Is the AFC Playoff Field ALREADY Set?

It is only the first week of November, and the AFC playoff field might already be decided. That was the theory floated in the studio, and nobody could talk Rich out of it.

The case came straight from the standings. "The field is set," came the declaration. "The only drama left is seeding." The seven teams: Bills, Broncos, Steelers, Jaguars, Chiefs, Bengals and Patriots. "Those are the seven. That's it."

Rich's first reaction: "I don't think you're overreacting." He then went looking for the teams that might crash the party and came up with a short list.

Could the Browns hop in there? Could the Raiders? What about the Ravens, who are now down to their UConn quarterback, Joe Fagnano, potentially for the next month? Those, Rich said, are the only teams sniffing it. Could one of them be a 3-5 team that comes from the outside?

Houston drew the most belief from the room. "Houston can crash the party," came the reply. Then the list of teams it definitely won't be: not the Colts, not the Titans, not the Jets or the Dolphins, and not the Chargers.

Rich was sold. "I'll buy this," he said. "That's interesting. I hadn't thought about that. Now you brought it to my attention."

He did leave one door cracked. The Browns, Rich said, "could keep plugging along, man." But he also stressed what the Steelers' win over Cleveland meant in that race. "That was a big win for the Steelers," Rich said, and the studio agreed: huge.

The studio's read on Pittsburgh was that the Steelers are a different team at home, and that they seemed to take the earlier smack talk personally. Rich didn't hide the show's role in that storyline. "Well, I mean, we were at the center of it," he said. Stirring the pot, as the studio put it.

So the AFC's seven appear locked, with Houston as the most likely spoiler and Cleveland hanging around. If the theory holds, the rest of the season in the conference is about one thing. Seeding.