NFL dynamics are changing, and teams are becoming more competitive

The NFL's dynamics have been changing for a few years. More and more parody creeps into the games being played every year. Every team, regardless of record, can beat the other at any given moment. Evolution is on full display when it comes not only to players getting bigger and faster, but also to game-planning and scheming being more on display than ever.

Take the Chiefs and Eagles, for instance. Teams have figured out how to stop them. Games themselves are getting more competitive, with wins being decided in the final minutes of regulation & overtime. What else does this mean?

The 2025 season has marked the fifth time since the NFL's realignment in 2002 that the league has seen five different divisions separated by one or fewer games this late in the season. Seven divisions in 2010, five divisions in 2003, 2014, and 2019, and the fifth time since 2002 that four divisions (AFC South, AFC West, NFC North, and NFC West) had three teams with a .500-or-better record entering Week 14.

In the NFC, the 49ers (9-4), currently the No. 7 seed, are half a game behind the top-seeded Bears (9-3) entering Week 14. The only other time in the Wild Card era (since 1978) that the final playoff seed in a conference was within half a game or less of the top seed this late in a season was in the AFC in 1980, when all five seeds were 10-5 entering the final week of the season.

This article originally appeared on Touchdown Wire: NFL dynamics are changing, and teams are becoming more competitive