After three weeks of the NFL season, it’s evident in the AFC that the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills are the best teams in the conference. Yet, there is one glaring difference that could derail that January contest.
It’s been a crazy three weeks of the young NFL season. In the AFC, the Cincinnati Bengals are 0-3; the Pittsburgh Steelers are 3-0; the Houston Texans are struggling on offense; the Los Angeles Chargers are decimated with injuries; the Panthers won on the road against the Raiders with Andy Dalton, and the Baltimore Ravens didn’t win their first game until whipping up on the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.
The so-called chasers to the AFC Throne have struggled while the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs appear headed for an AFC Title game. The Bills have averaged over thirty points per game in defeating the Arizona Cardinals, Miami Dolphins, and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Chiefs have narrowly defeated the Ravens, Bengals, and Atlanta Falcons. Yet, if you compare opponents, it’s clear the Chiefs have had a higher level of difficulty. The Bills have taken advantage of bad teams, but that soft schedule is about to change.
On Tuesday morning, most NFL pundits agreed that the Bills are the best team in football. I can’t argue that point, but the Chiefs are still the team to beat. Josh Allen has found new momentum without the distraction of wide receiver Stefon Diggs on the roster.
Even more impressive is that the Bills are playing great football while flushing out their salary cap woes. In doing so, they’ve made moves that gave them ten draft picks in 2025 to maintain a more balanced team as they jettison age and bad contracts.
In Kansas City, the Chiefs have plenty of cap space despite paying high salaries for their superstar talent. Yet, these teams are tied atop the AFC, and for all of us who enjoy this rivalry, their regular-season game in Buffalo in November and a post-season game in January are what we all want to see.
However, the Bills enter a portion of their schedule to see them go on the road for three consecutive weeks. For the record, the NFL should eliminate three straight-away games. It’s simply not fair.
Buffalo will face the Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans, and New York Jets next. After that, they get a reprieve with another AFC bottom feeder, the Tennessee Titans, at home before heading to Seattle to face the undefeated Seahawks.
The Chiefs have a road game against the Los Angeles Chargers, who are dealing with significant injuries and suspensions, and then a Monday Night home game against the New Orleans Saints before their bye-week break.
So, in the next three weeks, we will learn a lot about the Bills and Chiefs.
Still, as a purest of the game, only a few felt the Bills would be this good to start the season. I didn’t even predict that they would make it to the postseason. I thought the Miami Dolphins, who they discarded handily in week two, and the New York Jets might be better than Buffalo this season. Thus far, that’s not true.
Then again, I didn’t think I’d see the Chiefs offense struggle at the onset of the 2024 season like we did most of 2023. However, it’s just a matter of time before the offense clicks and the close games end.
In today’s race, the Bills had a huge advantage playing three teams with no defense. The Chiefs faced three teams among the top-heavy defensive teams in the NFL. That’s going to be flipped now.
Yes, the Chargers have an excellent defense, but they will have a hard time Sunday with so many top-level players on the sidelines. For Buffalo, they go to Baltimore, where they will be tested.
On one hand, they could do the Chiefs a favor by knocking off the Ravens on their turf, but that’s a tall order. The Ravens have speed on defense, and though they wilted in the fourth quarter against Dallas, they can get pressure on Allen.
Once we end the first quarter of the 2024 season, things will start to come into play, so much so that we’ll have a good idea as to which teams can challenge the Chiefs in the AFC and if Kansas City can shut down the Chargers mentality, even with a healthy roster, they can defeat the Chiefs in the AFC West.
The Bills and Jets are the best teams in the AFC East, and they’ll clash in a few weeks. Either way, Buffalo is the AFC’s surprise team of the 2024 season. They made some bold moves to get their ship sailing again, so any success they have this season is a bonus.
It’s also a testament to Josh Allen, who doesn’t have to carry this team on his back this season. He has speed everywhere on offense, and he’s having fun again. Despite the changes, the defense has shut down the bad teams convincingly.
Now it’s time to prove they can do that against three likely playoff teams on the road.
The same goes for the Chiefs. They can’t be lured into thinking the injury-riddled Chargers will be a cakewalk, nor can they underestimate the New Orleans Saints.
