Oh, I’m ever so sick of the word “dynasty,” but I’ve accepted that it is part of our professional sports vernacular. We all want to know who will become the next great dynasty, especially since we haven’t had one in the NFL since the Patriots won three Super Bowls in a four-year span a decade ago.
Now, though, if there are two teams that have a better chance than anyone else to move into the dynasty range, they’re the two teams meeting in Sunday’s NFC championship game.
Think about it. The Seattle Seahawks just became the first defending champion to win a playoff game since 2005 and can become the first to make a Super Bowl since 2004. They have the league’s best defense by a wide margin as well as a clutch young quarterback. Look at their key players:
Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor are 26, Earl Thomas and Bruce Irvin are 25, Michael Bennett is 29, Cliff Avril is 28 and Bobby Wagner is 24. This team is likely to get better before it gets worse. Maybe a lot better, in fact.
And if they beat the Green Bay Packers Sunday, they’ll be pretty sizable favorites to win their second straight Super Bowl. You do that nowadays and you’re basically a dynasty.
But don’t overlook the Packers, both Sunday and in the quest to become a dynasty. Green Bay won the Super Bowl in 2011 and has time to salvage a dynastic run . Aaron Rodgers is likely to win his second MVP, and he only just turned 31. Plenty of gas left in that tank, especially since he sat his first three seasons in the league.
Eddie Lacy and Randall Cobb are 24, Jordy Nelson is 29, Josh Sitton is 28 and Corey Linsley is already becoming a dominant center at the age of 23. It’s hard to believe, but Clay Matthews is still only 28. Mike Daniels is 25, Morgan Burnett is 26 and Mike Neal is 27.
The windows are wide open for both teams, but they can’t both become dynasties, especially because they play in the same conference. It reminds me a bit of the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys in the first half of the 1990s.
And the winner of Sunday’s game will gain a huge advantage in that battle.
