KC Chiefs make life tough for AFC contenders wanting to make the leap

Last season (and perhaps before that) it was the Baltimore Ravens. This year, it’s the Buffalo Bills. If the K.C. Chiefs have anything to say about it, it will be someone else next year.

For the last three years, the Chiefs have hosted the AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium with two wins to show for their efforts. The AFC runs through Kansas City at this point and the Chiefs look like a reloaded team, especially in the trenches, ready to win again and gain a second Lombardi Trophy for their overall efforts.

That means that any team waiting in the wings in the AFC, talented teams hoping to take the leap to the next level, needs to consider the Chiefs and winning the AFC before they talk about a Super Bowl win of their own.

If the top AFC contenders can’t keep the Chiefs from running away with the conference once again in 2021, the question will be asked: can they ever do it?

The Bills and Ravens face a pivotal year in AFC against the Chiefs.

Last year, the Buffalo Bills took the leap with Josh Allen at the helm that everyone in Western New York hoped they could make and made it all the way to the AFC Championship. The Bills won 13 regular season games and finally turned the tables on Bill Belichick in the AFC East. They look like the division’s new power, although there are bright young quarterbacks on the way ready to contend, but the divison title is not enough. Neither is a postseason appearance.

“It was the Patriots before [the Chiefs],” Allen said earlier this offseason. “You want to be that team that has that sustained success. And in order to be that team, you’ve got to beat that team. And you know, it’s a lot easier said than done.”

Allen said it. There’s no Super Bowl talks until they can prove they can beat the team above them, and the Bills have had a very tough time with the Chiefs. The Bills are 1-5 against the Chiefs since head coach Andy Reid arrived and Allen himself is 0-2 with the average loss coming close to 12 points. The Chiefs wiped the floor with the Bills last postseason, sending an exciting young Bills team home wondering what had happened to all that momentum.

But the Bills aren’t the only team left scratching their heads. The Baltimore Ravens look like contenders every year, and Lamar Jackson even beat Patrick Mahomes for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2019, giving them an elite signal caller and offensive leader of their own to match the Chiefs. Unfortunately for head coach John Harbaugh, he’s 0-4 against Andy Reid’s Chiefs with a loss in each of the last three regular seasons. The last two games haven’t even remotely close.

In 2019, during the Chiefs’ lone title run of this current regime, it was the Tennessee Titans who rose up instead of the Ravens to challenge the Chiefs at Arrowhead. The Chiefs sent them packing and few people have taken them seriously to even make that leap in the aftermath despite the win-now nature of that roster with Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry leading the offense.

In short, it’s hard to have sustained excellence in the NFL and the Chiefs are showing very rare traits in even owning the AFC like they have in recent years. It will be very difficult for them to stay on top like they are year after year, but it’s also going to be just as tough (if not tougher) for the likes of the hopefuls to stave off the provens at this point. The Chiefs look built to last with as much star power as they have on their roster, and Josh Allen is right. Everyone else is waiting for their chance to try and knock them off before they can realistically think about a Super Bowl.