Will the AFC West rise again?
There may be a lot of debate over which division is the toughest in the AFC, but there is little doubt over which division is the weakest. The AFC West takes that distinction in anyone’s book without hesitation.
First, look at the North, East and South. In the north, we’ve seen Cincinnati, Baltimore and Pittsburgh battle every year and it’s always exciting trying to determine which team stands out above the rest by the end of the season. The weak link is Cleveland, who have not won the division in its current format.
In the east, the Patriots have won most of the division titles this decade, but it hasn’t been easy on them. They’ve won some very close races and a few bad breaks could have easily seen the Jets or the Dolphins grab the title. The Bills of course, are the ones who fall behind in that race. This year, it promises to be another close race between the Pats, Jets and Fins.
The south is led by the Indianapolis Colts on a regular basis, but the division is usually able to send some wild card teams into the play-offs. The Titans and the Jaguars have each made the play-offs in the last five seasons and the Titans even won the division in 2008. The Houston Texans are on the verge of being a play-off team themselves.
That leads us to the AFC West, a division that has seen the Chargers breeze to four straight division titles. The last time a team besides San Diego won the division was the Denver Broncos in 2005. It was a joke that the Bolts were still able to win the division in 2008 with an 8-8 record. It was a testimony to how weak the division is.
This season, many are hoping that this is the year that the west begins to rise from the ashes and challenge the Chargers for the division. The Chargers seem super confident in their chances of maintaining their stranglehold on the division because they’re letting left tackle Marcus McNeill and wide receiver Vincent Jackson hold out and aren’t making any effort to sign them any time soon. Sure, that could be because San Diego is stacked with talent, but you have to think that a team who was worried about its division would have ensured all their assets were in place for the season.
The Broncos are being picked by many as the team that has a remote chance of giving the Chargers a scare. The team appeared to be doing that last year as they started 6-0, but a 2-8 finish opened the door for the 13-3 Chargers to easily win the division. If the Broncos defence can do what they did in the early part of last season, then yes they may have a shot.
The Oakland Raiders said goodbye to JaMarcus Russell this off-season, their former number-one overall pick. They traded for Jason Campbell and are hoping the former Redskins quarterback can do what Russell couldn’t, lead the Raiders to glory. The defence is also underrated and the offence may get better with more young players having gained experience. They have shown signs of improvement and should not be counted out in their pursuit of a play-off berth.
The Kansas City Chiefs may be a couple of years away from contention. The coaching staff looks like an elite bunch. Todd Haley has surrounded himself with assistants who both orchestrated a New England Super Bowl championship with offensive coordinator Charlie Weis and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel. The team also drafted a safety, who looks primed to be a superstar, in Eric Berry. They have two great running backs in Jamal Charles and Thomas Jones. Matt Cassel has gained some experience as a quarterback and the Chiefs look primed to succeed in the foreseeable future.
We may not see it this year, but the AFC West appears to finally be on the right track from going from the joke of the league, to a very tightly contested division, capable of producing play-off contenders on an annual basis.
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