The Kansas City Chiefs are now officially the number two seed in the AFC playoffs. The Chiefs win over the Denver Broncos combined with the Tennessee Titans win over the Houston Texans locked in the seeding at the top of the conference over the weekend.
We also know that the Chiefs will play the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of the AFC playoffs, in large part thanks to the Jacksonville Jaguars upsetting the Indianapolis Colts and a last-second overtime field goal by the Las Vegas Raiders. So we know K.C.’s seed and their opponent, but as we look at the conference as a whole, where do the Chiefs really rank amongst the remaining seven teams?
We all know that the official seeding of the playoffs isn’t the same as which teams we really think can come out of the AFC and into the Super Bowl. There will be plenty of time to preview the Chiefs matchup with the Steelers later this week. I thought it would be interesting to do a Power Rankings of all seven AFC playoff teams in anticipation of the playoffs kicking off this coming weekend.
About a month ago, I did a Power Rankings of the top AFC playoff contenders. At that point I had the top 10 AFC teams ranked in the following order:
- Kansas City Chiefs
- New England Patriots
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Tennessee Titans
- Baltimore Ravens
- Buffalo Bills
- Indianapolis Colts
- Cleveland Browns
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Denver Broncos
Obviously, things have drastically changed over the last month of the season. I didn’t even have the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Las Vegas Raiders in the top ten playoff contenders and teams like the Chargers, Ravens, Colts, Browns, and Broncos all stumbled down the home stretch.
How will the rankings look now as we head into the playoffs? Let’s start at the bottom with #7 and work our way up.