Best Green Bay Packers team since 1992: The 1996 Packers

The Green Bay Packers have had a ton of success since Brett Favre joined the franchise in 1992. Here is their best team over that span.

The 1996 Green Bay Packers entered the year as one of the few favorites to win Super Bowl XXXI. They were coming off a season where they were close to getting to the Super Bowl. They lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the 1996 NFC Championship Game.

Their super season looked as if it was about to be derailed before the year even started. Brett Favre announced he was entering rehab due to his addiction to painkillers. Fortunately, he emerged from rehab and said the Packers were going to win the Super Bowl that season.

The Packers started their season in dominant fashion. They scored at least 34 points in all of their first three games. Their offense was dynamic. Their defense was suffocating. Their special teams was the best in all of football.

They shook off a midseason two-game losing streak to finish the regular season 13-3 entering the playoffs with home-field advantage. If the Packers were to face their arch-nemesis, the Dallas Cowboys, it would be at Lambeau Field.

The Packers won their first playoff game in a mud pit 35-14 over the San Francisco 49ers. As the game came to a close, fans started chanting “we want Dallas.” in the Lambeau Field crowd. It was not to be. The Cowboys lost to the upstart Carolina Panthers.

The Packers would shake off early nerves and eventually blow the Panthers away before advancing to Super Bowl XXXI to take on the New England Patriots. What happened there will be forever etched in the memories of Packers fans. It was the Packers’ first Super Bowl appearance in 29 years.

Brett Favre threw a touchdown pass to Andre Rison on the second play from scrimmage. The fast start continued when Doug Evans intercepted a Drew Bledsoe pass. It was 10-0 before the Patriots could even blink.

They responded well, however. They scored 14 unanswered points to take a 14-10 lead before halftime.

The Packers were out of sorts for a good portion of the first quarter, before Favre hit Antonio Freeman up the sideline. That resulted in an 81-yard-touchdown. At the time, it was a Super Bowl record.

Favre would run for a touchdown before halftime making the score 27-14.

Curtis Martin ran for a touchdown late in the third quarter to draw the Patriots within six points.

Desmond Howard took the next kickoff and broke their backs. He raced 99 yards for a touchdown.

From there, Reggie White and the defense took over. White sacked Drew Bledsoe three times in the fourth quarter. They intercepted two passes. They slammed the door shut.

For the first time since Vince Lombardi was the Head Coach, the Packers were world champions.

Key players

Brett Favre Reggie White Leroy Butler: These were the three pillars of the team. They’re the three best players on the roster. Favre won his 2nd consecutive MVP award. White was the anchor of the defense, and Leroy Butler was a chess piece that made everything easier for Fritz Shurmer on defense. That’s why they’re getting lumped together for this ranking. All three played well in the Super Bowl as well.

Favre scored three touchdowns and made big plays to keep the Packers ahead once he got them the lead.

Butler sacked Bledsoe early in the game in what might be the most impressive play from the Super Bowl. Butler sacked Bledsoe while still being blocked.

White slammed the door shut once the Packers got their 35-21 lead. He sacked Bledsoe three times. He could have easily been voted MVP.

Desmond Howard: Howard was a question mark to even make the team. He wasn’t supposed to make the final roster after the preseason, but he returned a punt for a touchdown in the team’s final preseason game to win a roster spot. What followed was one of the best single seasons in the history of the team. Howard to this day remains the greatest return man in the history of the team. He had a touchdown in two of the team’s three playoff games. He was the ultimate weapon on special teams. He finished the season with three punt returns for a touchdown and an average of 15.1 yards per punt return and 20.1 yards per kickoff return.

He finished off his only season in Green Bay with 246 all-purpose yards and a touchdown to win Super Bowl MVP honors.

Andre Rison: Rison was a midseason pickup by Ron Wolf after the team lost Robert Brooks and were ravaged by injuries. Rison was a risky pickup at the time before signing in Green Bay. There were questions about whether or not he would be a problem in the locker room. Rison was a not an issue and caught the first touchdown in Super Bowl 31.

