2021 is a tremendous year for parity in the NFL.
There is no ruling class looming over the league this fall. There’s no one team everyone is afraid to face on the road. Everyone is vulnerable. Anyone can win or lose, to steal liberally from an Al Pacino movie we give entirely too much praise, on any given Sunday.
The defending champions just lost a 9-0 ballgame to a rival that started Taysom Hill at quarterback and, predictably, scored zero touchdowns. The two top teams in the AFC were each 3-4 after seven weeks of the season. Only one team clinched a playoff spot through the first 15 weeks of the season, and that’s because the Green Bay Packers play in a division where their biggest threat is human bread bowl Kirk Cousins.
This has all set the stage for a truly difficult to predict final three weeks of the season and a 14-team playoff that will be mostly chaos and the NFC’s seventh seed losing by 14 in the Wild Card round. No team is invincible. Almost every team is capable of scraping greatness or sadness, sometimes in the same swing. The AFC South’s leader has lost to the Jets and Texans. The Dolphins started off 1-7 and are responsible for 50 percent of the NFL wins in Urban Meyer’s life but also somehow a .500 ballclub with reasonable playoff expectations.
Wild!
Let’s take a closer look at the teams closing in on postseason berths and home playoff games. Each of this year’s division leaders has a weak spot other teams have exploited en route to upset wins. So what are they? And can these contenders overcome their flaws in time to make a run to the Super Bowl?