After a Sunday Night Football win over the Los Angeles Chargers, the Kansas City Chiefs are AFC West champions for the ninth-consecutive season.

Beginning in 2016, the Chiefs’ nine-season streak is the second-longest feat of divisional dominance in NFL history, trailing only the 2009-19 New England Patriots, who won 11 consecutive AFC East titles.

Kansas City’s historic run coincides with 10 consecutive playoff appearances in 12 seasons under head coach Andy Reid. KC’s AFC West streak began with Alex Smith at quarterback before Patrick Mahomes took over in 2018.

With Mahomes at quarterback, the Chiefs have made it to the AFC Championship Game every postseason, resulting in three Super Bowl wins, one Super Bowl loss, and two AFC Championship Game losses. The Reid-Mahomes duo has as many playoff losses (three) as Super Bowl championships. Mahomes has never been on a team that did not win the AFC West, securing his eighth division championship and seventh as KC’s starter.

The Chiefs remain in pole position to secure the AFC’s No. 1 seed, which comes with the conference’s lone first-round bye and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. On Sunday afternoon, the Buffalo Bills fell to 10-3 with a loss to the Los Angeles Rams, giving the Chiefs an additional bit of breathing room in the race for the top spot out of the AFC.

When the Bills defeated the Chiefs in New York in November, Buffalo gained the head-to-head tiebreaker between the two AFC favorites, meaning that a tied final record would give Buffalo the No. 1 seed while Kansas City would be forced to take on the AFC’s No. 7 seed in the wild card round. However, as the Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers both sit at 10-3 with KC climbing to 12-1, Kansas City’s hold on the top spot looks strong with four regular season games remaining.