Seemingly, everything fell the Buffalo Bills' way in Week 14. Not only did they rally to pick up the win over the Cincinnati Bengals, clinching a winning season and boosting their chances of reaching the postseason to 97%, but the AFC Wild Card race took a favorable turn as well.
The Bengals now have to win the AFC North to reach the postseason. The Kansas City Chiefs can’t win the AFC West for the first time in a decade, and at 6-7, they might not be in the playoff bracket either.
Without the veteran experience of Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes to thwart Josh Allen (or the Bills’ defense) in the postseason once again, the Bills will find few excuses not to finally get over the hump and reach a Super Bowl.
Buffalo Bills' possible playoff opponents lack thier postseason pedigree and experience
The current makeup of the AFC playoffs won’t feature a quarterback with Super Bowl experience, outside of Aaron Rodgers with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Allen and Rodgers are currently the only quarterbacks in the picture with winning records in the postseason, too.
Considering that Buffalo just bulldozed Pittsburgh on their own turf, there’s plenty of confidence that they could do so again should the Bills hold onto the 5-seed as expected and the Steelers hold onto the AFC North and the 4-seed. Of course, Pittsburgh has been even more inconsistent this season than Buffalo, so another date with Cincinnati or Baltimore could otherwise await the Bills in January.
Beyond the AFC North race, the Bills must be salivating at the makeup of the rest of the AFC playoff field. The top two seeds have second-year quarterbacks with little to no postseason experience. The Indianapolis Colts, who once looked like the best team in the league, are likely going to miss the playoffs after Daniel Jones’ unfortunate Achilles tear on Sunday. The Jaguars and Texans have made some impressive Wild Card appearances in recent years, but have failed to get past the Divisional Round nonetheless.
The Chargers could be the outlier because of Justin Herbert and the obvious boost Jim Harbaugh provides that franchise, but like the Jags and Texans, they’ve struggled to string together wins in January, too.
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Of course, even with the perspective on the rest of the field playing out in Buffalo’s favor, the team needs to find its stride down the final stretch of the regular season. That means cutting out the first-half mistakes, correcting the defensive struggles on third down, finding a downfield passing game, and leaning on James Cook on the ground.
That’s a lot to nail down in a month. But the Bills have to strike when the iron is hot. The Chiefs or Bengals have been the end of Buffalo’s championship hopes in each of the past five seasons. With those two trending to be out of the picture, and Allen and company having the most recent postseason success and experience compared to the rest of the field, they can’t allow the opportunity to pass them by.
Even with a likely 5-seed and the inconsistencies this team has carried in the 2025 season, the postseason, at least on the AFC side, is shaping up to be theirs to lose.