The Chiefs are running this division until someone takes it away from them. Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes give them a leg up on the competition but there are a couple of things that could be make you worry about that roster. The good news for them is the Raiders are nowhere near competing, the Broncos have Bo Nix at QB, and while Jim Harbaugh is a major coaching upgrade over Brandon Staley, the Chargers roster is in flux.
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs offense is Andy Reid’s brainchild and Patrick Mahomes’ incredible talent coming together to create magic but even they have limits if they don’t have help. They won the Super Bowl last year using way more Isaiah Pacheco in the running game and only counting on Travis Kelce when it mattered most. The WR group was unimpressive except for Rashee Rice in his rookie year but even that took some time to get going. Rice had a rough off season and faces what could be a lengthy suspension from the league so the Chiefs went for a makeover at the position. The team signed undersized WR Marquise Brown and drafted undersized WR Xavier Worthy in round one of the draft. Both players bring a level of speed to the offense it’s been lacking since Tyreek Hill was traded. The hope is they can push the ball down the field and open things up for Kelce and Rice in the intermediate zone.
Kelce is getting older and his regular season usage isn’t what it once was but he’s still a deadly player when it counts. The offensive line has four spots locked down, although they hope Jawaan Taylor can play better at RT, it’s LT that is the question. Rookie Kingsley Suamataia has already taken the LT job from Wayna Morris and while he’ll have his growing pains, he should be fine. Pacheco is the unquestioned starter but some of that is lack of competition. He runs hard and gets the tough yards, that’s all they ask of him.
Steve Spagnuolo has been one of the best defensive coordinators in the league for a while and he proved it last season again by winning another Super Bowl against a talented 49ers team. They re-signed DT Chris Jones because he was the harder guy to replace and they traded away L’Jarius Snead instead because they like what they have behind him in the secondary. Jones is a game wrecking player and while he’s a bit like Kelce in the fact he doesn’t always dominate the regular season, he shows up when it matters. Nick Bolton is an excellent MLB and Drue Tranquill was really good last season, he now replaces Willie Gay. The LB group is solid with those two and Leo Chanel.
Snead was an excellent player but the team has Trent McDuffie to take over as CB1 and they like the depth they have with Joshua Williams, Jaylen Watson, Nazeeh Johnson and even newly signed Kelvin Joseph. Justin Reid and Bryan Cook are an excellent safety combination. Spagnuolo is a creative defensive mind who knows how to construct pass coverage.
Los Angeles Chargers
I cannot overstate the importance of the change from Brandon Staley to Jim Harbaugh for this team. Staley was clearly in over his head and while Harbaugh may be coming from the college game, he’s not new to this, he’s been a successful NFL head coach before. This season will be a transition but they will compete because they have the one thing you need to compete in the NFL, a legitimate QB. Justin Herbert is the ultimate Harbaugh QB, he’s an elite processor who will do what the offensive scheme asks him to do, and he’ll do it well. The question is the talent around him. The offensive line should be fine. LT Rashawn Slater can be better than he was last year, we’ve seen him do that before. RT Joe Alt is a massive upgrade even if he’s a rookie who was a LT in college. Bradley Bozeman steps in at center, he’s okay. They need Zion Johnson to be way better than he was as a rookie last season but he has talent.
The weapons are the major concern. Rookie WR Ladd McConkey is going to need to be a real player. WR DJ Chark is a veteran who has bounced around and Joshua Palmer has flashes but he’s pretty inconsistent. RB Gus Edwards scored a lot of TDs in Baltimore last season but he’s just a guy. JK Dobbins wishes he could be just a guy but you have to play to reach that level and he keeps getting hurt. Jim Harbaugh had Colston Loveland at TE at Michigan last season, this year he has Will Dissly as his TE in LA, he’s going to miss Loveland.
The defense will be in even more of a transition moving from Staley’s defense to the one run by Jesse Minter. The personnel has been in transition for a while with them cycling through different defensive linemen the past few years trying to solve their run defense issues. They still have Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack as their edge rushers but Bosa has constant health issues and Mack is 33, they can’t rely on these two much longer. Harbaugh and Minter saw fit to draft their MLB from Michigan Junior Colson to try to stabilize the LB group, it’s been a problem for years.
