That Josh Allen was the last to fall isn't the surprise. It's that it happened so soon for the Buffalo Bills quarterback.
In an upside-down NFL season, Bo Nix of the Denver Broncos is one of the final quarterbacks standing in the AFC. His opponent in the AFC Championship game is going to be either Drake Maye of the New England Patriots or C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans. Now, read that again slowly.
None of this was supposed to happen. None of these characters were leads when the season began. When the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys kicked off the regular season, AFC predictions had the same predictable quarterbacks headed for Santa Clara, where Super Bowl LX will be held. Now, the conference is looking at a new crop of signal callers ready to compete for a Lombardi Trophy.
The AFC is now in the hands of a few young quarterbacks no one saw coming.
On Saturday, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills lost a close thriller in overtime against the Denver Broncos in the divisional round. It ended Allen's season, and after the game, he was clearly emotional and said, "It’s extremely difficult. I feel like I let my teammates down tonight."
Just like that, the AFC's side of the NFL playoff picture felt off—or at least new. Some fans might welcome fresh faces to the table after years of the same old superstars. Others might miss the thrill of seeing the NFL's most recognizable quarterbacks competing when it counts the most.
Either way, opinions don't matter. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs were nowhere near the postseason after stumbling in the second half of the season to a final record of 6-11. The same could be said of Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals, who never looked like contenders in '25. Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens were eliminated in the final week.
The last quarterback to play in the AFC Championship not named Mahomes, Jackson, Burrow, or Allen is Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Tennessee Titans in 2019. He is the only QB since Tom Brady left the Patriots to start a conference championship in the AFC other than the aforementioned quartet of stars. That's how lopsided things have been for the rest of the teams stuck watching the Chiefs, Ravens, Bengals, and Bills year after year.
The moment Will Lutz kicked a game-winning field goal to lift Denver to a three-point divisional-round win, a new era was ushered in for half of the NFL. Younger quarterbacks will now have a chance to showcase their own postseason heroics, and older veterans will have to fight their way back into the picture. It can no longer be assumed that one of the "big four" will be back in the center ring anytime soon.