Antonio Freeman: 1996 was the first season that Freeman really blossomed into what would eventually be arguably the most prolific combination in the history of the Packers. Freeman did miss some time with a broken arm, but when he was healthy, he grew into Favre’s favorite target. He was big in the absence of Robert Brooks.

Eugene Robinson: Robinson was the safety next to Leroy Butler that allowed Butler to play all over the formation. Robinson had a great year in 1996. He finished with a team-high 6 interceptions.

Doug Evans: Doug Evans was the team’s ballhawk at cornerback. He finished the year with five interceptions. He made a big play with a pick-6 against the St. Louis Rams that seemingly snapped the team out of the funk it had been in. He also had an incredible interception in the Super Bowl that gave the Packers an early 10-point lead.

Craig Newsome: Newsome is one of the great “what ifs” in the history of the Packers. He was such a good player for the team, but his career was short-lived. He formed a great cornerback tandem with Evans through the course of the season. He finished the year with two interceptions, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery.

Gilbert Brown: “The Gravedigger” was the anchor behind the Packers’ run defense, which was among the best in the league. In addition, he had by far one of the coolest celebrations in the history of the team when he made a play in the backfield. Brown clogged up the middle of the defense, making things easier for White, Jones, and Santana Dotson.

Sean Jones: Jones gave the Packers a legitimate bookend to Reggie white. He was an excellent sidekick for the defense. In addition, he was another hungry veteran player looking for a championship. Jones finished the year with five sacks, but was a great player against the run as well.

Highlights:

They were the best team from the beginning of the year until the end. Essentially the entire season was a highlight, but there’s a few that come to mind specifically. The first three games of the season showed how dominant they could be. In that stretch, they made their first Monday Night Football appearance in more than 10 years. They responded by routing the Eagles. The following week against San Diego, all three phases of the roster, scored.

Their big highlight of the first half of the season was a Monday night game against San Francisco. They trailed 17-6 at halftime and had lost Robert Brooks for what turned out to be a season-ending injury.

Don Beebe had a big night with more than 200 yards receiving and really saved the day for the Packers offense. The Packers were able to force overtime and won when Chris Jacke made a 53-yard field goal.

Later in the year, the Packers pummeled the Denver Broncos in a game at Lambeau Field that some people were touting as a potential Super Bowl matchup. If that were the case, the Packers could have been looking forward to a blowout.

Outside of the Super Bowl, the biggest highlight in the playoffs was Dorsey Levens’ touchdown reception in the NFC Championship Game. It tied the game and likely calmed the nerves of some Packers players and their fans. In addition, it really was a great play to catch the ball and get both of his feet down in the end zone.

Lowlights: 

In a 13-3 season, there aren’t a lot of lowlights. They lost early in the Metrodome, but that seems more fluky than anything else.

The biggest lowlight was the two-game losing streak in the middle of the season. The Packers had two big games against marquee opponents and lost both of them. They were ravaged by injuries, but they looked outclassed in those two games in Kansas City and Dallas.

The Dallas loss is the biggest lowlight of the year. The Cowboys kicked seven field goals, but the Packers were unable to get much of anything going on offense. Texas Stadium remained the biggest demon for the Packers to exorcise.

Why did they win a championship?

Simply put, the Packers were the best team in the NFL from start to finish. They had the feel of a typical Madden franchise. They had the best offense in the NFL. They had the best defense in the NFL. They had the best special teams in the NFL.

There’s not much more you can ask for.

Once they got home-field advantage through the playoffs, opposing teams stood little to no chance at keeping the Packers out of the Super Bowl.

In addition, the Packers were helped once the Cowboys were knocked out of the playoffs. While Green Bay fans and players will tell you they would have won a home game against Dallas, it’s something that could cause some doubt on the team.

The biggest thing about the Packers is that version of their team could beat others in so many different ways. They could win defensive struggles. They could win shootouts.

Desmond Howard could swing a game their direction. They simply had too many weapons to be stopped short of the ultimate goal.

They were not stopped. They were World Champions.

Perhaps most importantly, they were better than the 1985 Chicago Bears.