The NFL hierarchy is full of flawed teams. After watching another Sunday of football and paying close attention to the league with the Bills on a Bye Week, it’s clear to me this season isn’t like recent years. 

There is no singular “great” team in the AFC. The AFC playoff picture is wide open.

Look at the top of the AFC. The Colts sit atop the standings. They are 6-1 but 4 of their wins have been against teams with losing records, they beat the Broncos in controversial fashion and dominated the chargers who were playing 6th string offensive linemen in the game. 

The Patriots obviously beat the Bills, but let’s be honest, Buffalo beat themselves as much as anything in that game. The Patriots also lost to the Raiders and had 5 turnovers against a decent Steelers team in their losses. Their wins outside of Buffalo? The lowly Saints, Dolphins and Titans. They dominated the Panthers in Foxboro, but the Panthers are 4-0 at home and 0-3 on the road (ruh roh, Bills fans).  

The Chiefs have their full complement of WRs back but have struggled to establish a run game all year long. They’ve relied on Mahomes’ legs more than usual. They’ve got an interesting stretch here (WSH, @BUF, @DEN, IND, @DAL on Thanksgiving) that will inform us a lot more on who the real Chiefs are. 

The Steelers have Aaron Rodgers playing some of the best ball of his life but the defense remains a question mark even with all of the talent they have and they desperately need another WR option, it felt like Rodgers only threw to TEs on Thursday. 

The Broncos have been the cardiac kids, but the offense has sputtered at times even though the defense is excellent again. The Chargers are dealing with injuries and without their healthy offensive line, fallen back to earth and Herbert is showing bad habits again. 

Trevor Lawrence and the Jags still can’t be trusted. They are incredibly talented but lack the mental fortitude of a contender. 

Cincy is interesting because Joe Flacco revived their hopes. The defense is still abysmal though and they will have to win shootouts most often. 

All that to say, while the Bills play calling has been questionable and the defense has struggled, there is no perfect team the Bills are trying to match up to. If they look inward, focus on themselves and have taken the bye week to address their own warts and come out refocused, they will have as good a chance as anyone to take the AFC and head to the Super Bowl. No one else is counting out the Bills yet in the country, so there’s no reason Bills fans should be.