AFC is historically tight as NFL calendar turns to December

Ben Arthur

AFC South Reporter

During the Colts’ bye in Week 11, coach Shane Steichen sat at home and flipped through the slate of games on NFL Sunday Ticket. He couldn’t help but notice how close many of the games were. How the gap between teams across the league seemed so small. 

And how his Colts, then 5-5, were right in the mix of it all. 

“Obviously in the AFC, there’s a lot of teams right there in the middle,” Steichen said on Nov. 20. “There’s a few that have a couple more wins than others but there is a lot of parity.”

It has created what’s shaping to be one of the most fascinating finishes in a conference we’ve seen in recent NFL memory. 

All four AFC division leaders are neck-and-neck for the No. 1 overall seed, each with just three losses entering Week 13 — the east-leading Dolphins (8-3), north-leading Ravens (9-3), south-leading Jaguars (8-3) and west-leading Chiefs (8-3). 

The last time all four AFC division leaders had the same number of losses through the first 12 weeks was in 2002, the first season of the AFC South’s existence. That year, the Steelers (AFC North), Colts (AFC South), Dolphins (AFC East) and Raiders/Chargers/Broncos (AFC West) all had four losses. Since going to four divisions in the same year, the NFC has never had an instance of each division leader having the same number of losses through 12 weeks. 

Ahead of Week 13, 15 of the 16 teams in the AFC have seven losses or fewer – four more than the NFC. Since the AFC added a 16th team in the 1999 season, the conference has never seen another instance of 15 teams with seven or fewer losses this late in the year (last season, 14 of the AFC’s 16 teams had seven or fewer losses through the first 12 weeks of the season). 

According to the New York Times’ NFL playoffs simulator, 10 teams have at least a 68% chance of making the playoffs. Six of them are in the AFC (Chiefs, Dolphins, Jaguars, Ravens, Steelers, Browns). 

49ers, Ravens…

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Publish date : 2023-12-01 14:00:47

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