State of the AFC West: Post Draft

[Orange Crush77]

 

[Orange Crush77]

He looks Malachi from Children of the corn and Moe from the Three stooges had a baby

 

[randymon]

Lol. Yeah I look at that doo and wonder what the hell is he thinking? Then I try and visualize a different look on him and I get nothing but even scarier.

 

[cdumler7]

I guess to me I still don't trust the Raiders to live up to expectations. The additions they added to the roster through FA are coming from very different systems. Sean Smith is a great example where KC had him playing more press man with a safety over the top. Throw in he had an All-Pro Safety working over the top to help out. Now with Oakland he is going to be playing a lot more off man/zone coverage. We've seen a lot of Corners not do so well in such a switch. Throw in he is going from being the #2 guy for KC to #1 guy for Oakland.

Bruce Irvin to me was the worst deal of the off season. He is being paid to be a pass rusher but Seattle realized very early he wasn't a very good pass rusher and used him more to drop back in coverage than to get after the QB. So I just don't see that one working out well for them.

Draft wise I did like their 1st round pick but have to see how he does at staying healthy. His comparison to Bob Sanders seems to pop up a lot of guys who play with reckless abandon and for being smaller guys it does lead to more injuries. Beyond that I thought they had a decent but not great draft. Ward is a major project so I doubt he does a ton year 1. Calhoun was another good choice. Connor Cook most likely does nothing for the team with an already established QB. Washington just have to see. Those scat back types are some of the hardest to tell on how they will adjust to the NFL when everybody is just as fast as them.

Anyway I still think this is a 2-team race between us and KC for this year.

 

[iknowftbll]

Anyway I still think this is a 2-team race between us and KC for this year.

The Chiefs are a hard team for me to figure out. I've repeatedly compared them to the disappointing 2013 Falcons but I really don't have anything to go on for that comparison. Just a hunch. With expectations going up the pressure mounts. Such was the case in 2014: higher expectations resulting big disappointment following a 9-7 finish. The Chiefs haven't made the playoffs in consecutive years in over 20 years. While previous teams' failures have no bearing whatsoever on the current team, the narrative will become louder (fans on AP and AA mention it almost daily) as the season approaches/progresses, adding to the pressure. Then you have Andy Reid. He has been the greatest thing to happen to the Chiefs in 20 years, but he has his limitations. Not only does he make some really head scratching mistakes (giving JC 9 carries in a close game, horrific clock management, etc...) he doesn't seem to learn from them and will repeat said mistakes later in the season. Mark it: his coaching decisions will at some point this year be the Chiefs undoing in two games they'd otherwise have a fighting chance to win. They also still struggle to consistently beat the better teams. When they do beat one they offset it by letting a bottom feeder get the best of them.

With that said, if I remember right at this time last year I was giving the Chargers the benefit of the doubt over the Chiefs. They were both coming off 9-7/no playoffs seasons with the Chiefs sporting a far better defense and the Chargers with a better offense. The Chiefs definitely proved me wrong, and now a year later I'm skeptical of them again while suggesting the Raiders hop them in the standings. It's when I think about it this way that I agree this team could have a 12-4 finish and a deep playoff run.

Still, teams don't have linear progress from one year to the next in the NFL. The narrative is now that the Chiefs have the playoff monkey off their backs they are ready to take it to the next level. It's a fair enough narrative, but in the NFL teams like the Chiefs regress after a good season just as often as they take the next step.

The Chiefs have been the Broncos most successful AFC West rival since Elway arrived and I've really enjoyed the showdown the last few years. I think the Broncos are still the better team, and suspect at least for 2016 the Raiders will be the team giving the Broncos a run for it.

 

[cdumler7]

The Chiefs are a hard team for me to figure out. I've repeatedly compared them to the disappointing 2013 Falcons but I really don't have anything to go on for that comparison. Just a hunch. With expectations going up the pressure mounts. Such was the case in 2014: higher expectations resulting big disappointment following a 9-7 finish. The Chiefs haven't made the playoffs in consecutive years in over 20 years. While previous teams' failures have no bearing whatsoever on the current team, the narrative will become louder (fans on AP and AA mention it almost daily) as the season approaches/progresses, adding to the pressure. Then you have Andy Reid. He has been the greatest thing to happen to the Chiefs in 20 years, but he has his limitations. Not only does he make some really head scratching mistakes (giving JC 9 carries in a close game, horrific clock management, etc...) he doesn't seem to learn from them and will repeat said mistakes later in the season. Mark it: his coaching decisions will at some point this year be the Chiefs undoing in two games they'd otherwise have a fighting chance to win. They also still struggle to consistently beat the better teams. When they do beat one they offset it by letting a bottom feeder get the best of them.

