The mediocrity, or parity, however you want to brand it, is astounding this year. Who I’m the hell would have ever thought that 12 weeks into the season, all of the Bengals, Chargers, Bills, and Jets…would all not only be on the outside of the playoffs looking in, but two of them would be staring down the barrel at top 10 draft picks.
The title of this post is a bit misleading, as the 10 teams that are more than 1 game over 0.500 are all at least 3 games over 0.500.
Here is another way to look at it:: 10 teams are at least 3 games over 0.500, 12 teams are within 2 games of 0.500 and 10 teams are at least 3 games under 0.500.
From an overall league perspective that seems very balanced. When you look at each conference things are a slightly different, but still fairly balanced:
In the AFC:: 6 teams are at least 3 games over 0.500, 6 teams are within 2 games of 0.500 and 4 teams are at least 3 games under 0.500.
In the NFC:: 4 teams are at least 3 games over 0.500, 6 teams are within 2 games of 0.500 and 6 teams are at least 3 games under 0.500.
This difference may be due to the AFC teams having a home game this season for the non-conference “17th game” added to the regular season schedule in 2021. Overall the AFC leads the NFC 36-25 in non-conference games and AFC teams have hosted 13 more of the non-conference games than the NFC teams (including the Atlanta Falcons-Jacksonville Jaguars game in London where Jacksonville was the home team).