At the start of the new season, every team has hope. Well, just about every team. And that made me wonder: how did Super Bowl champions look in the year before winning the Super Bowl?

The Jets were at -5.0 in the SRS last year: has any team ever been that bad (or worse) and won the Super Bowl the next season? Why yes, one — and only one — team has. The graph below shows the SRS ratings of each Super Bowl champion in the year before they won the Super Bowl. Note that I’m still using the Super Bowl year in the graph below, so if you go to 1972, you’ll see the 1971 Dolphins’ SRS.

The 1980 49ers, hamstrung by a particularly bad defense, had an SRS of -6.2. And while they had Joe Montana, he was not yet “Joe Montana” — after all, don’t you remember the calls for his head in September ’81?

Only two other Super Bowl champions had negative SRS ratings in the prior year, and those teams are no surprise: the ’99 Rams and ’01 Patriots, two of the most surprising Super Bowl champions ever.

What if we break down SRS into its two components?

Defensive SRS

The ’81 49ers are the Super Bowl champion with the worst defense (SRS of -5.0) in the prior year. The second worst? The ’09 Saints.

Offensive SRS

Five Super Bowl champions had negative SRS grades on offense the year before they won the Super Bowl: the ’01 Patriots, ’99 Rams,’ 85 Bears, ’00 Ravens, and ’81 49ers.

And, if you want to just look at the raw numbers, here you go. The table below shows the offensive, defensive, and total SRS grades for each Super Bowl champion in the season before they won it all.

Year Tm Off Def Tot 1966 GNB 1.2 10.5 11.7 1967 GNB 3.5 10 13.5 1968 NYJ 3.6 -1.2 2.4 1969 KAN 3.8 10.1 14 1970 BAL 0.5 2.5 3 1971 DAL 2.5 4.5 7 1972 MIA 2.4 5.3 7.7 1973 MIA 4.5 6.5 11 1974 PIT 4.8 4.1 8.9 1975 PIT 2.3 4.5 6.8 1976 OAK 5.5 1.3 6.8 1977 DAL 0.5 4 4.5 1978 PIT 3.9 2.3 6.2 1979 PIT 2.6 5.6 8.2 1980 OAK 3.8 0 3.8 1981 SFO -1.2 -5.1 -6.2 1982 WAS 2.2 -1.2 1 1983 RAI 6 -0.9 5.1 1984 SFO 5.7 3 8.7 1985 CHI -1.7 6.4 4.7 1986 NYG 2.1 1.8 3.9 1987 WAS 3.5 2.1 5.5 1988 SFO 8.8 4.2 13.1 1989 SFO 3.1 1.7 4.8 1990 NYG 1.9 4.6 6.4 1991 WAS 4.6 0.8 5.4 1992 DAL 3.7 0.8 4.4 1993 DAL 6.4 3.5 9.9 1994 SFO 9.9 -0.3 9.7 1995 DAL 5.6 4.5 10.1 1996 GNB 3.5 2.5 6 1997 DEN 3.7 3.9 7.6 1998 DEN 8.1 2.6 10.7 1999 STL -2.3 0 -2.3 2000 BAL -1.6 2.5 0.9 2001 NWE -2.7 0.2 -2.5 2002 TAM 0.7 3.3 4 2003 NWE 2.1 1.9 4 2004 NWE 2.1 4.9 6.9 2005 PIT 3.4 5.6 9 2006 IND 5.6 5.2 10.8 2007 NYG 1.2 -1.1 0.1 2008 PIT 0.9 4.3 5.2 2009 NOR 6.8 -2.8 4 2010 GNB 6.3 1.1 7.4 2011 NYG 1.7 0.4 2.1 2012 BAL 2.6 3.5 6.1 2013 SEA 4.5 7.7 12.2 2014 NWE 4.5 1.4 5.9

Enjoy!