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The NFL has no unbeaten teams left this season after the Vikings lost Sunday to the Lions.
The 1972 Dolphins, who have the only undefeated season in league history, remain safe for at least another year. And the NFL’s business model, built in large part upon on-field parity and “any given Sunday” unpredictability, continues to reign supreme.
The league has soaring franchise values and viewership figures that dwarf all others in U.S. professional sports. Many factors contribute to that. But among the biggest are the league’s revenue-sharing model and salary cap system that keep the franchises, whether in larger or smaller markets, on relatively even financial footing and maintain competitive balance on the field.
Teams split their national broadcasting revenues evenly on the premise that if a franchise in tiny Green Bay can vie effectively with teams in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, that will keep more fans in more cities interested—and watching and spending—for longer. The salary cap is flexible enough that a team can exceed it, based on how it structures players’ contracts. But doing that generally has consequences in future seasons.
Teams with better records pick later in the NFL Draft and play a slightly more difficult schedule the following season. It’s all designed to promote a regression to the mean.
Dynastic runs are possible in the modern-day NFL. The Patriots did it for two decades. More recently, the Chiefs have done it. But such dynasties are difficult to establish and even tougher to maintain. They’re achieved with all-time-great coaches and quarterbacks, and with skillful and resourceful management decisions to fill in rosters around those legendary quarterbacks. Other teams have their fair chances to break through.
This season, it appears there are plenty of good teams but no great teams. And with Minnesota’s Week 8 defeat, no team will make a run deep into the season to join the ’72 Dolphins.
“CONGRATS to the [Lions] on the Win and a game well played today,” former Miami running back Larry Csonka wrote Sunday on X/Twitter. “CHEERS to all my ‘72 undefeated teammates and [Dolphins] fans on our now 54 year record! Cheers!”
The Vikings were an unlikely candidate to be the season’s final unblemished team, with a 6-0 start before Sunday’s 19–15 loss in Detroit. They’re ranked 30th among the 32 NFL teams in cash spending on this season’s player payroll at $300.1 million, according to Spotrac.
This season’s salary cap is $301.2 million per team. But the Cowboys are spending a league-leading $391 million, according to Spotrac.
The Vikings are paying their starting quarterback, Kyler Murray, a 2026 salary of just $1.3 million, the league minimum for a player with his experience. The Cardinals owed him a guaranteed $36.8 million for this season, but they released him in March. Minnesota has struggled this season on offense but has been led by a defense overseen by coordinator Brian Flores, the former Dolphins coach who is suing the NFL and teams for racial discrimination.
The issues on offense showed up again in Sunday’s loss.
“It is frustrating,” Murray said during his postgame news conference. “But at the end of the day, we were 6–0 before coming into this game. We’re not gonna sit here and dwell on the what-ifs and the negatives and stuff like that because at the end of the day, it’s the NFL and it’s hard to win. And to be 6–0 while we’re struggling, yes, we’re gonna keep grinding. And that’s just who we are. … We lost today. But I know we’ll be back better because of it.”
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