NFL Playoff Power Rankings: AFC Divisional Round
After an exciting Wild Card in the NFL, only four teams from each conference remain in the race for this season’s Lombardi trophy. Let’s examine and rank the four teams remaining in the AFC heading into the divisional round this weekend.
1. Houston Texans
While there are certainly some things to be concerned about regarding the Texans’ offense, especially with star Wide Receiver Nico Collins now out with a concussion, it’s hard to look past Houston’s vaunted defense that has dominated the NFL all season long.
There aren’t many teams that have made Aaron Rodgers look mortal in his career, but the Texans did that and more in their Wild Card win over the Steelers on Monday night. Houston was able to get relentless pressure on Rodgers all night, while also forcing two turnovers on the star QB and taking them back for six on each one.
Their upcoming opponent, the New England Patriots, struggled mightily on offense against the Chargers last week, and Los Angeles only has the fourth-ranked defense in the NFL. Considering how wide open the AFC is in these playoffs, counting out the team with the best defense in the league wouldn’t be the wisest decision.
2. New England Patriots
Speaking of the Patriots, they still have a fantastic QB in Drake Maye, who showed outstanding resilience in the second half against the Chargers in his first NFL Playoff game. The Patriots will go as far as Maye will take them, and that’s simultaneously their biggest strength and weakness.
Outside of Maye’s almost impeccable poise and overall ability, the Patriots are still young with a roster that isn’t as stacked with talent on both sides of the ball. Of course, New England has overperformed massively despite that, thanks in part to the coaching job by Mike Vrabel.
The Texans will be the biggest challenge that the Patriots have faced all NFL season, with the winner of this game in all likelihood being this year’s AFC representative in the Super Bowl. If the Patriots win this game, there might be only one team left in the AFC that can stop them.
3. Buffalo Bills
If you’re wondering who that team that can potentially stop New England is, look no further than their bitter division rival. Much of that reason comes from the mere fact that the Bills possess not only the best QB in the AFC, but the best QB in football in Josh Allen.
After leading the Bills to a clutch victory over the Jaguars last week, it almost seems like destiny is finally on Allen’s side this time around in the postseason. However, Allen is not alone in this quest, with a scrappy Buffalo defense and fantastic run game that have shown their ability to back Allen up when he needs them to.
The Bills have both the top pass defense and rushing attack in the NFL. When combined with Allen’s brilliance for his entire postseason career, there may not be a more dangerous team on this list.
4. Denver Broncos
It seems almost wrong to put the AFC’s top seed in last place among all AFC divisional teams, but there are too many question marks surrounding this team heading into this weekend. One of the questions is, can the Broncos get off to a fast start on offense?
Denver has had a penchant for starting slow on the offensive side of the ball, ranking in the bottom half of the league in first-half scoring. The Broncos are similar to the Texans, as they rely heavily on their tremendous defense to lead them to victory, and hope the offense does just enough.
The only problem that arises in that comparison is the wide gap in playoff experience that each team’s respective QBs have at this point. While C.J. Stroud did everything he could to lose the game for the Texans in their playoff game against Pittsburgh on Monday, the Texans’ star still has a pretty solid playoff resume in his young career.
Meanwhile, for Bo Nix, this will be just the second playoff game of his career, with the most experienced QB left in the AFC playoff field in Allen sitting on the other sideline come Saturday. All of these question marks surrounding Denver are too much to rank them any higher.
Final Thoughts
NFL fans are in for quite a treat with these AFC matchups this weekend, as it seems to be a perfect mixture of elite defenses facing off against superstar QBs. Those two things almost guarantee that fans will see some divisional classics in the NFL this year.
