Here's the NFL decision on Bills-Bengals, and it's impact on the AFC Week 17 Kayfabe Standings

Week 17 Buffalo-Cincinnati game will not be resumed. Clubs to consider neutral site AFC Championship game.

Full statement: pic.twitter.com/NwqUwxlbzo

— NFL (@NFL) January 6, 2023

 

The game will not be played, rescheduled, or resumed.  Week 17 is over, and the full 272-game schedule will not complete this year.  Win total propositions for Buffalo and Cincinnati, if my memory recalls, now go No Action because the full schedule is not completed.

Click on the picture in the Tweet to get the actual statement in full, but, to summarize:

• The decision was made because all impacted teams are already in the playoffs, any other solution forces a delay (impacting all 14 teams -- meaning they will not expand the field), and they wanted the decision on the books before Saturday so all teams knew what the scenarios were before play begins for Week 18.
• The AFC Championship Game will be played at a neutral site if and only if Cincinnati or Buffalo is within one game of Kansas City after Sunday's games.

So, basically, here's the AFC kayfabe standings as I would normally post them, followed by the scenarios with which the NFL has presented in their memorandum tonight:

East:  Buffalo is 12-3, New England and Miami are 8-8.  Buffalo plays home to New England.  Miami hosts the Jets.

North:  I guess in the most technical of sense, Cincinnati is AFC North champion at 11-4 with Baltimore at 10-6.  The two teams play Sunday, and that game has now been scheduled for the early window.  Pittsburgh is 8-8.

South:  Jacksonville is 8-8, Tennessee is 7-9, the two teams play Saturday.  Since Tennessee won the first meeting, they win the division and the 4 seed if they win.

West:  Kansas City is 13-3, the Chargers are 10-6, Kansas City goes to Las Vegas on Saturday, the Chargers play Denver.

Current:

1. KC (13-3, AFC West Champions, IN PLAYOFFS)
2. BUF (12-3, AFC East Champions, IN PLAYOFFS)
3. CIN (11-4, AFC North Champions (I think), IN PLAYOFFS (that I know))
4. JAX (8-8, AFC Suck Leaders)
5. LAC (10-6, wins conference record tiebreaker over Baltimore, IN PLAYOFFS)
6. BAL (10-6, loses conference record tiebreaker to the Chargers, IN PLAYOFFS)
7. MIA (8-8, wins divisional record division tiebreaker to move New England down the line, defeated Pittsburgh)
8. NE (8-8, loses divisional record division tiebreaker to Miami, defeated Pittsburgh)
9. PIT (8-8, loses HTH tiebreakers to both MIA and NE)
10. TEN (7-9, must defeat JAX to win the AFC Suck)

The other six teams have violated The First Rule:  DON'T GET ELIMINATED!!!

So let's go over the normal stuff first, which is #4 through #7.

The AFC South champion will be the #4 seed.  Tennessee must win this game to make the playoffs, Jacksonville has one remaining hope if they lose, see below on the #7...

Baltimore and the Chargers are both 10-6 and will not play each other.  Chargers are 7-4 in the conference, Baltimore is 6-5.  So unless Baltimore has a substantively superior result to the Chargers, the Chargers are the 5 and Baltimore the 6.

The 7 goes in this order:

New England is 3-2 in the AFC East vs. 2-3 for Miami, after the two teams split this season.  So New England wins the divisional tiebreaker.

New England (and Miami as well) beat Pittsburgh, so they win that tiebreaker.

New England has destiny in hand.  Win and in.

If they don't, it's Miami's shot.

If both New England and Miami fail, then Pittsburgh is in with a win.

If all three fail, then Jacksonville makes the playoffs either way:  With a win, the Jags are division champions (And NE makes the playoffs at 8-9).  With a loss, they'd be the #7 if PIT, NE, and MIA all lose.  (Jacksonville would win the three/four-way tiebreaker by conference record.)

Now, to the scenarios the NFL has proposed for Week 18:

1. If BUF and KC both win or tie this week, then a Buffalo-Kansas City AFC Championship Game would be neutral-site.
2. Same if they both lose and Cincinnati does not win.
3. If BUF and KC both lose and Cincinnati wins, then, if Kansas City qualifies for the AFC Championship Game, it will be at a neutral site.

And an additional caveat:

If Baltimore defeats Cincinnati this week, it will have swept them, but Cincinnati will still have a better record due to the one fewer game (11-5 vs. 11-6).  If Baltimore and Cincinnati are forced to play in the Wild Card round, a coin toss will determine the site.