Super Bowl power rankings: Which winner is the greatest?

38. 1968 New York Jets (SB III)

Back before the merger, the 1968 New York Jets became the first team out of the AFL to capture a win in the Super Bowl to reign atop the football world. They went 11-3 in the regular season behind the immortal Joe Namath at quarterback, but there were quite a few factors that ultimately made the Jets less impressive than they otherwise could have been.

Namath and the offense were dominant in the AFL in the regular season as they averaged a more than solid 29.9 points per game, the second-best mark in the league, even if that was only out of 10 teams. Their defense was less impressive, though, as they allowed 20 points per game, slotting them in as only the fourth-best defense in the 10-team AFL.

Other than coming out of the AFL, the biggest knock on the 1968 Jets is the fact that they didn’t exactly have to do a great deal in the postseason to get the job done in the Super Bowl. All they had to do to get to the big game was win the AFL title game, which they just barely did in beating the Raiders, 27-23. Moreover, their win over the Colts in the Super Bowl wasn’t incredibly resounding as they won just 16-7. Had there been more of a playoff run, perhaps they could’ve slotted in higher in these rankings, but that’s not the way things played out way back when.

Next: No. 37