There’s plenty for NFL fans to be grateful for this Thanksgiving, as a hotly contested season sees 20 teams at or above .500 as the league prepares for its playoff push. Parity reigns supreme.
As the league enters the final five weeks of the regular season, only 10 teams have losing records. The remaining 22 clubs are vying for 14 playoff spots.
The Super Bowl chase isn’t reserved for the perennial contenders. The Kansas City Chiefs, who have appeared in eight consecutive AFC championship games, are 6-5 and fighting for their playoff lives.
“In this league, every game is important. You got to stay focused on that and it doesn’t matter what you project or what has happened before; you learn from your past and take care of what’s going on today,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said earlier this month. “There should be an urgency every week. That’s how this league is; there’s too much parity in this league not to have urgency every week.”
Meanwhile, the upstart New England Patriots are the top seed in the AFC under new coach Mike Vrabel and second-year quarterback Drake Maye. As good as Maye and the Patriots have been over the course of a relatively soft schedule, they have two losses.
The 2025 campaign marks just the second time since 2014 that every club recorded at least two defeats through 12 weeks.
It isn’t a quirk of scheduling, either. The NFL’s clubs are playing more close games than ever. The league has had 47 of its 176 games — 26.7% —decided by a score in the last two minutes of regulation or in overtime, the most through 12 weeks in NFL history.
On Sunday, three games needed an extra period to declare a winner. The Indianapolis Colts lost to the Chiefs on an overtime field goal in a potential postseason preview.
Even mediocre teams like the lowly New York Giants — the only team that has been eliminated from playoff contention — and the Arizona Cardinals managed to force overtime against the playoff-contending Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars, respectively.
There have been no wire-to-wire dominant teams in either conference this year. The 7-4 Lions, having doubled their defeats from last season, are embracing the competitive spirit this season.
“15-2 felt great last year until you get booted right out,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said this week. “And it’s like, ’Hey, man, maybe we got to go the hard road.’ But just win. Let’s just win and find a way every week and grind it out.”
The grinding, last-second decisions around the league have been ratings gold for the NFL and its broadcast partners. America’s favorite sport has been smashing ratings records this year.
The six international games on NFL Network set a new high with more than 6 million average viewers. ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” is on pace for its second-most watched season in 20 years, with an average of more than 15 million fans tuned in each week.
Meanwhile, the Sunday afternoon broadcasts from CBS and FOX are similarly soaring. CBS is on track for its highest NFL ratings since 1998. FOX’s NFL viewership is up 4%, on a pace to be the network’s best year since 2016.
Competitive football draws eyeballs, and this year’s Thanksgiving slate is primed to break records. The holiday will begin with a matchup between the Lions and the 7-3-1 Green Bay Packers in a game that could have massive implications in the NFC North.
It’ll be followed by the Chiefs’ trip to Dallas to play the 5-5-1 Cowboys. Both teams are trying to claw their way into the playoff picture after narrow victories on Sunday that kept their seasons alive.
Pontificators around the media landscape think the matchup between the league’s two biggest draws could become the most-watched regular-season game in NFL history.
“It’s the perfect confluence of three of the biggest brands in American culture — the Cowboys, the Chiefs and Thanksgiving,” CBS play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz told The Athletic.
Thursday’s action wraps up with a divisional game between the 6-5 Baltimore Ravens and the 3-8 Cincinnati Bengals that gets closer by the day. Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow, who led the league in passing yards and touchdowns last season, is expected to make his first start since suffering a toe injury in Week 2.
• Liam Griffin can be reached at lgriffin@washingtontimes.com.
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