The secondary is led by Derwin James and the hope is that Minter’s defense can unleash him. He’s always been a good player but he has the potential to be elite. They need their CBs to be better and Asante Samuel Jr. has talent to be good. They signed Kristian Fulton to be the other outside CB and he’s underrated. They need guys like Alohi Gilman and Ja’Sir Taylor to step up or it could be a long year.
Denver Broncos
The hope for the Broncos starts with the fact that the marriage between Bo Nix and Sean Payton has to be infinitely better than the one between Payton and Russell Wilson because it can’t be worse. Nix isn’t some superstar QB waiting to happen but he’s a solid player with loads of experience from college. If Payton can set up the offense to feature Nix’s strengths and hide his weaknesses, the offense should at least function. How well will depend on some other factors. Luckily, they already dispensed with the “QB competition” crap and named Nix the starter. No one was buying the Jarrett Stidham thing.
The offensive line is fine but they will have a new center, Luke Wattenberg won the job. It was a competition in camp to watch, way more than the QB one. There are some weapons to like; WR Courtland Sutton, WR Josh Reynolds, and RB Javonte Williams come to mind. Sutton is a legitimate top WR for a team and Reynolds is an underrated secondary playmaker. Some people seem to be out on Williams after he struggled last season but I’m not. He was coming off a major injury the year before and last year’s offense was a mess. I think he bounces back. TE Greg Dulcich is also a solid player and they hope Marvin Mims can be a weapon. I still have hope that Troy Franklin will be a part of this offense given his connection from college with Nix because I’m not sure the other WRs fit Nix’s style. Nix is a short area passer and Sutton, Reynolds, and Mims are more down field guys. It’s a strange stylistic fit.
The defense is a work in progress. John Franklin-Meyers, DJ Jones, and Zach Allen are solid but unspectacular upfront. Baron Browning, Jonathan Cooper, and Nik Bonitto are a decent trio of edge rusher but they could really use rookie Jonah Ellis giving them some help. The ILBs are only okay after they lost Josey Jewell. Cody Barton an Alex Singleton aren’t getting anyone excited. The secondary has the best player on the defense in Patrick Surtain II. He’s elite but he needs some help. They signed Levi Wallace but he’s probably a backup. They hope Riley Moss stays healthy this year because he’s probably the starter opposite Surtain. They signed Brandon Jones to replace Justin Simmons, that feels like a downgrade at safety and they can’t afford that with the inconsistencies in the secondary.
Las Vegas Raiders
The team played better under Antonio Pierce after he replaced Josh McDaniels last season but that’s not setting the bar very high. It’s his show now and it might not be pretty. The team will start Gardner Minshew at QB and that’s a tough place to be. It’s even tougher when the new offensive coordinator is Luke Getsy. I was never impressed with Getsy in Chicago and it’s not going to get easier in Vegas for him. The pass catchers are a solid unit but with Minshew at the controls I’m not sure it matters.
WRs Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers are a legitimate WR1/WR2 combination. Brock Bowers is an elite talent at TE and Michael Mayer is an excellent TE too. If this team had a QB I would be a little scared of the passing game. RB Zamir White is a solid player and he has some potential but it’s going to be tough behind a lot of new faces up front and against defenses that aren’t afraid of the QB. LT Kolton Miller and potential new LG Jackson Powers-Johnson were both hurt to start camp and that put Powers-Johnson behind. RG Dylan Parham and RT Thayer Mumford are an uninspiring right side of the line. C Andre James is fine but it won’t matter with this group.
The defense is led by DE Maxx Crosby who is a superstar who deserves to be on a better team. They signed DT Christian Wilkins to give Crosby some help up front but the rest of the defense is underwhelming. They need young guys like DE Malcolm Koonce and Tyree Jackson to break out or it’s going to be a long year. The LBs are also underwhelming. Robert Spillane and Devine Deablo aren’t bad but they are limited.
The secondary needs Jack Jones to be a real player at CB. He stepped in last year after they signed him after the Patriots cut him for personality reasons essentially. He’s a talented yet mercurial player. They don’t have a legitimate #2 outside CB, Jakorian Bennett is probably the closest one. Nate Hobbs is a solid nickel player. Safeties Tre’von Moehrig and Marcus Epps are fine but they are really not game changers. The team also needs to find another CB to play opposite Jones.
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