In the league of parity, it takes a lot to rise to the cream of the crop. The NFL’s scheduling is designed to help teams go from worst to first. That seems to be true for everyone except the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Cleveland Browns. They are helped by drafting earlier and playing other poor teams.
As a result, there’s typically a churn at the bottom for teams with bad records. On the other end of the spectrum, are tougher opponents a true challenge for upper tier teams? There’s been a constant churn for teams in the NFL playoffs.