Why Each Team Will/Will Not Win The Super Bowl: AFC

Photo from The Tennessean

This weekend, the NFL playoffs begin.

We will spend the next three weekends watching playoff football, and then being surprised and upset when Tom Brady makes it back there.

Still, other non Tom Brady teams have a chance as well.

Here is why each AFC team will or will not win the Super Bowl.

Tennessee Titans

Will: The Titans have the first round bye, homefield advantage, and they did all of it while crushed with injuries to Derrick Henry, multiple offensive linemen and their best two receivers.

Henry is coming back, AJ Brown and Julio Jones are both back and the line is getting healthy.

If they can be the top seed without them, they can easily win the whole conference with them.

Will Not: How good really are the Titans?

Sure, they went 12-5 and got the 1 seed, but they played in a very weak division which gave them a 5-1 record and the top seed overall.

They’re still a good team, but their seeding and record remind me of the Packers from two years ago.

Talented, but I’m not picking them over Kansas City or Buffalo.

Kansas City Chiefs

Will: The Chiefs, like the Titans, finished the season 12-5.

And they finished that way despite Mahomes not being Mahomes for basically the entire first half of the season.

He seems back to normal, or close to it, and we know what that means.

We’ve seen Mahomes at his best for three playoff runs, and he’s one offside call away from being 3-0 in AFC championship games.

It’s hard to see anyone else except Kansas City as the favorites in the AFC.

Will Not: I might just copy what I said a couple seasons ago.

The Chiefs defense is better than the beginning of the year.

It’s still not good.

And considering we’ve seen some cracks in Mahomes game, it’s not crazy to think a defense can slow him down enough to pull out a win.

But like I said, I said this two seasons ago and they still won the Super Bowl.

Buffalo Bills

Will: This is the best defense in football.

Defense wins championships, and if you have the best defense in football based on DVOA, you’re in pretty good shape.

Add a talented Josh Allen to that mix, and the Bills could waltz towards a Super Bowl.

Will Not: I won’t go with the cheap and easy joke and say “it’s the Bills!”

But I will say that their offense is completely one dimensional.

Josh Allen is great, but what happens if a defense stops Josh Allen. What do the Bills do?

The Jets showed it on Sunday for three quarters of the game, and the Jets have the worst defense in football based on DVOA.

Now the Bills are going up against playoff defenses, and if Josh Allen gets stopped then they are in very bad shape.

Cincinnati Bengals

Will: This is the most explosive young offense in the NFL, and Joe Burrow would be having an MVP calendar season if Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady didn’t exist.

Since the NFL is a one game playoff format, you can simply ride the hot hand all the way to a Super Bowl.

Hell, the Eagles did it with Nick Foles. Why couldn’t the Bengals do it with Burrow?

Will Not: I’ll tell you why they couldn’t, because they aren’t ready yet.

The defense isn’t that great, and the offense is still very young.

The future is extremely bright for the Bengals, but this simply isn’t the year for them.

Las Vegas Raiders

Will: This has been the craziest and most tumultuous year for the Raiders.

Their star young receiver was an absolute idiot and threw his life away while taking someone else’s in a terrible DUI crash, and their head coach with approximately 80 years left on his contract was found to be incredibly racist and was fired.

And yet, here they are.

Half the battle is simply getting to the playoffs, and now they’re here despite everything going wrong for them.

Now it’s a fresh start, and Derek Carr is playing some of the best football of his career.

Will Not: Carr is playing great, but the overall offense is mediocre. The defense is mediocre.

Its the lazy way out, but the simple fact is that the Raiders aren’t a good enough team to win a Super Bowl.

But considering everything that happened this year, Raiders fans should be happy they’re here.

New England Patriots

Will: You did read the team we are talking about, right?

This is the Patriots and Bill Belichick.

Not only that, but they’re the 4th best team in football based on DVOA.

They have the best coach in history, and a really great team to go along with it.

Will Not: The Mac Jones rookie year started with a bang, with many thinking he was headed towards offensive rookie of the year honors.

That year eventually came back down to Earth, even if it was still a good year.

Still, a pretty good rookie quarterback doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence towards a Super Bowl run, especially when you can make the argument that Tannehill, Mahomes, Allen, Burrow and Carr are all better than Jones.

But hey, I’m sure everyone thought the same thing when Tom Brady was leading the Pats in 2001.

And look what happened…

Pittsburgh Steelers

Will: If T.J. Watt gets a sack on every play, the Steelers probably will eventually get some points and win the Super Bowl.

Will Not: Because they’re bad.

Big Ben can’t throw more than 5 yards without his arm possibly falling off and the offensive line is simply terrible.

I can’t say there isn’t a single chance that the Steelers win the Super Bowl because every other team could just forfeit for some reason, but that seems to be the only possibility.