With that said, if I remember right at this time last year I was giving the Chargers the benefit of the doubt over the Chiefs. They were both coming off 9-7/no playoffs seasons with the Chiefs sporting a far better defense and the Chargers with a better offense. The Chiefs definitely proved me wrong, and now a year later I'm skeptical of them again while suggesting the Raiders hop them in the standings. It's when I think about it this way that I agree this team could have a 12-4 finish and a deep playoff run.

Still, teams don't have linear progress from one year to the next in the NFL. The narrative is now that the Chiefs have the playoff monkey off their backs they are ready to take it to the next level. It's a fair enough narrative, but in the NFL teams like the Chiefs regress after a good season just as often as they take the next step.

The Chiefs have been the Broncos most successful AFC West rival since Elway arrived and I've really enjoyed the showdown the last few years. I think the Broncos are still the better team, and suspect at least for 2016 the Raiders will be the team giving the Broncos a run for it.

I agree the Chiefs are a hard one to read. They lost I would say much more fire power on the defensive side of the ball than we did with Smith gone to Oakland and maybe the loss of Houston for the entire season. It still amazes me that somehow the Chiefs defense doesn't get the same critical eye that the Broncos defense does. I never hear people talk about Houston and Smith being gone.

Still I like the Chiefs offense a little more than that of Oakland and they do have a more proven defense. I also do give a big edge coaching wise to the Chiefs over that of Oakland. I know people are all excited about all the moves the Raiders have made but to me Del Rio is still an average at best Head Coach in this league. He has a lot bad things about his coaching style as well. Us Bronco fans got to see it up close and personal with him refusing to make adjustments when something wasn't working or his lack of creativity especially against the better teams in the league. I think he cost his team at least that same 2 games.

 

[Mingo]

I'm seeing the Raiders as much tougher than last season -and the Chiefs down a little. You have to like a QB like Carr at this point in his career. As CD said the Chiefs have lost some on defense and I think they are kind of oldish in the star players.

In the NFL, though, if may be the Chargers who get off the ground and surprise all of us. Rivers can still sling it.

 

[Orange Crush77]

The precision of that bowl cut is absolutely fascinating

 

[Mingo]

The precision of that bowl cut is absolutely fascinating

LOL - I will have to agree- the bangs to the ears looks laser cut. Obviously - as awful as it looks he paid a professional to cut it that way.

 

[Clayton]

It still amazes me that somehow the Chiefs defense doesn't get the same critical eye that the Broncos defense does. I never hear people talk about Houston and Smith being gone.

Thats interesting because I hear people talking about Smith all of the time. Imo, Smith's departure is overblown and Houston's injury isn't getting enough press. Chiefs have a plethora of young CBs. Peters could improve next year even without have the same number of INTs. Gaines back from injury.

Linebackers? Its Tamba Hali, Dee Ford, Jonathan Massaquoi and Frank Zombo. Hali is 32. DJ is 33 and ILB is pedestrian after that. Houston being injured pretty much eliminates the possibility of a true elite defense but the bigger issue for a regular season team is that it means that they are one more injury away from starting someone who is likely a big liability. By the middle of the season, almost everyone has a key player or 4 hurt. You don't want to start the season down 1. Obviously Houston could return at any point in a huge 6 month window so thats a massive variable when talking about the Chiefs season.

 

[SpringStein]

The last sentence is key. Houston could very well be ready opening week. Or not. That seems to be a pretty big deal to me trying to figure out how good KC will be. I'm assuming he will be better sooner than later, so that makes KC a very legit playoff team.

 

[megalodon30]

I don't believe Mark Sanchez has ever played a full season either.

He played at least 15 games in each of his first 4 seasons (only years he was full-time starter), including the full 16 in 2010 and '11. Sanchez has actually been pretty healthy through his career.

 

[cdumler7]

Thats interesting because I hear people talking about Smith all of the time. Imo, Smith's departure is overblown and Houston's injury isn't getting enough press. Chiefs have a plethora of young CBs. Peters could improve next year even without have the same number of INTs. Gaines back from injury.

Linebackers? Its Tamba Hali, Dee Ford, Jonathan Massaquoi and Frank Zombo. Hali is 32. DJ is 33 and ILB is pedestrian after that. Houston being injured pretty much eliminates the possibility of a true elite defense but the bigger issue for a regular season team is that it means that they are one more injury away from starting someone who is likely a big liability. By the middle of the season, almost everyone has a key player or 4 hurt. You don't want to start the season down 1. Obviously Houston could return at any point in a huge 6 month window so thats a massive variable when talking about the Chiefs season.

