Kansas City Chiefs: AFC playoff picture after week 10
The Kansas City Chiefs sit atop the AFC after ten weeks of the regular season. What does the rest of the AFC look like when it comes to the playoffs?
The Kansas City Chiefs hold the best record in the AFC at the moment and if the season ended today, the AFC champion would have to come to Arrowhead and knock off the Chiefs. Obviously that’s the end game, but there’s still a lot of football left to be played this season.
The Chiefs are 9-1 and hold the top seed in the conference, but how do the rest of the standings look? Here’s how the AFC would play out if the postseason began after week ten:
- Chiefs (9-1) – BYE
- Steelers (6-2-1) – BYE
- Patriots (7-3)
- Texans (6-3)
- Chargers (7-2)
- Bengals (5-4)
It’s worth noting that the Chiefs and Patriots haven’t had bye weeks yet (the Patriots have theirs in week 11 and the Chiefs in week 12), but for now, this would be the playoff picture in the AFC. The Chiefs and Steelers would get the two bye weeks while the Patriots would host the Bengals and the Texans would welcome in the Chargers.
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From there, anything is possible, but my guess would be that the Patriots easily handle the Bengals and Los Angeles probably knocks off the Texans in Houston. That’d mean the Chargers would come to KC for the AFC Divisional Round while Pittsburgh would host the Pats. Those would be two REALLY fun playoff games.
It’s frustrating that the Chargers are right on KC’s heels, putting even more pressure on the Chiefs not to slip up. If Kansas City has a few stinkers down the line, not only could they lose home field advantage, but they could lose the AFC West. That’d really suck to have to play as a Wild Card team.
The Chiefs have some tough games remaining this season, including their Monday Night Football match-up next week in Mexico City versus the Rams. They also have another game against the Chargers on the schedule, host the Ravens, and visit the Seahawks. The two Raiders games should be more than manageable.
New England losing this past weekend was huge. The Patriots hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Chiefs and now they have two more losses than KC, which means the Chiefs widened their lead on them this weekend. The Patriots are an entirely different team on the road in the playoffs, so getting home field at Arrowhead throughout the postseason is the goal for sure.
The Kansas City Chiefs have not had the number one seed in the playoffs since 2003 with that explosive offense they had that year. They would lose in the Divisional Round in the infamous “No Punt Game”.
Hopefully the Chiefs continue to hold that top spot and can make some magic happen in the playoffs this year.