It was the Baltimore Ravens who faced off against the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game last season, but they're not the biggest threat to Kansas City heading into the 2024 campaign, according to legendary quarterback Tom Brady.
Brady thinks Bengals, Bills are biggest threat to Chiefs
That distinction goes to the Cincinnati Bengals, along with the Buffalo Bills. Brady pointed to quarterback play and previous playoff success as the main factors when explaining why he thinks those two teams might be more of a threat than the Ravens.
Tom Brady believes the Bills and the Bengals are the biggest threats to the Chiefs over the Ravens
— Kevin Oestreicher (@koestreicher34) August 21, 2024
“The Ravens have to be more successful in the postseason…The Bengals have made it to the Super Bowl, the Bills have been in championship games” pic.twitter.com/Cy4Bz5f28K
Brady clearly thinks highly of the Bengals, which is something that fans in Cincinnati could feel good about. However, Brady's provided rationale for liking them and the Bills over the Ravens seems flawed, since the Ravens have the reigning NFL MVP in Lamar Jackson at quarterback and were just in the Championship last season.
Perhaps Brady meant that the he wants to see the Ravens make it to the conference championship, or beyond, a couple times before he is ready to crown them as the biggest threat to the three-time champion Chiefs. After all, the Bengals have already demonstrated that they can beat Mahomes and the Chiefs when it matters most.
The Bengals and Ravens will play each other twice in 2024, as they do every season, and both of those games could prove to be must-watch, as the winner of the AFC North could very well be the team that ultimately provides the biggest challenge to the Chiefs.
We know that Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow would agree with Brady's assessment, as he claimed that the Bengals were "built to beat" Kansas City over the offseason. He'll get an opportunity to back up his talk, too. In addition to playing the Ravens twice, Cincinnati is also scheduled to square off against the Chiefs in Kansas City during the second week of the season.