In the last decade (since and including the '00 season), Green Bay is the only team in the top 7 of overall record to not appear in a Super Bowl. And all except Philadelphia and Baltimore had multiple appearances.
Only six teams have over 100 wins in those eleven seasons (New England, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Philly, Green Bay, and Baltimore) with the Giants being the only team to be in two Super Bowls with less than 100 wins in that span.
Some teams in that time that at least made an appearance (with their record ranking since '00):
Arizona - 30th (lost)
Oakland - 27th (lost)
St Louis - 23rd (lost)
Carolina - 21st (lost)
Tampa Bay - 15th (lost)
Seattle - 15th (won)
Chicago - 12th (lost)
New Orleans - 10th (won)
I would argue that over the last decade, the NFL franchises can be grouped into three tiers:
1) The steady teams who year in and year out not only win a lot of games each year, but also have a chance to make it to the Super Bowl and do (New England, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh) due to talent, coaching, and/or ownership structure.
2) The teams on the brink who seem to have that chance, winning a lot of games every year, but haven't quite arrived on the same plateau (Philly, Baltimore).
3) The ones who simply hope that lighting strikes and they make it to the Super Bowl despite having less than a consistant winning tradition.
(I think the Giants and the Packers are tweaner teams for different reasons. The Giants because they've appeared twice but don't win as consistently, and the Packers because they win consistenly but haven't appeared.)
What does all this mean? Practically nothing. Except to note that the Packers are one of the few teams that has proven capable of maintaining a winning tradition, and yet that hasn't translated to a Super Bowl appearance the way one would expect.
IT'S TIME TO TAKE THAT NEXT STEP!
Some interesting things I learned while writing this up:
* Green Bay's record since the '93 season (the start of modern Free Agency) is the third best behind New England and Pittsburgh. Pitt has one more Super Bowl victory, and NE has two more victories and one more loss.
* Since the '93 season, the only team with one of the top 12 records to not appear in a Super Bowl is the Minnesota Vikings.
* The top 5 teams all have multiple Super Bowl appearances.
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