I do agree that Smith's departure is a bit overblown. I thought he was overpaid and is now going to a scheme that is not a great fit for his skill set. Been trying to show this to a Raider fan for a while but so far "The Raiders are Great" has been his response. Still he was a great #2 Corner for the Chiefs and fit their scheme very well.

And maybe if I listened to more local Chiefs news maybe they do talk about it. I was more commenting towards I really don't hear much on the national media about Houston especially. It was a big deal for about 2 weeks and ever since it has been rarely talked about.

And yeah I do agree that with Houston right now we just don't know what the time table is. I will say because his injury was more on the rare side with it not actually being a tear from what I understand that I error on th side that it will take more time than less. Usually the more unique injuries have the longer time table. Who knows though since he is still young and really ACL injuries anymore have become just a norm for players and something that is easily fixable and even has some players coming back stronger than ever.

I guess to me though right now while I do think the Chiefs are going to be in it all year long I do think they have a few more holes on the defense this year compared to the last few years that could really limit some of their production. They might be leaning more on Smith to have to produce instead of being able to get out to an early lead and lean on the run game and defense to smother teams. Not sure Smith is up to that challenge.

 

[Fountain City Blues]

Pretty good case to be made the AFC West is the most interesting division in football right now. Quite a few quirks and detours it could go for next season. Pretty solid talent all around, and imo, 3 pretty competent FO's which don't appear to be going anywhere. Should be fascinating to see what happens.

 

[cdumler7]

Pretty good case to be made the AFC West is the most interesting division in football right now. Quite a few quirks and detours it could go for next season. Pretty solid talent all around, and imo, 3 pretty competent FO's which don't appear to be going anywhere. Should be fascinating to see what happens.

Agree with this. For quite a while now even though the Broncos have won the division it has still produced at least one more winning team every year since 2012. A few of those years it produced 3 teams with winning records so not like division games were some cake walk. And this year yeah I would say 3 of the teams for sure have a case to be made to be considered the favorite for the division. I still think San Diego is too far behind to jump from last to first but even they should be more competitive this year.

 

[cdumler7]

Couple of cool things that some guys working within the locker room talked about today...

1) I guess after the loss to Pittsburgh Kubiak ripped the entire team. They said that of all the moments this past season that really seemed to pull the team together it was Kubiak's speech after that loss that really set the tone. They never lost another game. This honestly was also one of the big reasons Elway brought Kubiak in is because Elway knows Kubiak realizes the moments the team needs those type of talks. Elway was the guy under the Fox regime that seemed to have to do that after a terrible loss. Seems like Elway has a lot more trust in this coaching staff to do what needs to be done.

2) Kubiak knew that Manning at some point would have to help the team if they wanted to win the Super Bowl after he went down with injury. it is a big reason he continued to leave the door open that Osweiler was a week to week starter instead of just claiming him as the starter.

3) During half time of the Chargers game Kubiak went to Manning and told him that he was planning on Manning playing. Manning I guess hadn't even had his ankles taped for the game because he just never expected to even be given a chance. He then hustled to the trainers to get game ready.

 

[SpringStein]

Couple of cool things that some guys working within the locker room talked about today...

1) I guess after the loss to Pittsburgh Kubiak ripped the entire team. They said that of all the moments this past season that really seemed to pull the team together it was Kubiak's speech after that loss that really set the tone. They never lost another game. This honestly was also one of the big reasons Elway brought Kubiak in is because Elway knows Kubiak realizes the moments the team needs those type of talks. Elway was the guy under the Fox regime that seemed to have to do that after a terrible loss. Seems like Elway has a lot more trust in this coaching staff to do what needs to be done.

2) Kubiak knew that Manning at some point would have to help the team if they wanted to win the Super Bowl after he went down with injury. it is a big reason he continued to leave the door open that Osweiler was a week to week starter instead of just claiming him as the starter.

3) During half time of the Chargers game Kubiak went to Manning and told him that he was planning on Manning playing. Manning I guess hadn't even had his ankles taped for the game because he just never expected to even be given a chance. He then hustled to the trainers to get game ready.

Those were all stories by Troy Renck who filled in for Sink today on 104.3 The Fan. I thought Troy was awesome on the show. As a reporter, he's not the glitzy guy bringing attention to himself - just a day by day hard worker. IMO he's the best reporter covering the Broncos since Schefter left.