The Cincinnati Bengals have upended the Kansas City Chiefs three times in the last calendar year.
Yet in the minds of some, it’s the Chiefs — and not the Buffalo Bills or other teams — who remain the biggest threats to Cincinnati’s ability to defend its AFC crown.
This breakdown comes from NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks:
“Despite having dropped three straight games to the Bengals in 12 months’ time, the Chiefs remain a viable threat to supplant them as AFC Super Bowl representatives. With the most talented quarterback in the league, Andy Reid’s team can never be discounted. As a dynamic dual-threat quarterback with A+ arm talent and athleticism, Patrick Mahomes terrorizes opponents when operating on or off script. He forces the defense to defend every blade of grass, given his ability to make every throw in the book from the pocket or on the move. With a dynamic collection of playmakers on the perimeter — headlined by all-world TE Travis Kelce — the Chiefs have enough firepower to put up a 40-burger on anyone when the offense is rolling.”
Brooks ranks the Bills second and the Miami Dolphins third in this exercise.
On one hand, the Chiefs are of course a massive threat. Patrick Mahomes is just that great of a player and he’s eventually going to figure out how to counter the drop-eight into coverage looks the Bengals give him.
Still, at this point it feels like the Bills or Dolphins could be bigger threats. The Chiefs, for whatever reason, reside in that space with the Titans as teams that just can’t seem to match up well with the Bengals.
Because right now if somebody asked Bengals fans today, they’d probably much rather see the Chiefs again than the Bills or another unknown.
[listicle id=154290]