AFC Power Rankings: Where do KC Chiefs stand before training camp?
THE CLASS OF THE AFC
3. Kansas City Chiefs
If we’re being objective, the Kansas City Chiefs have a couple of major questions that they have to answer this season. First, can the offense still be one of the league’s best without Tyreek Hill? The second is do they have enough pass rush to slow down the other high-powered offenses in the AFC? For those reasons, I can’t put the Chiefs ahead of the top two teams on this list. Still, Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes have led the Chiefs to four straight AFC championship games and that counts for something. I still believe that the Chiefs are one of the best teams in the AFC and a real Super Bowl contender, they just have a lot more competition than they have the last couple of seasons.
2. Cincinnati Bengals
I’ve seen some power rankings that have the Bengals behind the Chiefs, but even as a Chiefs fan I don’t think that’s fair. The Bengals beat the Chiefs head to head in both their meetings last season. You can say all you want about KC’s second-half collapse in the playoffs, but the bottom line is that the Bengals won both games. Plus, the Bengals addressed their one glaring need (the offensive line) this offseason while the Chiefs still have to answer the two big questions I mentioned above. Do I think the Chiefs are capable of beating the Bengals this season? Sure, but until that happens the Bengals deserve to be above them in the rankings.
1. Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills have the best team in the AFC. Period. I can’t find a hole in their roster. They were in the AFC championship two years ago. They were 13 seconds away from beating the Chiefs in the playoffs last season and I feel confident that if they had held onto that game that they would have beat the Bengals to go to the Super Bowl. In a loaded AFC, they are the team with the biggest guns. The margin between them and the Bengals and Chiefs isn’t very big, but if there’s a team that deserves to be number one in the preseason rankings, it’s the Bills.
So there you have it, my power rankings for all 16 AFC teams. What do you think? Are there some teams you think I’m way too low on? Any teams you think I’m way too high on? Are there any teams you think need to be bumped up or down into a different tier? I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments below.
You can also check out some of my other recent pieces in the links below.