With four games remaining in the NFL regular season, the two AFC Wild Card births are still up for grabs with a number of teams holding out hope they find a way into the postseason. Although only the 2-9 Cleveland Browns have officially been eliminted, it looks like three teams; the Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers are in the best position to claim one of the final two playoff spots.
Cases can also be made for the Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans, but it’s the Chiefs, Jets and Steelers who have the most direct, controllable path to the postseason.
Taking that into account, let’s take a glance at the three teams path to the playoffs and some points to consider for each team down the stretch.
Kansas City (7-5, 6-2, AFC) current No. 5 seed in the AFC
Reasons to believe?
*The Chiefs remaining opponents are the Chargers, Browns, Ravens and Raiders. Cumulative winning percentage of those four teams? An absolutely dreadful .334. It’s hard to think the Chiefs do any worse than 3-1 down the stretch and with their strong conference record, 10 wins should be enough to move on.
*The Chiefs looked dead in the water when they hosted the Steelers in Week 7. They were 1-5 and had just lost their best player, Jamaal Charles to a knee injury. Since they have reeled off six straight wins and are averaging over 36 points a game in their last five contests. Quarterback Alex Smith simply does not make mistakes and Spencer Ware and Charcandrick West have filled in admirably for the injured Charles. Add a defense that’s sneaky good and the Chiefs could be a dangerous first round opponent.
Will they slip?
*It’s been a remarkable turnaround in KC and it’s hard to think they lose one of the two Wild Card spots with a such a strong conference mark and cupcakes galore left on the schedule.
New York Jets (7-5, 5-4) current No. 6 seed
Ride the hot hand?
*Veteran signal caller Ryan Fitzpatrick has breathed new life into a Jets squad that needed stability at quarterback after the failures of Geno Smith. Fitzpatrick does not dazzle, but he’s finding ways to get star receivers Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker the ball with consistency and Chris Ivory has been a workhorse at running back as he closes in on a 1,000-yard season.
The Jets do not control their own destiny–
*Despite of holding the final playoff spot in the AFC, the Jets could win out and still not make the playoffs. That’s because if the Chiefs and Steelers both win out, the Jets would lose the common opponents record tiebreaker to the Steelers. If there is a silver lining for the Jets, three of their final four opponents have a .361 winning percentage. The bad news is the fourth team is their hated rival, the New England Patriots.
Pittsburgh Steelers (7-5, 4-4)
Cream rises to the top?
*With Ben Roethlisberger healthy and the team coming off a dominating home win over the Indianapolis Colts, the Steelers are in position to make a strong push for a playoff birth. The offense is catching fire right now and though the Steelers will face two of the top three teams in the AFC record wise in back to back weeks, winning at least one of those games would be huge.
Too little, too late?
*Losses to the Ravens and Chiefs loom large, but those games were sans Roethlisberger. Hard to think the Steelers don’t pull those games off if the team was not forced to turn to Michael Vick and Landry Jones. That could have made this weekend’s trip to Cincinatti a game where the both the division and playoff bye would have been very much in play.
*It’s undeniable–The Steelers have the toughest path to the playoffs with the Bengals and Denver Broncos the next weeks. Any slip ups against the Ravens or Browns could be fatal to their playoff hopes.
