The 2021 NFL season is now officially in the books. The Los Angeles Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals by a score of 23-20 in Super Bowl LVI Sunday night to become Super Bowl Champions. It was a game that many Kansas City Chiefs fans envisioned watching the Chiefs play in, but as we all know, that didn’t happen thanks to an epic meltdown in the AFC Championship Game. That loss was all the more shocking since the Chiefs were coming off an epic showdown the week before with the Buffalo Bills who many thought might be ready to make a Super Bowl run of their own. So now the question becomes which of these teams should be the favorite in the AFC heading into next season?
While fans of other teams in the AFC may be offended that I have this as a three-team race, I just can’t see an argument for any other team. Now let be clear, that doesn’t mean that I’m saying only those three teams can win the AFC next season, just that they are the only three that can make a case for being the favorite to do so. Teams like the Tennessee Titans, New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens, and Los Angeles Chargers can all make cases for why they could make a run next year, but I don’t think any of them have proven enough to argue that they are the favorite to do so.
So that leaves us with the Cincinnati Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs, and the Buffalo Bills. That sets things up for a pretty epic battle for next season. The team that regular readers of this sight follow now have a pretty major recent history with both of the other two top teams. The Chiefs have broken the hearts of the Bills and their fans the past two seasons and they are going to be hungry to finally get over that hurdle next season. Meanwhile, the Chiefs now have to accept that they went 0-2 against the reigning AFC champions, so they better not just assume they can beat them next season.
So let’s take a minute and look closer at these three teams as we look ahead to next season.