Ranking the Kansas City Chiefs potential playoff matchups in Divisional Round
By Grant Tuttle
The Titans are headed to New England and the Chiefs get a bye. Today, we look ahead to the matchups that could be and rank them by how intriguing they are.
What a difference a week can make in the NFL. Just a week ago, Kansas City Chiefs fans and NFL analysts were trying to figure out who they would be playing among the Tennessee Titans, the Pittsburgh Steelers, or the Oakland Raiders. Now, everything has changed. Due to a mighty effort from the lowly Miami Dolphins, Tom Brady and the Patriots stumbled to the third seed. While the Dolphins had nothing to play for, they made a fool out of Bill Belichick and the Patriots and pushed Kansas City to the two seed and a week off.
The Chiefs now have three scenarios that could take place. It all now depends on how the games shake out, but regardless, Kansas City will play the highest remaining seed. To preface this discussion, we will be ranking the three potential matchups based on how intriguing the game would be from a national audience or just simply how much of an impact the game may have on the future of the sport.
That means, that we are not ranking these on the basis of who we, as fans, would like to see the Chiefs play because they would be easy victories.
3. The Buffalo Bills
The scenario for the Bills to come to Kansas City:
In order for the Bills to come to Kansas City, they would need to win against the Houston Texans and the New England Patriots would need to lose to the Tennessee Titans.
The matchup:
The Bills come in last in our rankings for a multitude of reasons, but none are more glaring than the fact that there is a lack of a storyline that would enter the discussion in the scenario. Sure, Sean McDermott is a coaching disciple of Andy Reid, but truly, who isn’t from the Reid or Belichick tree? Josh Allen has been inconsistent at best this season and the run game and defense have carried the team.
The Bills simply are not an exciting football team. They are the kind of team that can make a game really ugly and pulls a team down low enough that they have a chance to pull out a victory. If the Chiefs got a matchup with the Bills, it would be a largely forgettable game in which the Chiefs would pull out a moderate victory.
The Bills are a team that many were sleeping on at the beginning of the season. But the truth is, the Bills had a similar schedule to the Patriots. For much of the year, they defeated teams that were not very talented and sputtered against more talented teams. Like the rest of the year, in a matchup against the Chiefs, Josh Allen would be wildly inaccurate and cost the team the game despite a valiant effort from the rest of the team.
Likelihood Buffalo comes to Kansas City: Unlikely
At this point, it is hard enough to pick the Bills to beat the Texans, let alone depend on the Patriots to lose back-to-back games at home. At this moment in time, it seems unlikely that the Bills will be the Chiefs opponent in the Divisional Round and that is good news for people who enjoy the game of football.