I'm not saying the three best teams in the NFL are in the AFC West. I'm not. Don't anybody jump me for saying that. The Dallas Cowboys have earned the right to be called the league's best team so far this season. The New England Patriots always belong in that discussion. Don't worry. Nobody's getting slighted here.
What I am saying is this: If you were to start a conversation with me by saying, "Hey, Dan, I think the three best teams in the NFL might be in the AFC West, and here's why," I would keep listening. I might not end up agreeing, but I'd hear you out.
The 10-2 Oakland Raiders currently hold the top seed in the AFC playoff picture, but they won't even be in first place in the division if they lose Thursday night to the 9-3 Kansas City Chiefs. You might remember the 8-4, third-place Denver Broncos from such films as "Crushing Cam Newton's Spirit in the Super Bowl (presented by Papa John's)". And the 5-7 San Diego Chargers are the best last-place team in the league.
Every team in the AFC West has a positive point differential this season. They are a combined 25-9 against teams outside of their division and boast a total combined record of 32-16 -- a .667 winning percentage.
Which means there's a chance this could end up being the best division of all time. Or at least since the league went to eight divisions in 2002.
Since that time, no division has finished a season with a .667 winning percentage. The closest were the 2013 NFC West and the 2007 AFC South, each of which went 42-22 (.656). If this year's AFC West teams don't lose any more games to nondivision opponents, they would end up with a combined record of 43-21 -- and a .672 winning percentage.
Also since 2002, only two divisions have had all four teams finish with positive point differentials -- the 2008 NFC South and the 2007 NFC East. Those divisions both went a combined 40-24. The 2008 South had a combined point differential of plus-259, while the 2007 East was plus-212. The 2016 AFC West is currently at plus-157 with a quarter of its season left to play.
(We must also acknowledge the 2016 NFC East, which is a combined 30-17-1 and has four teams with positive point differentials. But the best the East can do, if its teams only lose to each other the rest of the way, is 41 wins. Two of its teams have single-digit point differentials, and it would be hard to argue at this point that the second-place Giants are better than any of the top three teams in the AFC West, right?)
Thursday night should be a blast, because it has two of the best teams in the league playing in prime time in a game that could help decide the champion of one of the most competitive divisions ever. So watch Raiders-Chiefs, but remember: It's not likely to be the last you see of the teams from the AFC West.
Here's a look at some other stuff we learned (and maybe didn't learn) in Week 13:
The New York Giants' offense is broken
This we did not see coming. There was no way to know how the new additions would play on defense (they've all played great) or how Ben McAdoo would handle the responsibilities of head coaching for the first time at any level. But one thing on which we all agreed before the season was that the Giants' offense would continue to hum as it had during McAdoo's two seasons as its coordinator. It has not.
The Giants rank 26th in yards per game and 23rd in points per game. Only six teams in the league have run fewer offensive plays. Only five have fewer first downs. Only the Jets, Panthers, Jaguars and Chargers have turned the ball over more.
McAdoo said after Sunday's loss in Pittsburgh that the offense's problem was "consistency," which is a coach's news-conference buzzword but doesn't really address the problem of a team that has played 12 games with a healthy Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. and ranks near the bottom of the league in every offensive category. They can't run the ball, and the offensive line is a mess; but those things were true in 2014 and 2015 too, and those offenses worked better than this one. Put "What's wrong with the Giants' offense" on the list of things we didn't learn in Week 13. And if you're a Giants fan, hope it switches to the other list sometime real soon.
We are underappreciating the Broncos' secondary
I keep hearing, "The Cowboys' offensive line is the MVP of the league," which of course makes no sense, because the MVP is an individual award and the Cowboys' offensive line is a collection of five people. But let's pretend for a second there was an award called "Most Valuable Collection of Players Working Together at Shared and Similar Jobs." Sure, you'd look at the Cowboys' line. But how about the Broncos' defensive backs?
According to Pro Football Focus, Broncos cornerbacks Bradley Roby, Chris Harris Jr. and Aqib Talib allowed a total of six catches for 57 yards and no touchdowns on 20 targets against Jacksonville on Sunday. They had two interceptions. Safeties T.J. Ward and Darian Stewart have played like stars all season, and the defense is carrying an offense that ranks 27th in yards per game. The Denver secondary deserves MVCPWTSSJ consideration.
Ron Rivera's dress code is no joke
There aren't many NFL players who think more about their clothes than Cam Newton does, so his explanation that the weeklong stay on the West Coast threw off his wardrobe planning seemed weird. But so did the idea of sitting Newton for a series (instead of fining him) because of a dress code violation. Everything went right in Carolina last season, and everything seems to have gone wrong this season. How they bounce back from all of this in 2017 will tell us more about Rivera, Newton and the Panthers than their follow-up to last season's magical run has.
The Super Bowl still could be Patriots-Seahawks, but it won't be easy
Earl Thomas broke his leg on Sunday night. Rob Gronkowski had back surgery last week. Each is irreplaceable. Without Thomas, the Seahawks will have to adjust the way they play defense, and without Gronk, the Patriots will have to adjust the way they play offense. These are two of the best coaching staffs in the league, and they are eminently capable of making said adjustments. But the Patriots' offense didn't look real exciting against the Rams on Sunday, and Seattle is not the same team on the road as it was Sunday night at home against the Carolina Haberdashers. It will be a tough road ahead for each popular conference favorite.