Power ranking the AFC West by position groups
The team that sits atop the AFC West Power Rankings is as clear as any division in football – but what about the division’s positional group rankings?
Winners of four straight division titles, and coming off the heels of the franchise’s first Super Bowl Title in 50 years, it is no secret to anyone around the league that the Kansas City Chiefs are the unquestioned top team in the AFC West.
But, do the defending champs find themselves atop each of the positional group rankings, too? Is any team “the worst” across the board?
With the season kicking off in just four days, we look at the positional group rankings for each team in the division.
Coaching
4) Los Angeles Chargers
Perhaps no team has done less with more than Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn. This team, remember, is only two years removed from narrowly missing out on the AFC’s top seed; they were legitimate Super Bowl contenders in 2018. But, the 2019 season featured an epic collapse on all fronts complete with major injuries across the board and lack of direction at every turn. The team went from a 12-4 season to the sixth overall pick in the NFL Draft in 12 months – and it is nearly impossible not to blame the coaching staff for that sort of downward spiral.
3) Denver Broncos
Time will tell if Vic Fangio is a good NFL head coach or not. He’s yet to lead the Broncos to the promised land, but he has also righted the ship (seemingly), and given the offense some new direction. What gives Denver the edge over the Chargers here, though, is the fact that Fangio remains one of the top five defensive minds in all of football. With team health, and the talent available, Denver should have a great defense in 2020 – and Fangio gets to take much credit for that.
2) Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders find themselves ranked second on the coaching rankings of the AFC West primarily because they boast the only other coach in the division who has won a Super Bowl title as a head coach. Jon Gruden may have been gone from the coaching ranks for more a decade, but he is still a very good coach with a brilliant football mind. Las Vegas was a much better team in 2019 than they were the season before, and Gruden is a big reason for that. The coordinators are solid, if unremarkable, but this staff is all about the man at the top.
1) Kansas City Chiefs
This should be no surprise given that the the Kansas City head coach is one of the top ten coaches in the history of the NFL. But, the story of the Chiefs being ranked number one in the coaching category hardly stops at the top. The Chiefs boast continuity across their entire Super Bowl winning coaching staff, which includes three coordinators who are head coach caliber shot-callers at the NFL level. That includes oft-interviewed special teams coach Dave Toub and offensive coordinator Eric Bieinemy. And let’s not forget defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who was a head coach in the league and is the only coordinator in the history of the league to win titles with two different teams as a defensive coordinator.