Late-season collapses certainly occur, with injuries obviously playing key roles in contenders’ blueprints. As it stands now, however, the AFC playoff picture is top-heavy. It is quite possible the stretch run will feature division leaders jockeying for seeding and two wild-card teams hovering over the race for the bottom bracket slot.
ESPN’s FPI gives the Chargers a 94.7% chance to make the playoffs, with the AFC North holding a strong likelihood of producing a wild-card squad as well. Both the Steelers and Ravens’ chances sit north of 95%. Although the volume of sub-.500 AFC teams could drain drama from this year’s fight to wear white in Round 1, the conference does have a handful of teams on the fringe who appear poised for a battle to claim the No. 7 seed.
Six AFC teams have eight or nine losses entering Week 12. While the 2008 Chargers started 5-8 and erased a three-game division deficit with three to play, the odds are stacked against the conference’s bottom tier (Patriots, Jets, Browns, Jaguars, Titans, Raiders). This leaves four teams in between.
The Broncos have not made a postseason appearance since winning Super Bowl 50. Considering the Russell Wilson release brought a two-offseason dead money number unlike anything the NFL has seen, Denver snapping that drought this year was not expected. Wilson counts for $53MM on Denver’s 2024 payroll, with the club taking on the larger portion of the dead money this year ($30MM-plus is on the books for next year, as a small cap credit from the QB’s Steelers pact awaits). But Sean Payton‘s team is 6-5 and holds a, per FPI, 50.3% chance of making the playoffs.
Although the Broncos kept costs low and also moved on from Justin Simmons and Jerry Jeudy, they resisted Courtland Sutton trade offers — including a third-rounder from the 49ers in August — and assembled an interesting roster around No. 12 overall pick Bo Nix. The Oregon alum’s progress defines Denver’s season, as the team appears close to identifying a surefire long-term quarterback. The franchise has not seen a QB start more than four seasons since John Elway, amplifying the interest in Nix’s sudden entrance into the Offensive Rookie of the Year race, but Vance Joseph‘s defense has proven better than expected.
Extending Patrick Surtain in September and paying Jonathon Cooper just before trading Baron Browning, Denver sits third in scoring defense and third in yardage. The team leads the NFL with 39 sacks. This has given Nix important support during his maiden NFL voyage.
Defense has conversely burned the 4-7 Bengals, who are squandering MVP-caliber work from Joe Burrow. Back from a season-ending wrist injury, Burrow has thrown an NFL-most 27 touchdown passes (compared to four interceptions) and has done so despite franchise-tagged wideout Tee Higgins missing five games. The Bengals are not expected to pay Higgins, with a 2025 tag-and-trade perhaps all that is left on the contract front between the parties after no substantial talks have taken place since early 2023, but Ja’Marr Chase‘s extension price — a matter tabled to 2025 — will rise coming out of this season.
Chase’s 1,056 yards pace the NFL by more than 100. A defense that had been solid during the team’s 2021 and ’22 seasons has fallen off. Cincinnati augmented its defense by adding Sheldon Rankins and Geno Stone while reacquiring Vonn Bell, but Lou Anarumo‘s unit ranks 28th. FPI gives the Bengals a 14.8% chance to make the playoffs. While this is almost definitely the highest-ceiling team left on the AFC’s fringe, a team that entered the year with Super Bowl aspirations in the expected Burrow-Chase-Higgins trio’s final act together runs the risk of missing the postseason entirely.
Sitting at 4-6, the Dolphins carry a 13.6% qualification chance, per FPI. Mike McDaniel‘s team is here largely due to Tua Tagovailoa‘s concussion-driven IR stay; the Dolphins went 1-3 without their recently extended starter. Tagovailoa’s absence reduced an offense that had led the NFL in yardage last season to one of the league’s worst.
Even as Tagovailoa has returned, neither Tyreek Hill nor Jaylen Waddle has taken off. The Dolphins paid both this offseason, reworking Hill’s contract and extending Waddle in a deal that delivered the younger WR a better guarantee than Hill received via his 2022 extension. Through 10 games, Waddle is at 404 yards. Hill, who topped 1,700 in each of his two full Dolphins slates, has accumulated just 523.
As Miami’s elite wideout tandem will need to heat up soon for the team to have a chance at a third straight playoff berth — something the club has not accomplished since a five-year run from 1997-2001 — its defense is again without Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb. Phillips suffered a season-ending knee injury, while Chubb has not recovered from the ACL tear that ended his 2023 season on New Year’s Eve. No Dolphin has more than four sacks or eight QB hits, with 38-year-old Calais Campbell — whom the Dolphins nearly traded back to the Ravens at the deadline — proving valuable in a four-sack start in his Miami return.
The Colts are 5-6, and FPI gives them the second-best odds (34.2%) of this bunch. Quarterback play, of course, has defined Indianapolis’ season. The team’s about-face with Anthony Richardson reminds came after a historically early benching involving a top-five pick, as the 2023 fourth overall choice had started only 10 games when benched.
