Kansas City Chiefs to face Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday for Week 18 matchup

The season finale for the Kansas City Chiefs against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 18 will lead off the final weekend of the season.

It was announced during Sunday night’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens that the Chiefs’ game for Week 18 has been flexed to the 3:30 p.m. central time slot on Saturday.

The Raiders have already been eliminated, but there will be plenty on the line for the Chiefs next weekend, though the exact scenarios won’t be determined until after Monday night’s game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals.

If the Bills win on Monday, they control their own destiny for the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoff picture by virtue of their head-to-head tiebreaker win over the Chiefs. However, if the Bengals win, the Chiefs will go into the final week of the season with the top spot in the AFC.

Thus, regardless of Monday’s game, Kansas City has a chance to earn the No. 1 seed next week. It will have a chance to clinch the top seed with a win next weekend should Cincinnati win on Monday, however.

In Week 17, the Chiefs narrowly beat the Denver Broncos 27-24, while the Raiders lost a close game to the San Francisco 49ers 37-34.

The only other game time that’s been announced for Week 18 so far is the AFC South winner-take-all game between the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars. Whichever team wins that game will win the AFC South and is locked into the No. 4 seed in the AFC (Jacksonville can also clinch the division title with a tie). The Titans and Jaguars will kick off Saturday night at 7:15 central time.

Both of those games will be televised on ESPN, but the broadcast crew for each game hasn’t been revealed yet. ESPN’s main crew is made up of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, while the secondary crew includes Steve Levy, Dan Orlovsky and Louis Riddick.

Fourteen of the remaining 15 games in Week 18 will be played at either noon or at approximately 3:00 p.m. central time on the FOX and CBS networks. The last game, likely a winner-take-all game or at least a game with important playoff implications, will be played at 7:20 p.m. in the regular Sunday Night Football window on NBC. The matchups for each of those windows will be announced at some point Monday night.

Five of the seven playoff spots are filled in the AFC, while just one spot is open still in the NFC, though seeding is still up for grabs for most teams in both conferences. The aforementioned AFC South winner and No. 7 seed are still available in the AFC, with three teams vying for the latter spot. Only the seventh seed is open in the NFC, with another three teams all in the running for that one.