AFC East Leads the NFL Through 3 Weeks

As regulars to the Pulpit are well aware, I don't like it when ignorant people claim my division is a weak one. Top to bottom the AFC East has been among the best division for a very long time.  As we're about to see, that hasn't changed this year.

First of all, we'll look at total wins in the division.

As you can see, the AFC is a game ahead of the next closest division, and 4 games ahead of the worst division.  This happens to be the same division the AFC North feasted on last year when they sent three teams to the playoffs.

Next we'll look at life in the division without the Patriots.  To be fair, we'll also remove the top team from every other division.  This is simply (sum of the wins in the division) - (max wins in the division).  Pretty simple stuff for a spread sheet.

Once again, the AFC East leads all other division by a game once the leaders are removed.  They are also 3 games ahead of the worst division.

Finally, we look at the wins for the worst team in each division, and see how they compare.

Once again, the AFC East is in a 5 way tie for first place.

As the Patriots head into the bye, I'd expect some divisions to maybe catch up a little.  In fact it's a little difficult to do this comparison week to week and have it be accurate since bye teams will have fewer wins/losses than other teams.  If someone has an idea how to handle that, please let me know.