The NFL sucks this year (well, some of it)

Ok, hear me out. I'm still loving the NFL, I still try to watch minimum one game a week and track down highlights for as many games as possible. I still watch RedZone on ESPN on Monday mornings so I can watch live action and scoring from around the league.

But let's be real, there are a lot of little-less-than-ordinary/below-average teams this year. If the season ended today, the Houston Texans would be the 3rd best team in the league.That's the Houston Texans missing their star defensive player and featuring arguably the most overpaid quarterback in league history (Hello, Brock Osweiller). The fact they've somehow managed a 5-3 record is morerepresentative of how bad everyone else is, rather than how good they are.

An inconsistent Baltimore Ravens are currently in a position to be hosting a home final, despite looking average on both sides of the ball. A New York Giants outfit who have suffered through the same issues as Baltimore are also in a playoff spot. Last year's Super Bowl losing Carolina Panthers lost five of their first six games, and are somehow still in contention for the playoffs.

The only teams who have looked like contenders are New England Patriots (surprise, surprise), Oakland Raiders (no, seriously, an actual surprise packet), Dallas Cowboys (despite Tony Romo still being on the sidelines), Atlanta Falcons (featuring a career-best season from Matt Ryan) and Denver Broncos (who are banged-up and should regain full health before the playoffs, but are yet to really impress on offense).

Here's to the second half of the season being better than the first.