National Football League

Which AFC team is furthest from a Super Bowl championship?

Published Jun. 29, 2023 6:36 p.m. ET

While the Kansas City Chiefs, Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and other teams fight to claim the AFC and win a Super Bowl, which team in the conference has the worst chance of holding up the Lombardi Trophy in the near future?

On Wednesday's edition of "First Things First," Nick Wright argued that the New England Patriots, which have won an NFL-record six Super Bowls, have the worst outlook in the conference when it comes to winning a title anytime soon.

"If we were to right now be like, ‘Hey, pick AFC teams to win a Super Bowl in the next five years.’ Would the Patriots be the last pick of the draft?" Wright pondered.

After Chris Broussard mentioned the Houston Texans as a possibility, Wright argued that the Texans selecting quarterback C.J. Stroud with the No. 2 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft gives them more upside than New England.

"They might have just drafted a star quarterback," Wright said. "They spent the No. 2 pick in the draft on a quarterback, so it's on the board. You could say maybe the Raiders [have the worst Super Bowl outlook] because they are in also a very difficult division, all of that."

Kevin Wildes pushed back on the idea that New England has the worst outlook in the conference.

"Why would [the Patriots] be last?" Wildes asked. "[They have] the greatest coach of all time, a great defense, a good running game, [they] now [have] an offensive coordinator and a quarterback (Mac Jones) who went to the playoffs as a rookie and just happened to run into Josh Allen at the peak of his powers."

Broussard refuted Wildes' argument, saying, "[The Patriots] are definitively the worst team in [the AFC East]."

New England is coming off an 8-9 campaign, missing the playoffs for the second time in three seasons. The Patriots offense averaged just 208.0 passing yards (20th in NFL), 106.6 rushing yards (24th), 314.6 total yards (26th) and 21.4 points (17th) per game.

Houston is coming off a 3-13-1 campaign, resulting in top-three picks in the NFL Draft for a second consecutive season. Las Vegas is coming off a 6-11 season, after which the Raiders moved on from longtime quarterback Derek Carr and signed former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, whose status for the start of the 2023 season is uncertain due to a foot injury.

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