SANTA CLARA, Calif. — He had just witnessed, from an up-close-and-personal perch, one of the most thrilling games of an unhinged NFL season. And as George Kittle sat appreciatively at his Levi’s Stadium locker stall Sunday night, recounting the San Francisco 49ers’ dramatic 42-38 victory against the Chicago Bears with teammates Christian McCaffrey and Ricky Pearsall, the hobbled Pro Bowl tight end put his inimitable spin on a surreal state of affairs.

One week remains in the 2025 regular season. Typically, at this stage, one or more teams in each conference have announced themselves as clear Super Bowl favorites, seemingly capable of a resounding postseason rampage. This year, however, the playoff palette looks like a psychedelic rainbow. Sixteen teams remain alive, with two spots in the 14-team field yet to be decided — and if you bend your mind far enough, any of them looks capable of winning any given game, all the way up to the biggest one on Feb. 8 at Levi’s.

“You know what it actually is? It’s a year when anyone could lose it,” Kittle said. “That’s kind of what it feels like. Nobody’s dominant — or, at least no one’s proven that yet. So it’s going to come down to what quarterback’s playing the best, and which team can overcome its flaws.”

In other words, unless something changes rather drastically, the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles aren’t walking through that door. The defending champs are back in the postseason, but their offense has found the opposing end zone more elusive than a sustained resistance movement on “Pluribus.” Three-time champion Patrick Mahomes is recovering from knee surgery after a lost Kansas City Chiefs season; reigning MVP Josh Allen looks exhausted from carrying a blemished Buffalo Bills team; and four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers (Pittsburgh Steelers) and two-time winner Lamar Jackson (Baltimore Ravens) are gearing up for an elimination showdown Sunday night while staring at uncertain futures.

Meanwhile, none of the three upstarts who share the league’s best record at 13-3 — the Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos and New England Patriots — has won a postseason game since the start of the current decade, provoking widespread doubts about their staying power. Maybe there’s a super team lurking somewhere, but right now the Lombardi Trophy appears there for the taking.

“I do feel that way,” Kyle Juszczyk, the 49ers’ 10-time Pro Bowl fullback, said after San Francisco improved to 12-4 Sunday night. “I don’t feel like there’s any one team that is the consensus leader of the pack. I feel like it’s anyone’s ballgame.”

That’s bad news for aficionados of dominance and great news for fans who like tightly contested games and heart-stopping finishes. The NFL’s relentless push for parity may enter turbo mode come January and February.