Inside AFC playoff numbers: Dolphins RB in rare company with this Hall of Famer

Using Stathead from Pro Football Reference, Yardbarker shines a spotlight on key names and numbers ahead of Super Wild Card Weekend in the AFC:

No. 5 Cleveland Browns (11-6) at No. 4 Houston Texans (10-7) | Saturday, 4:30 p.m. ET

In what has been the year of the backup quarterback, no team has ridden the QB carousel with greater success than the Browns. Cleveland is the sixth team in NFL history to start five different quarterbacks in one season (Deshaun Watson, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, P.J. Walker, Joe Flacco and Jeff Driskel) and the second such team to make the playoffs, joining the 1984 Chicago Bears.

No one would have expected the Texans — a team that lost 38 of 50 games between 2020 and 2022 — to not only make the playoffs but win the AFC South. Credit rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud for Houston's resurgence. 

With 4,108 passing yards, Stroud became just the fifth rookie QB in NFL history to throw for over 4,000 yards, joining Cam Newton (2011), Andrew Luck (2012), Jameis Winston (2015) and Justin Herbert (2020). Stroud joins Luck as the only two of those QBs to lead their team to the playoffs in their rookie season.

No. 6 Miami Dolphins (11-6) at No. 3 Kansas City Chiefs (11-6) | Saturday, 8 p.m. ET

While quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and wide receiver Tyreek Hill are the stars of the Dolphins' dynamic offense, an unsung hero with a strange stat line is running back Raheem Mostert. Mostert scored 21 touchdowns this season despite just 1,187 yards from scrimmage. The only other player in NFL history with that many touchdowns and so few scrimmage yards was Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice in 1987.

That season, Rice — like many other players — sat out four games with the NFL Players Association declaring a strike. That accounted for his comparatively low total of 1,129 scrimmage yards. But despite the four-game layoff, Rice scored a whopping 23 touchdowns.

Speaking of Hill, his old team — the Chiefs — sure could use him these days. In two seasons with the Dolphins, Hill has tallied 1,742 and 1,814 scrimmage yards. The only Chief to come close to those totals in that span was tight end Travis Kelce in 2022 (1,343).

No. 7 Pittsburgh Steelers (10-7) at No. 2 Buffalo Bills (11-6) | Sunday, 1 p.m. ET

Despite an offense that ranked 28th in points this season, the Steelers have found their way into the playoffs. Starting quarterbacks Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky and Mason Rudolph combined to throw for just 13 touchdowns this season. Pittsburgh is the first team to make the playoffs with so few passing TDs since the 2009 New York Jets (12).

The Bills won the AFC East both thanks to — and in spite of — quarterback Josh Allen. Allen threw for 29 touchdowns and ran for 15 TDs, but he also tossed 18 interceptions. The last quarterback to throw that many interceptions for a team that won its division was Cincinnati's Andy Dalton in 2013 (20).