[Rain Man]

Out of curiosity, how would the 2015 playoffs have differed if Brady had been suspended according to the original penalty?

Here's their schedule for the first four games:

Beat Pittsburgh 28-21
Beat Buffalo 40-32
Beat Jacksonville 51-17
Beat Dallas 30-6

Without Brady, they may have still won all four games, but the odds are that they would've lost one or two against the Steelers and the Bills.

Wins by the Steelers and the Bills wouldn't have changed their playoff positions, so the difference would be in the seeding. An 11-5 record would have dropped them to the #3 seed and elevated Cincinnati to #2.

So the wild card round would have had KC beating Houston and likely would have had New England beating Pittsburgh (now that NE has Brady).

The divisional round would then have been KC at Denver, with KC easily winning, and New England at Cincinnati, which would be a tossup.

So KC would have been in the AFC championship game at either New England or Cincinnati. Would KC's injuries have healed up in time to beat New England? How would they have fared against Cincinnati? That extra week to heal up would be a factor given how beat up the Chiefs were against New England.