Chiefs: Winning the AFC West

Laddie Morse

The Kansas City Chiefs will once again win the AFC West. Will they be perfect in the West? Not likely, but they should still hold all the playoff cards when the end of the season rolls around. The only team that I believe has a shot to beat them once this year is the Los Angeles Chargers. Any team trying to make their way to the Super Bowl each season needs to first set their sights on winning their own division and for the Chiefs, that means beating the Denver Broncos, the Las Vegas Raiders, and the Los Angeles Chargers, twice each.

The Chiefs have a 37-5 record against the AFC West over the past 7 seasons.

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Following the 2015 season, the Broncos won Super Bowl even though K.C. beat them in November of that year, and the victory they enjoyed over the Chiefs at Arrowhead in September of 2015 was the last time the Chiefs lost to them. Here’s a look at their draft picks this year:

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The biggest change the Broncos made this offseason was to hire Sean Payton as head coach. He won a Super Bowl while he was in New Orleans with the Saints so Broncos fans beginning to feel encouraged is understandable. However, they sold the farm to get QB Russell Wilson last offseason so Payton’s first order of business is to fix Wilson, which looks like a Herculean task. In that trade, the Seahawks got three players and five draft picks to the in exchange for quarterback Russell Wilson plus a draft pick in return. Not the best of trade-offs for Denver.

The Broncos have a long way to go to be competitive in the AFC West. Christopher Kline of Broncos FanSided said this about Wilson’s 2022 season:

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“… Wilson’s first season with the Broncos was a disaster. He became a punchline for his ridiculous workout gimmicks and wonky off-field brand management, all while his numbers plummeted. The Broncos went 4-11 with Wilson under center. He tossed 3,524 yards with 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. His career-worst 60.5 percent completion rate was the stale cherry on top of a very sad sundae.”

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Payton’s best signing this offseason was RT Mike McGlinchey, but he went down with an injury recently. Sean Payton has a load of work to do with the Broncos franchise, and it just doesn’t look positive for the 2023 season.

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The Raiders changed coaches and quarterbacks this offseason. Josh McDaniels was hired by the Raiders and he then traded for QB Jimmy Garoppolo… which has already turned out to be a bit of a boo-boo. So, what did the Raiders do? They turned around and burned a 4th round pick in the draft pick on a QB: Aidan O’Connell. Here’s a look at all their draft picks:

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Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report wrote a piece and in it he said:

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“With the 31-year-old Garoppolo, the Raiders have a middling veteran who had success in a stacked 49ers offense with one of the best play-callers in the league. He doesn’t really raise the ceiling of his supporting cast and isn’t the long-term answer.”

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Replacing a 31 year old QB — Derek Carr — with a 31 year old QB — Jimmy Garoppolo — makes Ballentine’s position understandable. What it doesn’t do is make the Raiders a threat to push the Chiefs off their AFC West title perch. Signing Jimmy G wasn’t the only Raiders blunder this past year… of course not… they neglected a year ago to sign their best player on offense — RB Josh Jacobs — to a 5th year option, placing him in a position to prove himself in 2022.

So, guess what he did? Yep, he proved he is one of the best at his position by leading the league in rushing all the while playing behind an offensive line that wasn’t near the top of the league… in any shape or form. So… what did they do this offseason… they franchise tagged him.

If you are a Raider in the front office, you must be snake bit and can only do things that make your team look bad. The Josh Jacobs debacle wasn’t the only bad choice they made this offseason…. of course not… they picked Edge Rusher Tyree Wilson #7 overall instead of dealing with their glaring need at CB when they could have taken Christian Gonzalez.

I won’t be at all shocked when the Chiefs sweep the Raiders this season. Whew… I’m just glad I’m a Chiefs fan!

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The Los Angeles Chargers have been the perennial preseason paper champions: the PPPCs if you will. I’m not picking them to beat the Chiefs twice this season but I can see them mounting a charge and pushing K.C. at Arrowhead. Why on the Chiefs home turf? Simply because I think their So-Fi advantage belongs to the Chiefs fans… and not their own fans at all. Yes, it was the Raiders Emergent Field where a construction worker placed a flag under their stadium during the building process, but this is more about the poor history of leaving San Diego fans in the lurch and ever since their move to L.A. it seems that almost any opposing team that plays them on their own hime field is not a home field advantage. The reality is the Chargers have won 14 out of 25 games they’ve played at So-Fi Stadium for a .560 winning percentage.

BTW… the Chiefs lead the all-time series: Kansas City Chiefs lead series 67-58-1.

Here’s a look at what the Chargers did in the draft this year:

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The Chargers kept their coaching staff in tack this season. That happens when you’re not very good. They finished 10-and-7 so they weren’t that far off the pace as the Chiefs were four games better at 14-and-3, but they lost their Wild Card game to the Jacksonville Jaguars, 30-to-31… so it was close but no cigar.

While the Chargers appear to be on an upward swing, they now have to face paying a premiere QB while attempting to pay all their other stars, just like K.C.. Just last month, Justin Herbert signed a 5 year, $262,500,000 contract with the Los Angeles Chargers, including a $16,128,376 signing bonus, $218,738,376 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $52,500,000. Aside from getting their QB under a new contract, it appears their best signing this offseason has been for 31 year old LB Erik Kendricks, who used to play for the Vikings.

In the meantime, I’ll take the Chiefs over any of these teams in the AFC West. The Chiefs coaches still have me thinking this team is one player (Chris Jones) away from going back to another Super Bowl.

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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