The NFL’s perceived parity this season serves as a boost for TV

The NFL has long boasted about league-wide equality as a reason for its popularity, even though the league is largely built on the backs of dynasties.

That said, the 2025 regular season could be a bit of a shift – and one that’s helpful for the media partners so far.

The NFL’s best teams all have questions

No NFL team went 5-0 this season, the first time since 2014 when no team posted a 4-0 record.

Some of that is a simple product of small sample sizes and planning. But it’s notable that no team is overly dominant during the first six weeks of the season, especially in the wake of two relatively ‘boring’ dynasties this century (the Kansas City Chiefs’, which might not happenand the New England Patriots’).

Through almost all of week six’s game action, there are twenty teams with a record of .500 or better, and only four teams with a record of 4-1 or better. It’s certainly an indication of parity, as the top teams all have clear flaws and there isn’t necessarily a clear demarcation between the tiers of Super Bowl contenders.

Looking at the bets, FanDuel has five teams with odds of 10 to 1 or better to win the Super Bowl, and another six with odds of 16 to 1 to 20 to 1. Even the current “favorites,” the Buffalo Bills, are 5 to 1; it’s far from certain and they’ve also been knocking on the door in vain during the franchise’s recent success.

Those Bills also just lost to the Patriots, and the offense has slowed from its torrid start to its schedule.

The No. 2 team in Super Bowl odds, the Chiefs, is just 3-3, but just beat the No. 4 team, the Lions. While the Green Bay Packers are by all accounts the No. 3 seed, the team is just 3-1-1, doesn’t look overwhelmingly impressive and has already lost to the lowly Cleveland Browns this season.

While the defending 2025 champion Philadelphia Eagles were seen as the title favorites and started 4-0, the team has now lost two in a row – to the Denver Broncos and New York Giants – and appears to be faltering as both the offense and defense have issues to be resolved.

Uncertainty creates TV opportunities

With little certainty about the top teams from week to week, this makes for more interesting matchups across the NFL’s various gaming windows. NFL ratings are soaring this season – and iSpot data shows that this is paying off for advertisers The reach of TV advertisements during league matches also increased by 12% year on year in the third quarter.

Fan interest in football has generally increased dramatically recently (TV ratings and advertising reach have also increased). Part of that could come from the fact that more equality makes the games better watches – or at least better sales pitches to tune into.

Amazon and ESPN are setting records for their Thursday and Monday night audiences, respectively. And the last three weeks of TNF are some of the most talked about games of the season so far this season (with the Giants upset over the Eagles also serving as a national coming out party for New York’s young backfield tandem of Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo).

With flawed contenders and a 14-team postseason field, the NFL’s schedule requires a higher stakes and a smaller margin for error for the deeper pool of potential playoff teams. That certainly makes for intriguing options going into primetime. But also more opportunities for the competition’s afternoon partners (CBS, Fox) to win with the matches that are still in those time slots.

Fast forward to week 12 (Nov. 20-24) presents almost a slate of games with playoff implications if current win-loss records are any indication. That’s the dream scenario for the NFL and its media partners, and why they are the same Media partners will encounter only limited resistance to a renegotiated rights deal that will see even more money flow into the league over the next decade.

Is it parity or dysfunction?

A counterbalance to all this, of course, comes via Troy Aikman.

During the day Monday night football recently the ESPN commentator regretted aspects of the NFL productespecially around the disruption of play through penalties. He was also critical at times of quarterback play in the increasingly QB-oriented league.

So is it parity that makes many of these teams seem much closer, or is it a bigger potential problem with the NFL product that only brings more flaws?

Furthermore, the emphasis on equality (purposefully) misses a lot of NFL teams that are in the midst of some kind of long-term disarray.

The New York Jets haven’t made the playoffs in fourteen (soon to be fifteen) seasons. Both the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers have failed to reach the postseason in the past seven seasons. You could also point to varying levels of systemic dysfunction among the Las Vegas Raiders, Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints and Tennessee Titans. Forget the Giants’ continued failures, aside from the recent win over the Eagles.

So while there is equality, it’s also not an idea that extends to the entire league. Poor QB play, coaching issues and team construction issues have arguably made the group of limited-hope teams year after year as long as the (extensive) list of flawed contenders this season.

If the contenders can’t take advantage of how bad the teams at the bottom really are, it raises real questions about how good each The NFL team is now.

Is that parity? Or is that indicative of a larger dysfunction in the league that seems like parity? It’s a difficult question to answer now. The lack of an answer hasn’t stopped anyone from watching so far.