Ranking top five NFL teams of all time after Saquon Barkley’s bold claim, plus Steelers record prediction

Welcome to the Friday edition of the Pick Six newsletter. 

The only thing better than a normal Friday is a Friday before a holiday weekend, and that’s what we have today! Since we have a three-day weekend ahead of us, I’m assuming no one wants to sit here and read a long introduction, so I’m just going to stop babbling and get straight to the rundown. 

Actually, before we do that, just a heads up that we won’t have a newsletter on Memorial Day (Monday), but I’ll be back in the saddle on Tuesday. I’ll be spending Memorial Day weekend celebrating my daughter’s graduation from pre-school. I’m already getting emotional. No one told me pre-school graduation was emotional. 

As always, here’s your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. Let’s get to the rundown. 

1. Ranking the top five NFL teams of all time

We weren’t planning to rank the top five NFL teams of all time today, but we decided to do it after Saquon Barkley made a bold claim this week. The Super Bowl-winning running back said he believes the 2024 Eagles are one of the five best teams in NFL history. 

“I firmly believe when you look at our team that we had last year, I think we’re a top-five team of all time,” Barkley said on the “Exciting Mics” podcast this week. 

So are they top five? Cody Benjamin decided to answer that question by ranking the top five teams of all time. Here’s what he came up with: 

1. 1972 Dolphins. “How can you argue against perfection? The 2007 Patriots may have gone unbeaten in the regular season, but the Dolphins went the distance in their spotless stretch, finishing 17-0, including playoffs, under Don Shula.”

2. 1985 Bears. “Anytime anyone lauds an NFL team’s defense, the ’85 Bears inevitably resurface as a reference point. There’s a reason for it. … The team finished ranked No. 1 in basically every defensive category.”

3. 1978 Steelers. “A who’s who of all-timers, the ’78 Steelers featured a whopping 10 future Hall of Famers, including Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, John Stallworth and “Steel Curtain” defensive icons like “Mean” Joe Greene, Jack Lambert and Mel Blount.”

4. 1984 49ers. “Still the best team, record-wise, in 49ers history, this group went 15-1 under coach Bill Walsh, with Joe Montana establishing himself as one of the game’s most clutch quarterbacks to ever sling the rock.”

5. 1992 Cowboys. “The youngest team in the NFL at the time, these Cowboys boasted not only Hall of Fame “Triplets” in Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin, but a world-class offensive line and defense.”

Sorry, Saquon, the Eagles didn’t make the cut. If you want to know where the Eagles ranked, you can check out Cody’s story here. 

2. Projecting the Steelers’ 2025 record with and without Aaron Rodgers

It’s been two months since Aaron Rodgers made a free-agent visit to Pittsburgh and he still hasn’t made a decision about whether he’s going to sign with the Steelers. At the NFL spring league meeting this week, Steelers owner Art Rooney II said his team would be willing to wait “a little while longer” for Rodgers to make a decision. I’m guessing that means the Steelers’ unofficial deadline will be the start of training camp. 

Since no one seems to have any idea what Rodgers is going to do this year, we decided we would predict how the Steelers would do WITH Rodgers and what their final record would be without him. Ben Roethlisberger actually did this exact exercise on his podcast this week, and here are the two predictions he came up with: 

• Steelers record with Rodgers: 11-6
• Steelers record without Rodgers: 7-10

Mike Tomlin has never had a losing record, but Big Ben thinks that streak will come to a crashing end if the Steelers don’t get Rodgers under contract. 

As for our prediction, Cody Benjamin went through every game and basically came up with the same projection as Roethlisberger: 

• Steelers record with Rodgers: 10-7
• Steelers record without Rodgers: 7-10

From Cody: “The Steelers figure to be right where they’ve been for the last half-decade or so — straddling the line of playoff contention. Rodgers isn’t all that much different, on paper, from the cheap, short-term gambles that were Russell Wilson and Justin Fields in 2024. He’s seemingly got just enough in the tank, however, to move the needle from potential wild-card spoiler to first-round lock … and help Tomlin extend his historic streak of non-losing seasons.”

Basically, it’s starting to sound like the Steelers’ season could be over before it starts if Rodgers doesn’t end up signing in Pittsburgh. The Steelers currently have three quarterbacks in Mason Rudolph, Skylar Thompson and rookie Will Howard and one of those guys will be the starter if Rodgers doesn’t sign with the team. 

3. Ashton Jeanty just spent a small fortune to get No. 2: Players who have spent the most to get a number

During his record-setting career at Boise State, Ashton Jeanty wore No. 2, and now that he’s in the NFL, he’ll also be wearing that number, but only because he decided to write a MASSIVE check to make that happen.  

After the Raiders made Jeanty the sixth overall pick in the NFL Draft, the running back knew that he wanted to wear No. 2 in Las Vegas. The only problem with that plan was that the number was already being worn by Daniel Carlson.

During an interview with Kay Adams this week, Jeanty revealed that he ended up paying Carlson a small fortune for the number. 

“You could buy a nice Mercedes GLE,” Jeanty said when asked how much he paid. 

Well, I did some research, and according to to Kelley Blue Book, the price of a Mercedes GLE runs anywhere from $63,000 to about $95,000, so it seems safe to say that Jeanty spent somewhere between $60,000 and $100,000 to buy No. 2. That likely means that Jeanty set the NFL record for most money ever spent by a ROOKIE to purchase a jersey number. 

