Ranking the Toughest NFL Divisions in the Past Decade
Talent, scheme and preparation are critical components of success in the NFL. Even when all three seemingly come together, though, a tough division can ruin it all.
Naturally, the league has featured incredibly tight division races throughout its history. We're highlighting the most difficult of the bunch since 2012.
The alternate headline of this piece may as well be "The NFC West Is Nightmare Fuel." While the division landed only two of the seven positions, they ranked unquestionably at the top. For good measure, at least three more seasons deserved strong consideration.
Factors we examined included a division's overall winning percentage, its number of playoff teams and those teams' postseason success.
All four franchises in the NFC East—the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants, Washington and the Philadelphia Eagles—posted positive point differentials during the 2016 campaign.
Dallas headlined, leaning on rookie stars Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott en route to a 13-3 record and the NFC's top seed. The offense and defense ranked fifth in the league in points and points allowed per game.
After the Cowboys, the defense-led Giants posted an 11-5 mark, matching the Atlanta Falcons for the next-best record in the NFC.
Washington (8-7-1) and Philly (7-9) missed the playoffs, yet each held a winning record through at least nine games.
Dallas and New York lost to the Green Bay Packers in the postseason.
Similar to a couple of other divisions highlighted, the AFC North had a single bad team in 2020. That was the Cincinnati Bengals, who lost rookie quarterback Joe Burrow to a torn ACL in November and dropped 11 games.
The rest of the division hit at least 11 wins apiece.
The best way to describe the challenge is that the Pittsburgh Steelers started 11-0 and narrowly won the division. Sure, the 12-4 Steelers endured a rough finish, but the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns stayed close behind with 11-5 records. Baltimore and Pittsburgh had top-three defenses in the league, too.
Cleveland toppled Pittsburgh in the Wild Card Round, and the Browns and Ravens lost the following weekend. The minimal postseason success kept the 2020 AFC North low on the list.
Six years earlier in the AFC North...
Pittsburgh also took the crown in 2014, yet the 11-5 Steelers needed a Week 17 victory to clip the 10-5-1 Bengals. Antonio Brown scored two 63-plus-yard touchdowns (one punt return, one receiving) to propel Pittsburgh in that decisive matchup.
Baltimore dropped out of the division race with a surprising loss to the Houston Texans in Week 16. Still, the Ravens finished 10-6 with a top-eight scoring offense and defense.
Cleveland brought up the rear, but the Browns started 7-4 and had a top-10 scoring defense. The offense let them down, and a five-game skid to close the regular season halted playoff plans.
Though all three teams lost by the divisional round of the playoffs, the Browns elevated the floor of the division compared to 2020.
One thing we know for certain about 2017 is the Carolina Panthers were tired of the New Orleans Saints.
The franchises posted 11-5 marks, but the Saints swept the regular-season series and eliminated the Panthers from the playoffs. Drew Brees and Co. topped 30 points in all three matchups.
New Orleans, though, experienced high-level heartbreak via the Minnesota Vikings' "Minneapolis Miracle" in the divisional round. As a result, the Saints exited the postseason at the same stage as the 10-6 Falcons. The reigning NFC champions upset the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card Round but lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Eagles.
Despite the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 5-11 record and the division's slightly lower winning percentage compared to the AFC North's two entrants on this list, multiple playoff wins boosted this iteration of the NFC South.
The bad news is the Oakland Raiders were 4-12. The good news is everyone else in the AFC West reached the playoffs during the 2013 season.
Peyton Manning oversaw a legendary offense for the Denver Broncos, who set a record with 606 points and stood atop the AFC at 13-3. Manning, the league MVP, set NFL records with 5,477 passing yards and 55 touchdown tosses.
The Kansas City Chiefs surged from 2-14 to 11-5 in the first season of Andy Reid's tenure. Kansas City notched top-six rankings in scoring offense and defense, too.
Rounding out the group, the San Diego Chargers edged into the playoffs at 9-7. They rattled off a four-game winning streak to close the regular season and snatch the AFC's final postseason bid.
Kansas City collapsed in the Wild Card Round against the Indianapolis Colts, but San Diego trounced Cincinnati. Denver bounced San Diego in the divisional round and the New England Patriots in the AFC title tilt before losing to the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII.
Playoff success is a key to the perception of the 2021 NFC West.
Most prominently, the 12-5 Rams celebrated a Super Bowl LVI victory over the Bengals. They happened to bump divisional foes in the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers along the way in addition to Tom Brady and the Bucs.
But though 11-6 Arizona fell to Los Angeles in the Wild Card Round, the 10-7 Niners put together an unforeseen playoff run. San Francisco upset Dallas and Green Bay to set up an all-NFC West conference title game, which the Rams won behind a 10-point fourth-quarter comeback. Los Angeles then clipped Cincinnati in the Super Bowl.
Don't worry, Seahawks fans. We didn't forget about you. Seattle fell shy of the playoffs at 7-10 yet ensured all four teams recorded positive point differentials.
Long story short: If your franchise occupied a West division in 2013, it was a brutal (read: exceptionally competitive) year.
Interestingly enough, the NFC West lacked a third playoff team. In theory, that should have placed the division below the others with three qualifiers. However, the 10-6 Cardinals recorded the fifth-best record in the conference and simply missed out because of the postseason structure.
Besides, the 13-3 Seahawks and 12-4 Niners engaged in a memorable NFC Championship Game. Not only then is the NFC West the lone division to send two representatives to a title game in the last decade, but it has also done it twice.
Seattle won that showdown thanks to Richard Sherman's clutch defensive play and then blasted Peyton Manning-led Denver in Super Bowl XLVIII.
