The AFC West Has Become The Best Division In Football
We’re in for a treat this year with the AFC West. For the casual football fans, the AFC West is made up of the LA Chargers, Las Vegas Raiders, Denver Broncos, and Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs have pretty much owned the division the last few seasons, but now they have some serious competition. The other teams have taken serious strides to get better, and that’s what we’re going to talk about here.
Lightning Strike Defense
The Chargers have gone all in to improve the defense. Head coach Brandon Staley came from the Rams as a defensive coordinator. He knew he needed a Jalen Ramsey type player at corner, and paid big money to get JC Jackson from the Patriots. The starting secondary is now Jackson and Asante Samuel Jr and corner, and Derwin James and Nasir Adderley at safety. Wow, that looks awesome. James has been hurt for most of his short career thus far, but he is a vertitle safety and a first round pick for a reason. Kind of funny that Jackson was undrafted and is now the highest paid starter in the secondary. Samuel Jr and Adderley were second round picks, they along with James are still on their rookie deals.
The Chargers also added Khalil Mack from the Bears. Mack on the same front six as Joey Bosa, come on now. On offense, Justin Herbert is the real deal and he lit the field on fire. Mike Williams is locked up as the second option behind Keenan Allen, and don’t sleep on the third receiver Jalen Guyton. LA could use some better depth options at running back. Austin Ekeler is really good but he got banged up. Joshua Kelley, Larry Rountree III, and Justin Jackson did okay overall in his absence. However, none of them really look like a true number two back right now - mainly because they haven’t gotten enough opportunities to show what they can do.
Vegas Baby
The Raiders appropriately are going all in as well, this time on the offensive side of the ball. The new regime casually traded for maybe the best receiver in football in Davante Adams. He is flat out unstoppable. It’s been talked about before, but it bears repeating. Davante Adams, Hunter Renfrow, and Darren Waller are now on the same team. Not a Madden team, a real life team. Think about that for a second. The passing attack has no excuses anymore, they need to fire on all cylinders now. The Raiders have two immediate challenges. First, they have got to get that run game going again. Reports say Josh Jacobs may not be the workhorse they had hoped he was. He also has yet to play a full season. Kenyan Drake is the backup who had his season cut short to due season ending ankle surgery.
The only other backs on the roster are Brandon Bolden and Ameer Abdullah. Drafting a running back is not off the table here. In an underrated move, fullback Jakob Johnson came over from the Patriots to add that traditional powerful lead blocking presence. And no, that was not solely included just so I can gush about fullbacks again….okay maybe it was. Anyway, the second challenge is fixing the defense that has been a huge let down with all of the money and resources that have been poured into it. Not sure why you would trade Yannick Ngakoue after a 10 sack season, but hey good for the Colts for getting him. The moves made in free agency aren’t enough to fix the holes on D. They need to build it through the draft.
Are The Broncos Back?
Similar to the Rams, the Broncos believe they are a quarterback away. Bringing Russell Wilson to Denver is what started the spending battle in the west. The offense should put up some serious numbers with Jerry Jeudy and company on the perimeter. The offensive line is overall better than what he had in Seattle. We’ll see if Quinn Meinerz is able to secure a starting spot as a guard. They are also old at both tackle spots, so drafting tackle depth is an option. The Broncos do have a hole at tight end now since Noah Fant was traded to Seattle in return. They don’t have to draft one right away since the defense is the more pressing need.
Speaking of the defense, Denver fans should be happy they landed Randy Gregory. The defensive end was set to resign with Dallas, but opted to pivot and sign with Denver due to certain language in the contract he was going to sign. The Broncos have eight draft picks and the majority of those picks should be used on defense. They do not have a first round pick, and have been pretty quiet in the offseason with the exception of the Willson trade and Gregory signing.
The Chiefs Have Some Work To Do
For the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era, Kansas City is in jeopardy of being at the bottom of the division. Trading Tyreek Hill and losing Charvarius Ward now leave major holes at receiver and corner to fill. The future of Frank Clark also remains uncertain, so a pass rusher may also on the list of things to add. There is no replacing Tyreek Hill’s speed, playmaking ability, and versatility. Mecole Hardman has good speed, Marquez Valdes-Scantling is a great deep ball option, and we don’t what we’re going to see from Juju Smith-Schuster this season. That probably won’t be enough to get the same production. Keep an eye on Cornell Powell though, he could surprise a lot of people.
The Chiefs need to continue to develop young defensive players to get that side of the ball on the same level as the offense, or as close as they can get to that. KC has set the standard on what an NFL offense should be. They have also proved to be effective when evaluating talent in the draft. This will be put to the test as the fight for the division becomes even harder.
Coming up next, what Jerry Remy meant to me.