Despite all moves made elsewhere, the Denver Broncos remain the team to beat.
During the offseason lull, it is, as writers, often futile writing about the current news. Much of it is just coach speak, very little is relevant and it simply makes everyone miss football season. That’s why you will see many of us look forward to the coming season with roster projections, player predictions and hopelessly optimistic statements that will likely never come true.
In the name of all this, I will look at why the Denver Broncos are still the team to beat in the AFC West.
Ultimately, that is what will define a successful season for the Chiefs: winning the AFC West. In one of the most balanced divisions in football, there is little to split between the Chiefs themselves and the reigning Broncos. Moreover, with the Oakland Raiders improving significantly with a young core and a talented quarterback and the San Diego Chargers still a talented (though not to the same level as their divisional rivals) side who were simply decimated by injuries last season, the Chiefs will not have all their own way next year. This is a competitive division.
However, some will tell you that the Raiders are now the team to beat in the race to be the best of the West. While Oakland are certainly dangerous, improving drastically with free agent additions such as our own Sean Smith and the development of Amari Cooper, Khalil Mack and Derek Carr, they are not proven. How many times have teams splashed out in free agency only to fall flat on their faces? Now, the Raiders haven’t exactly gone Andy Reid at Philly, but they have invested heavily, especially in the defense.
There is absolutely no proof that spending on these players and assuming that they will come together and simply work straight off the bat is a good strategy. On paper, yes, this Oakland team is dangerous and the Chiefs will have to be wary of them throughout the year, but they’re not the team to beat, not yet anyway.
That honor still belongs to the organization that has had a stranglehold over the division for the past few seasons. While their success previously was built on the arm, or more accurately, mind of Peyton Manning, last year, the Super Bowl winning campaign was purely due to a suffocatingly good defense. While some key players from that defense will not be returning, most notably Malik Jackson who was superb along the defensive line last year, much of the playmakers are still there.
Vonn Miller will be back, under the franchise tag or not, the corner trio of Aqib Talib, Chris Harris Jr and the vastly underrated Bradley Roby and most importantly, Wade Phillips will still be there to head it all up. They may well start the season with Mark Sanchez under center, but quite frankly, Peyton Manning last season was worse. The Broncos rode their defense to the AFC West title and they will be hoping to do so again.
While the Chiefs will have hopes of dethroning their rivals, and I expect that they will, it is not the Raiders that is the best team in the division. That title still belongs to Denver, and Kansas City will have to work hard to take it off them.