With Jeanty spending so much money, I decided to look up the highest price that anyone has ever paid for a jersey number. Here’s a look at the top three: 

1. Gerald McCoy pays $250,000 to wear No. 93 with the Panthers. After spending the first nine seasons of his career wearing No. 93 in Tampa Bay, McCoy wanted to keep the number after signing with the Panthers in 2019. At the time, Carolina’s Kyle Love had the number, so McCoy made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: He gave him $250,000 for the number. No sane person would turn down that kind of money so of course, Love ended up taking it. McCoy only lasted one season with the Panthers, so he paid $250,000 to wear No. 93 for 16 games. 

2. Stefon Diggs spend $100,000 to buy No. 1. After being traded from the Bills to the Texans in April 2024, Diggs instantly knew that number he wanted in Houston: One. However Diggs ran into a small issue and that was the fact that the number was already being worn by Jimmie Ward. Diggs wanted the number so badly that he decided to cough up $100,000 to get it. However, Diggs only lasted one season in Houston before moving on to New England. No. 1 is once again available and Ward could theoretically switch back to it, and if he does that, he’ll get to pocket $100,000 for giving up the number for just one year. 

3. Clinton Portis almost gets taken to court. After signing with Washington in 2004, Portis wanted No. 26, so he offered Ifeanyi Ohalete $40,000 for the number. Ohalete accepted the deal — mainly because no one in the world would turn it down — and Portis promptly paid Ohalete $20,000 up front. The two players agreed the rest of the money would be paid by Christmas. A funny thing happened though: Ohalete got cut before that. With Ohalete no longer on the team, Portis didn’t believe he was under any obligation to pay him. However, Ohalete had one thing going in his favor: A written contract with the terms of the deal. The two sides were about to go to court, but the day before the case was set to start, Portis decided to settle and paid Ohalete $18,000.

Deion Sanders also once bought a teammate a car so that he could get No. 21 with the Cowboys in 1995, and you can read more about that story here along with all the details on Jeanty’s purchase. 

4. Players heading into a contract year primed for a breakout season

If there’s one thing that happens almost every year in the NFL, it’s that a player has a breakout season during a contract year and then uses that breakout season to cash in during free agency. 

With that in mind, Chris Trapasso decided to take a look at several players who could be primed to have a breakout season in 2025 as they head into the final year of their contract. 

Let’s take a look at three names on his list: 

• Rams WR Tutu Atwell. “When it comes to the Rams offense, the overwhelming majority of attention will be paid to Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, and rightfully so. That’ll leave Atwell as a beneficiary of minimal over-the-top safety help, which is bad news for defenses given his 4.39 speed.”
• Eagles LB Josh Uche. “After losing Josh Sweat and Milton Williams in free agency — along with now being two years removed from Haason Reddick’s presence along the defensive line, the Eagles have some job openings in their second and third waves. That’s precisely where Uche will step in.”
• Raiders OL Dylan Parham. “In watching his film in 2024, he appears more nimble than ever, and he can really go toe-to-toe with the strongest interior rushers in the game in genuine one-on-one situations. While he allowed 10 more pressures in 2024 than he did the previous season on fewer pass-blocking snaps, his wins were more dominant, and he made considerable strides in the run game, where his climbs to the second level were more dynamic and accurate finding linebackers.”

If you want to check out all five players on Trapasso’s list, be sure to head here. 

5. AFC South win totals: Predicting the over/under for each team in the division

Earlier this week, we started the process of breaking down the over/under for EVERY team in the NFL and just to keep things somewhat organized, we decided to do that by division. We’ve already run through the AFC East and AFC North, and now, we’ll be closing the week by making our best bets for the over/under totals in the AFC South. 

Garrett Podell was in charge of making the predictions here. Let’s check out whether he likes the over or the under for each team in the division: 

NFL odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.

Houston Texans
ODDS: Over 7.5 (-120) / Under 7.5 (+100)
LEAN: Under 7.5
Garrett’s take: “Taking the under here is purely a vote of no confidence in the Colts’ quarterback situation … If the quarterback isn’t good, almost nothing else matters. Also, the bottom two teams in the division from last season, the Jaguars and Titans, both appear to be significantly improved.”

Tennessee Titans
ODDS: Over 5.5 (-150) / Under 5.5 (+126)
LEAN: Over 5.5 
Garrett’s take: “The Titans have one of the 10 easiest schedules in the NFL. They have a game against the Browns and against the Saints, who no longer have Derek Carr after an abrupt offseason retirement. There’s at least two wins right there. Indianapolis, who they play twice, could very well have a worse situation than the Titans, who will likely start Cam Ward as a rookie. Tennessee should be a six-win team at worst.”

If you want to see how Garrett feels about the Jaguars or Colts, you can get his take on those two teams here. 

6. Extra points: Brock Purdy’s initial asking price was sky-high

This is always a busy time in the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything that’s happening, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you. 

• Brock Purdy asked for $65 million per year to open negotiations with 49ers. Purdy just landed a massive contract extension worth $53 million per year and it’s a deal that could have made NFL history if the 49ers had agreed to pay him his initial asking price. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Purdy came out the gate swinging by asking for $65 million per year. If Purdy had gotten that number, he would have instantly become the highest-paid player in NFL history. Instead, he’ll have to settle for the title of being the QB that’s tied for the seventh-highest salary. You can read more about his astronomical asking price here. 
• Cardinals cornerback out for the season. Arizona has placed cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting on the non-football injury list, which means he’ll now have to miss the entire 2025 season. Murphy-Bunting started 15 games last year and he was supposed to be a starter this year, but now the Cardinals have a huge hole on their roster. We took a look at three possible free agents the Cardinals could target, and you can check out those names here. 
• Aidan Hutchinson has been fully cleared. Seven months after suffering a devastating knee injury that ended his 2025 season, the Lions’ star pass-rusher has finally been fully cleared for football activities. With Hutchinson cleared, the Lions star is soon expected to start working with the team on a contract extension, according to NFL Media.