than teams that beat them in the postseason, and our top 10 overall list for this decade includes only one Super Bowl champion. Often, winning a Super Bowl is about getting hot at the right time rather than dominating the league over the course of the entire season.

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