The 2020 AFC West

The AFC West I have always known as a division where no team can stand each other. A division where it seems there is some kind of rivalry between every team. There is a lot of history in the AFC West, some of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history have played here such as Joe Montana, John Elway, or more recently Peyton Manning. There is nonstop competition between these teams to be the best amongst each other, and to get back to that golden days of the franchises. In the past decade, the Chiefs and Broncos have been the teams to have the most success doing so. 

Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs are the defending super bowl champions. In recent seasons, the team to win the super bowl has not shown much promise the next season, or there has been a team that has looked even better than the defending champions. Kansas City however, has looked like they’re on a mission to repeat. For the most part there has not been any competition that was too great for them. But, as I talked about earlier, these teams within the AFC west do not fear each other, and the Raiders showed this week five. The Chiefs immediately bounced back with a win on a Monday night against the Bills, and week seven against the Broncos. The Chiefs look in good shape at the half way point. 

Las Vegas Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders have done what is expected of them so far this season. With Jon Gruden being in his third season as once again head coach of the Raiders, this should be a year of great improvement. The week two win against the Saints appears to be a great notch under the belt of the Raiders. Another game that showed improvement was being able to trade blows with the super bowl champions, and win. After that week five victory, the Raiders had there bye week. They planned on returning victorious over the Buccaneers, but was humbled greatly. They’re 3-3, and will play a pretty good Browns team that could put them under or over .500.

Denver Broncos

The Denver Broncos have not recovered since Peyton Manning retired after their super bowl run in 2015-2016. The franchise has been looking for Drew Lock as starting quarterback, and key pieces such as Phillip Lindsay and Albert Okwuegbunam to take this team to where they are trying to go this season. Coming off of a two victories; against a Jets team we would say is in the same tier as them at this point, and an impressive week six victory against the Patriots where the defense was no joke at all, they were smacked back into place by the leaders of their division, the Chiefs. They’ll play the Chargers week eight, and this could go either way.

Los Angeles Chargers

For the Chargers, they are missing a great quarterback they have had for a long time in Phillip Rivers. They are also at the bottom of the standings in this division, but that has not at all stopped people from taking notice of this team. Tyrod Taylor was expected to be the starting quarterback of this team, but with him being out with an injury, Justin Herbert has been very impressive stepping into the role. The Chargers have been losing with style these past few games, and the most notable being their last game before their bye week, which was against the Saints. The Chargers took the Saints into overtime. While ending up losing to the Saints, that Sunday night gave the world an opportunity to see a possible future superstar in Justin Herbert. Coming off a win versus Jacksonville, we’ll see if the Chargers can keep the ball rolling against the Raiders.