NFL: 5 most likely teams to reach the AFC Championship game

Look for any of these five teams to play in the 2020 AFC Championship game.

So who will play for the Lamar Hunt Trophy this year out of the AFC?

Last season saw the Kansas City Chiefs win their late founder’s namesake trophy for the first time. Kansas City had not been to a Super Bowl since 1969. Though the Tennessee Titans, of all teams, briefly gave them fits in the first half of 2019 AFC Championship game, Chiefs Kingdom prevailed en route to a Super Bowl 54 berth and a second Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.

While the NFC is a bit more up in the air, the AFC does have a few more teams than we expect that could give the Chiefs a run for their money in-conference this year. Though the Chiefs could repeat as Super Bowl champions, the last time an organization was able to pull off back-to-back Lombardi Trophies was the 2003 and 2004 New England Patriots. Winning it all is so difficult.

So what we’re going to do today is highlight five teams capable of getting to the AFC Conference Championship game. This doesn’t mean that all five of these teams are capable of winning the Lamar Hunt Trophy, but playing for it is in the upward trajectory of their team’s ceiling for 2020. If we ended up seeing any of these five teams playing for the AFC title, we wouldn’t be surprised.

Whether it’s having an NFL MVP quarterback, an elite defense or a fantastic general manager, all five of these organizations have enough good stuff going for them to be capable of winning multiple playoff games. With all but one AFC playoff team required to play in the Wild Card Round going forward, that’s what it will take to get to the AFC Championship game from here on out.

Here are the five most likely NFL teams to reach the AFC Championship game.

Will a legendary trash talker ride off into the sunset as a champion?

After spending his entire NFL career with the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers, future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Philip Rivers arrives on the Indianapolis Colts on a one-year deal before probably hanging up the spikes. Rivers plans to coach high school football in 2021, so this will be it for one of the greatest trash talkers the NFL has ever seen. Will he ride off as a champion, though?

Rivers reunites with his former Chargers offensive coordinator Frank Reich in Indianapolis. The Colts haven’t won the AFC South since 2014, but the division is particularly winnable with the Jacksonville Jaguars rebuilding, the Houston Texans trending down and the Tennessee Titans’ well-documented struggles vs. the Colts in the 2010s. The pathway to the playoffs is there.

Colts general manager Chris Ballard has built an excellent team. He added defensive lineman DeForest Buckner in a trade with the San Francisco 49ers. Ballard drafted wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr., running back Jonathan Taylor and perhaps Rivers’ future Indianapolis successor in quarterback Jacob Eason. The Colts’ defense should be good and maybe so will the offense?

If Rivers can play like he did two years ago, the Colts might have the roster around him to get back to the AFC Championship game for the first time since 2014. Again, the Colts are only the fifth most likely team to pull this off in the AFC, but we have to trust the organizational structure in place as a major reason why they could end up getting there. Maybe Rivers will retire a champion?