This happens to a certain extent every year, but it struck me how perfectly imbalanced the NFL is when I was putting together my Week 8 power rankings Monday night.
The Detroit Lions, as we’ve seen this season — and for most of my 11 years covering the team for the Free Press — are neither one of the few best teams in the NFL nor one of the few worst.
[ How the Lions suddenly rewrote the script on a hopeless 2020 season ]
They are decidedly mediocre, and for the league’s working class, whether you pay taxes in the lowest bracket of mediocrity (6-10 and fire your coach), the highest (10-6 and sniff the playoffs) or somewhere in between (8-8 and draft in the teens) is typically determined by two things: Injuries and schedule.