The NFL was left with a conundrum after making the decision to cancel Week 17’s suspended game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals. The ripple effects of Damar Hamlin’s on-field collapse left two of the AFC’s top teams with only 16 games on their records instead of the typical (since 2021) 17.
This was a problem. The Kansas City Chiefs finished 2022 with the AFC’s top regular season record at 14-3. But the Bills, who beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium in Week 6, were 13-3 and left with no opportunity to stake their claim in a seeding system that now relied on win percentage. That left no objective way to decide where the AFC Conference Championship would be played should the two juggernauts meet with a trip to Super Bowl 57 on the line.
