AFC is loaded with young quarterbacks. KC Chiefs’ Andy Reid thinks that’s a good thing
When the NFL expanded the playoffs ahead of the 2020 season, fans and pundits feared giving only one team a bye week would be too much of an advantage.
But ahead of Super Bowl LVI, we know that in the two seasons under the new format, that edge has been minimal. Only one team of the four to have a bye in the past two postseasons has made the Super Bowl: the Chiefs last year.
This season’s playoffs have been bonkers. Both top seeds lost on the first day of the NFL Divisional playoffs on Jan. 16. The next day, the NFC’s No. 2 seed Buccaneers, the defending Super Bowl champion, lost.
As it turns out the Super Bowl will feature a pair of fourth-seeded teams: the Rams and Bengals, who eliminated the second-seeded Chiefs in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid was asked Monday if this was the most unpredictable postseason he can remember.
“Well, I’ll tell you these playoff games have been the closest as I recall of any years past,” Reid said. “So if that’s an indication of parity, I would tell you, yes. I felt that way during the season for sure.
“I don’t have the stats sitting in front of me to tell me if it was the closest one ever. I know so many games are determined by seven points or less in this league that it’s ridiculous every year.”
All four divisional-round playoff games were decided by a field goal at the end of regulation or a touchdown scored in overtime. The two championship games were by a margin of three points.
Elias Sports Bureau noted six games have been tied in the fourth quarter of this year’s playoffs, the same number as the last three postseasons combined.
Could we see these tight postseason games in the future? One reason to think so: the AFC is loaded with young, talented quarterbacks.
Although he’s not old, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is 26, and there are six younger AFC quarterbacks who are either on the rise or established stars.
The Bills’ Josh Allen is 25. Ditto for the Bengals’ Joe Burrow and Ravens’ Lamar Jackson. The Chargers’ Justin Herbert is only 23, as is the Patriots’ Mac Jones. The Dolphins, who fell a victory short of the playoff field, have 23-year-old Tua Tagovailoa at quarterback.
Reid thinks that competition for Mahomes and the Chiefs is a good thing.
“I’ve said it every week here just that I think that it’s great for the National Football League,” Reid said. “It’s great for the AFC because we’ve got a lot of these guys in the AFC and creates great competition. And that’s why we’re in this.
“But the NFL, which it is important to all of us that it stays at the top of all the games, different sports, you’ve got to have that position. It’s got to be strong and I think we’re sitting in a pretty good spot with all the good quarterbacks.”
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 1:38 PM.
