Pats fans repeat this a lot in response to the weak division criticism.
It’s only partially valid, imo. They are all-time great, no doubt. And they would have won a lot regardless.
But their reign DID coincide with a fairly unprecedented run of complete incompetence from their division rivals. And that helped. Even this season- just a slightly tougher division probably means no bye for them, and a much less likely shot at #6.