It's been a singular goal for the Kansas City Chiefs all season, namely becoming the first team in NFL history to three-peat as Super Bowl champions. They took care of the job in the regular season, even if it wasn't pretty, by earning the No. 1 seed in the AFC. That left Patrick Mahomes and Co. on the bye for the Wild Card Round this week and making their postseason debut against the Houston Texans on Saturday in the Divisional Round.
Before the Chiefs ever think about what a Super Bowl three-peat, though, they have to make their way through an AFC that's absolutely loaded. The Texans, while they showed plenty of warts throughout the regular season, showed agains the Chargers in their Wild Card Round win that they are nothing to be taken lightly.
But with a win in the Divisional Round, the Chiefs would be one more win away from another Super Bowl berth, the farthest any team eyeing a Super Bowl three-peat has ever made it. Who would Kansas City face off with next in the AFC Championship Game, though? Here's how the playoff bracket has shaken out.
Who will the Kansas City Chiefs play next in the AFC Championship Game?
The Chiefs will play either the Buffalo Bills or the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game, the No. 2 and 3 seeds, respectively, in the conference's playoff bracket. The conference championship tilt is currently scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT on Sunday, Jan. 26 with CBS having the broadcast and with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo on the call.
Buffalo and Baltimore both advanced through the Wild Card Round with relative ease to get to their own Divisional Round matchup. The Bills fell behind 7-0 early against the Broncos but used a mammoth game from James Cook and the regularJosh Allen heroics to score 31 unanswered points and win. Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson were similarly dominant against the rival Steelers as they mowed over Pittsburgh.
In any case, the Chiefs would face the two leading MVP candidates for another trip to the Super Bowl.
Chiefs vs. AFC opponents: How Patrick Mahomes has fared vs. Bills and Ravens
Since we know that the AFC Championship Game would feature the Chiefs versus either the Bills or Ravens, let's take a look at how Mahomes and Kansas City have done against both opponents.
Potential Chiefs Opponent + Record | Patrick Mahomes Yards per Game | Patrick Mahomes TD Passes | Patrick Mahomes INTs |
|---|---|---|---|
2 Bills (4-4) | 277.5 | 18 | 7 |
3 Ravens (5-1) | 333.2 | 14 | 3 |
Based solely on these numbers, you'd probably say that the Chiefs would much rather face the Ravens than the Bills given the success of both the team and their quarterback in those games. He's been on another level when he's played Baltimore. At the same time, though, you could make the argument that the Ravens have leveled up this season with the addition of Derrick Henry and may be better equipped to take down Kansas City.
More than that, however, the record against the Bills is misleading to some degree. Buffalo has beaten the Chiefs four out of the five times in the regular season since 2020. However, in the three playoff meetings, Kansas City has come out victorious in all of them and, in those games, Mahomes has thrown for 300+ yards in all but one while totaling eight touchdowns and zero interceptions. They might just have the Bills' number when it comes to the postseason.