When the Kansas City Chiefs secured first place in the AFC West Sunday, they also secured themselves a first place schedule in 2011.
That means that while we won’t know the order of the games for some time, we can pretty much determine what teams the Chiefs will play next year right now.
Basically each team’s schedule is predetermined years in advance except for two games. Each season, the Chiefs play their own division twice and one AFC division and one NFC division on a rotating basis. Those games account for 14 of KC’s 16 games. The 2 extra games will come from the two AFC divisions the Chiefs aren’t playing that year. Those teams are chosen based on where they finished the previous season.
For example, this season the Chiefs were set to play the AFC South and the NFC West. Since they finished in last place in the AFC West, they played the two teams that finished in last in the AFC East (Bills) and AFC North (Browns). The San Diego Chargers on the other hand, finished in first place last year so they played the first place teams from the AFC East (Patriots) and the AFC North (Bengals).
So who are the Chiefs playing in 2011? Find out after the jump.
Chiefs 2011 Opponents
AFC West:
Oakland Raiders x2
Denver Tebows Broncos x2
San Diego Chokers Chargers x2
AFC East:
New England Patriots
New York Jets
Miami dolphins
Buffalo Bills
NFC North:
Chicago Bears
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
Detroit Lions
AFC North:
Steelers/Ravens (depending on the outcome of Week 17)
AFC South:
Colts/Jaguars (depending on the outcome of Week 17)
This is certainly a much more difficult schedule than the Chiefs faced this year but to be the best you have to beat the best. What do you think Addicts? Will the 2011 Chiefs be good enough to navigate this schedule or will they take a step back?