Still, Richardson’s accuracy problems threaten to derail the Colts, who had gone to Joe Flacco in an attempt to better position themselves for a playoff push. After Flacco lost the ensuing two starts, Richardson is back. While the raw prospect looked better in his return start, he still carries a 48.5% completion rate. Only six QBs who have attempted at least 200 passes have finished south of 50% in a season this century.
GM Chris Ballard mostly just paid to keep his core together this offseason, though waiver claim Samuel Womack has helped a depleted boundary cornerback group. The Colts rank both 19th in scoring and points allowed, and while other components on this roster obviously matter, Richardson’s development still overshadows their season’s second half. That represents perhaps the biggest X-factor among this middle-class AFC glut.
Assuming the Chargers stay afloat and the Steelers and Ravens do not collapse, who do you think will claim the conference’s final spot in the seven-team field? Vote in PFR’s latest poll and weigh in with your thoughts on the race in the comments section.
Denver, probably, though I think H2H Cincy and Miami are better. I think they’ve dug themselves too big of holes though.
Just a few thoughts…Chargers vs Ravens should be a good one and if the Chargers win that one they should make the playoffs but like any team it’s dependent on keeping their QB healthy
Regarding the Broncos…I made the comment that Bo Nix would be the real deal and that he was a great fit for Denver when they drafted him.
Ain’t going to be Cincy tell ya that much they only beat bad teams they’ve yet to beat a solid team all year.
The Browns!!!!
They will win 6 in a row !!!!
I must have missed the news that they’ve been relegated to Div II of the NCAA for the remainder of the season.
They might have the toughest schedule in Football, but still I like their chances
Their chances have to be better than when they had Hue Jackson as the HC 🙂
To me, it’s whoever wins the Broncos-Colts matchup.
Beyond Denver and Detroit, the Colts should be favored to win the rest of their games. Broncos have the best current position, but probably need to win against either the Bengals or the Colts to make it.
Bengals have somewhat of a long shot, as they would probably need to beat the Steelers once and also defeat Denver without ceding any of their other games. They’ve probably dug themselves into too deep a hole.
Similarly, the Dolphins are now operating with a much higher floor of talent, but have 3 rough games remaining (49ers, Packers, Texans). Probably going to need to win at least one of those without losing in any of the games they’re favored to win.
Will certainly be interesting to track
I’m willing to bet a donut on Sean Payton.
I don’t blame you for not wanting to bet any Duff beer on him.
I voted Denver based on their defense and already being a game up…
But I should have looked more closely.
Indy has a much more favorable schedule and will have the opportunity for the h2h. Denver could easily go 3-3 down the stretch and give the other teams an opening…but 4-2 probably closes it for Denver. Especially if they beat Indy.
I also completely overlooked Miami because of being two games back… but its not crazy to think their new quick hitting offense gets them through that cupcake schedule too. They get the Jets twice. Im still not sold based on being two games down but I did dismiss them too quickly.
Denver will probably have to really earn it to stay up, but its not as easy as I thought initially.
This just goes to show that the draft is a complete unknown. Caleb was billed as highly as Trevor, whose average, was going out of school. He’s been outplayed by Drake, Bo, & Jayden.
Now I know that rookie seasons are difficult & having a terrible coaching staff doesn’t help either. I read somewhere recently that Caleb’s numbers are very similar to what Young posted last year, yikes!
Paying mediocre quarterbacks is bad team building.
I know its not easy, but if you don’t like your guy, it might be better to walk away and try again as opposed to being tied to an average guy who either needs a ton of help or doesn’t elevate others.
Trevor is going to be a bad deal. Tua too.
The Giants immediately regretted the DJ deal. I think they could have tried to draft someone else while using a guy like Brissett.
I know finding an elite qb is not easy, but you cant stop trying. Setting for someone less not only stops your search, but the cap makes it harder to retain your own guys too.
To be honest, even though Denver is winning games, Nix really isn’t carrying the load, there. They could have won another game or two if he were better with simple precision, throwaways, and feeling pressure. He’s definitely improving, but those were things that you’d expect some more poise in from someone who set a collegiate start record.
Nix is fine, but I’d really like to see him consistently hit his spot throughout a game on open throws. He’s getting better at it, and hasn’t had any bad misses the last two that I’ve watched. But I’d like to see that for the rest of the season, as well as not leaving an open receiver hanging on a play after feeling pressure.
Sometimes he feels pressure, or runs into it, and then spends the rest of the play dancing to avoid an inevitable sack. It’s nice when it works, but unless you’re Big Ben, that’s not an NFL strategy. I’m not quite ready yet to say that I’m alleviated from concerns, but he is showing signs of improvement. Right now, though, that defense is carrying that team, and the run game improving has been a good boost to help.
Nix is still on a rookie deal though. They have not had to pay him 55 million.
They wisely moved on from Russ and took their shot.
Oh, no argument with that side of it. Wilson was hampering the offense immensely, especially in the way that Payton wanted to run it. The stats weren’t bad, but it couldn’t ever get going because Wilson just couldn’t play the style consistently. They had to move him.