The 2021 NFL regular season is over. The road to Super Bowl 56 is now paved with the hopes and goals of the 18 teams to failed to make it to the postseason this winter.
That leaves 14 teams, seven from the AFC and seven from the NFC, to compete for the two spots available in the biggest game of the year. Which, thanks to the end of an occasionally unpredictable year, could be a showdown between the Las Vegas Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles.
That’s a sentence that makes (some) sense if you’ve been paying attention this season, but maybe you haven’t. Maybe you looked at a 17-game season and 14-team playoff field and decided to sit this one out until the postseason. Maybe you invested all your autumn weekends dissecting and poring over Montana State football on Saturdays and cooking chili on Sundays. Maybe you decided not to get too invested in any of this until you knew who had an actual chance to play on Super Bowl Sunday.
This guide is for you.
Here’s a quick and easy breakdown of each team on the AFC side of the bracket and why you should — and shouldn’t — throw your support behind them. I’ve even included some talking points to help cover up the fact you haven’t watched anything more than a few SportsCenter clips at an airport bar while ordering a $18 Sam Adams over the holidays.
Let’s talk about it. Conference title odds come via Tipico.