Best AFC team, '84-thru-'96?

[Gary Najman]

One team that has been mentioned in the past is the 1986 Seattle Seahawks. They narrowly missed the playoffs, but they beat both the Giants and the Broncos in the regular season.

[Rupert Patrick]

One team that has been mentioned in the past is the 1986 Seattle Seahawks. They narrowly missed the playoffs, but they beat both the Giants and the Broncos in the regular season.

I think if they had gotten into the AFC playoffs they might have wound up in the Super Bowl. They had a three game mid-season skid where they lost to the Jets, Chiefs and Bengals by the scores of 38-7, 27-7 and 34-7. Take those three games out of their schedule and their a 10-3 team with a 345-194 points for-points against ratio. If they win that game against KC they win the AFC West, and if they won all three they would have had home field advantage in the AFC. I've often said the only post-merger non-playoff teams who were arguably stronger than any of the teams in their conference who were in the playoffs were the 1979 Redskins and 1986 Seahawks. If they had been a number five seed in the 1986 AFC playoffs, I wouldn't have wanted to face Seattle.

[John Maxymuk]

This has come up before. Coach TJ likes to mention Walt Cudzik...1 game with the skins in 54 then becomes starting center for the Pats in 1960.

My favorite is Bill Robinson...2 games with the Packers in 52 then 8 year gap and 1 game with the Titans in 1960.

[conace21]

A bigger what if is if KC doesn't get by Pittsburgh in the WC round and they face the Raiders instead.

Hostetler/Jett/Brown/Kaufman would have been no day at the beach, but compared to Montana....

Kaufman wouldn't have been a problem because he was still in college at U-Dub.

The Bill-Steeler game would have been pretty compelling,though. Up until that 1993 MNF game, the Bills had their number. However, the tables were starting to turn after that 23-0 Steeler win. If the Steelers got a solid ground effort from Hoge and Leroy Thompson, and if they could have another defensive effort like they did on MNF (and like they would have against the Bills in future MNF games), they had a good chance to win.

Funny how the Raiders had a Napoleon at RB every year from 1990-2000. Napoleon McCallum didn't do much in the NFL after he returned from his Navy stint, but he did score five touchdowns in the 1993 playoffs.

I think if Buffalo played Pittsburgh in the 1993 playoffs, whichever team that was playing at home would win. Pittsburgh beat Buffalo four straight years from 1993-1996, but every one of those games was at Three Rivers, three of them on MNF.

[7DnBrnc53]

One team that has been mentioned in the past is the 1986 Seattle Seahawks. They narrowly missed the playoffs, but they beat both the Giants and the Broncos in the regular season.

I think if they had gotten into the AFC playoffs they might have wound up in the Super Bowl. They had a three game mid-season skid where they lost to the Jets, Chiefs and Bengals by the scores of 38-7, 27-7 and 34-7. Take those three games out of their schedule and their a 10-3 team with a 345-194 points for-points against ratio. If they win that game against KC they win the AFC West, and if they won all three they would have had home field advantage in the AFC. I've often said the only post-merger non-playoff teams who were arguably stronger than any of the teams in their conference who were in the playoffs were the 1979 Redskins and 1986 Seahawks. If they had been a number five seed in the 1986 AFC playoffs, I wouldn't have wanted to face Seattle.

I agree with you about the 86 Hawks. That was another example of the wrong team making it out of the AFC during that long losing streak that the AFC had.

In 1984, Denver would have done better than Miami. In 85, Miami probably does better than NE. And, in 86, the Hawks may have won the Super Bowl.