Kansas City, Missouri - The Kansas City Chiefs are looking to rebound in a big way after ending their season in a lackluster Super Bowl defeat that had their otherwise high-powered offense scoring nine points to the Buccaneers’ 31.

Pat Mahomes (25), one of the highest-paid athlete in NFL history, continues to be worth every penny as the Chiefs expect to find themselves making another deep run into the playoffs come wintertime.

Everyone from the coaches to the players in their offensive program is returning, as they hope that they’ve modified enough of their defense to hold off not just the Bucs, but any team in the league who might stand in the way of their second Super Bowl championship in three years.

Once their best defensive player, strong safety Tyrann Mathieu can get back on the field sooner rather than later from the Covid reserve list, Kansas City should be alright.

The Broncos, Chargers, and Raiders might be tough teams within the AFC West, but they’ll likely play for second-place to the Chiefs all year.

If you had to pick one team to come in behind the Chiefs, look perhaps towards an old rival in the Raiders, followed by the Chargers and Broncos to round things out.

The Bills will successfully defend their AFC East crown this season – end of story. They’ve locked up their franchise quarterback in Josh Allen, and all of his offensive weapons are coming back for another shot at the Super Bowl, so long as Cole Beasley doesn’t catch the coronavirus anytime soon.

They’ll take the division and perhaps the conference if they’ve truly figured out the Chiefs, assuming they meet again in the AFC title game.

It would truly be poetic justice for all of Bills Mafia if it ended up being the Buffalo versus Tom Brady and the Bucs at Super Bowl LVI.

The Patriots and Dolphins will get a little bit of credit this season but don’t look for them to give the Bills too much trouble, even though the Pats are already looking towards the future after naming rookie quarterback Mac Jones as their starter and Tua Tagovailoa leading things under center in Miami.

Meanwhile, the Jets are unlikely to fly too high this year, even though they have the 2021 second-overall pick in Zach Wilson as their starting quarterback.

The Baltimore Ravens might be the ones who will edge out the rest of the teams in their division – and why not? Their starting quarterback, Lamar Jackson, doesn’t seem to catch Covid-19 so much as the virus catches him, since he’s already been infected twice without any noticeable effect on his performances.

The Ravens would at least like to take it to their arch rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have big Ben Roethlisberger back, and ready to go toe-to-toe with Baltimore like it always seems to happen.

It should still be the Ravens in the top spot, followed by the Steelers, or the other way around if their win-loss records are close by the season’s end.

Don’t forget about the Cleveland Browns though, who finally have a decent amount of respect throughout the league since they came awfully close to ending the Chief’s Super Bowl run on Kansas City’s home turf last postseason.

With Pittsburgh and Baltimore fighting for number one, the Browns will likely fight for a Wild Card berth in January.

The Bengals are still looking for everything to click, so look for them to make divisional games interesting, but missing the playoffs yet again in 2021.

Tennessee running back Derrick Henry will carry the offensive load quite literally, as he runs for potentially a third-straight rushing title, possibly even another 2,000-yard season too.

Underneath them, the AFC South's other three teams, the Colts, Jaguars, and Texans will enter the regular season with new quarterbacks at the helm. Despite everything that’s going on off the field in Houston with Deshaun Watson, the Texans should experience at least the most offensive consistency out of the bottom-feeders, with 10-year veteran Tyrod Taylor at quarterback.

The Jags are starting a new era with a brand-new quarterback in the 2021 overall first pick, Taylor Lawrence, and first-time NFL head coach Urban Meyer. It stands to reason that they’ll be learning as they go this season, not exactly a formula for winning a lot of games any time soon.

And the Indianapolis Colts are also looking for a fresh start at quarterback themselves, as former Eagle Carson Wentz emerges as the new starter.

The Colts are hoping that Wentz is over his past injury woes since he’s only played all 16 games in two of his five career NFL seasons. Even though he does have a Super Bowl ring, he tore his ACL in Week 14 and never played a single down the rest of that season as the Eagles won Super Bowl LII.

All the teams in the AFC get their season underway starting on Sunday, September 12, and wrapping up on Monday night, September 13.