Chiefs, Steelers Among Five AFC Contenders Facing Rarely Seen NFL Scheduling Challenge

These teams are about to play a lot of football in a short time.

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are one of four teams playing three games in 11 days. / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

The 2024 NFL season has officially hit the homestretch with teams fighting for their playoff lives, and playoff positions, over the final four weeks of the year.

For five AFC contenders—Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens, Texans, and Chargers—things are about to get ridiculously tough for them thanks to the league's schedule makers.

Thanks to the two Christmas Day games that will be played a week from Wednesday, the Chiefs, Steelers, Texans and Ravens will play three games in 11 days.

The Broncos, meanwhile, will play two games in just five days—they face the Colts today and the Chargers on Thursday. The Sunday-Thursday turnaround is nothing new, but at this time of the season it is really demanding and could impact the AFC playoff picture.

Fox Sports' Peter Schrager broke this all down on Sunday, and stated why all of these games with very little rest at the end of the season could really benefit the 10-3 Buffalo Bills.

Chiefs, Ravens, Texans, and Steelers all are about to play 3 games in 11 days.

The Broncos are about to play 2 in 5.

The Bills are the lone current AFC power with a "normal" next few weeks. https://t.co/vaa0tr9iEz

— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) December 15, 2024

Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer also weighed in on it:

So for four teams—Chiefs, Steelers, Texans and Ravens—today kicks off a stretch of three games in 11 days. Games today, Saturday, and then on Christmas Wednesday. A very rare, if not unprecedented, spot this late in the season for four contenders.

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) December 15, 2024

That's a lot of football with not a lot of rest at the most important time of the season. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

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