Kansas City Chiefs not projected to earn No. 1 seed in the playoffs

Getting the No. 1 seed is bigger than ever, but unfortunately the Kansas City Chiefs might fall just short of that goal.

John Breech of CBS Sports published a piece on the teams projected to make the playoffs this year and while the Kansas City Chiefs will definitely be playing after the regular season ends, they might not have Wild Card weekend off like they did last year.

Breech’s post used information from Sports Line in order to put together the projections and in those, the Chiefs end up as the No. 2 seed, which is where they’re currently at after nine games. That obviously means they’re at least going to win their division, but no one really expected otherwise.

"The Chiefs have looked like the best team in the AFC over the past few weeks, but unfortunately for them, the computer doesn’t currently think they’re going to end up with the AFC’s top overall seed. According to SportsLine, the Chiefs are projected to finish 0.7 wins behind the Steelers in the win column. Although the computer doesn’t like Kansas City’s chances of getting the top seed, it does believe that the AFC West race is all but over. The Chiefs currently have an 95.3% chance of winning the division, making them the only team in the NFL that has more than a 90% chance of winning their division heading into Week 10."

While the Steelers probably don’t win out — not with games against the Bills, Browns, Colts, and Ravens still on the schedule — the Chiefs pretty much have to do just that if they want that No. 1 seed. The schedule isn’t exactly a cakewalk either, as KC will face the Buccaneers, Dolphins, Raiders, and Saints in four of their final seven games.

The expanding of the playoffs was good for the NFL because it brings in more money (well, maybe not this year due to the limited attendance in stadiums), but it hurts the Chiefs. Last year, they had the No. 2 seed and that helped them make their run to the Super Bowl because they had Wild Card weekend off.

This year, if the results hold, Kansas City would be gearing up to host a Wild Card game against the No. 7 seed (which is the Dolphins right now). It’s not ideal for the good teams who now have an even tougher road to the Super Bowl.

In the real life standings, the Wild Card teams are (in this order) the Ravens, Raiders, and Dolphins, but this projection has the Ravens, Colts, and Dolphins making it instead. Somewhere along the way, the Raiders are going to falter and it’ll be costly enough to cost them a spot in the postseason.

"The Raiders are expected to finish as the first team out of the playoffs in the AFC and they have just a 43.3% chance of making the postseason."

Hey, maybe the Chiefs can be the ones to make that difference by beating the Raiders in Week 11. It’d be the least they could do after Vegas handed them their one loss so far this season.

While these are simply just projections, this is absolutely what the AFC playoffs could look like come January. Hopefully it’s off a tad bit and the Chiefs end up getting that No. 1 seed.