No one’s saying the playoffs aren’t important, but to get to the playoffs, you have to be good in the regular season. That’s why it is crucial for us to look at one of numberFire’s signature analytics, nERD, to help us sift this out.

nERD score is our regular-season calculation of how good a team really is, based on expected point differential against a league average team. For instance, if the team's nERD is 10, they would be expected to win by 10 points against a league-average opponent. This not only shows us a value score that combines offense and defense, it adjusts for the era as well, giving a more accurate representation of value across multiple years. For more info on nERD, check out our glossary.

Each team earns a nERD score every year, and we simply want to look at the best ones. Which recent NFL teams have been the best?