The most overlooked aspects of each AFC West rival

What are the most overlooked aspects of each of the Chiefs rivals in the AFC West?

The banner waving over this upcoming NFL season is the same as any other major sport: the uncertainty that comes with playing in a global pandemic. However, the league’s ability to remain healthy isn’t the only uncertain aspect.

Each franchise enters the year with new pieces and players and it’s easy for some of those changes to become overlooked—especially by fans of other teams. That’s especially true in an AFC West where each team is doing everything it takes to catch the Kansas City Chiefs

Given that we’d love to know what to expect in the West this year, we asked experts from each rival to tell us the single most overlooked aspect of their respective team.

Denver Broncos

Sayre Bedinger, Predominantly Orange: The defense is really, really, really good. Von Miller had COVID-19 this offseason, but you’d never know it since he’s in the best shape he’s been in at the age of 31 and is dominating practices at times.

Bradley Chubb is taking things easy on his surgically repaired knee lately, but he should be back and a force for the Broncos off the edge again, but the addition of Jurrell Casey on the interior defensive line is going to make life miserable for opposing offensive lines.

So far in training camp, A.J. Bouye and Bryce Callahan have been tremendous at the cornerback position, and with the defensive front as deep as it is, it’s hard to imagine this is not a top 10 if not a top 5 defense in the NFL this year.

Las Vegas Raiders

Brad Weiss, Just Blog Baby: The most overlooked aspect of this Raiders team is actually how much better they got on defense at all three levels. This is a defense that was downright terrible at times last season, could not cover anybody, and made life hard for Derek Carr and the offense. This offseason, the addition of Maliek Collins up front is going to help third-year player Maurice Hurst, and edge rusher Arden Key finally looks healthy enough to supplement the likes of Clelin Ferrell and Maxx Crosby.

At linebacker, the Raiders revamped the entire crew, adding quality players in Nick Kwiatkoski and Cory Littleton via free agency. Littleton is a tremendous coverage linebacker, and Kwiatkoski is going to wear the green dot. Raekwon McMillan was recently added, and the hope is he can take advantage of the change of scenery.

In the secondary, Johnathan Abram returns after missing 15 games due to injury as a rookie, and will lead a completely revamped defensive backfield alongside cornerback Trayvon Mullen. Overall, the defense has gone a complete overhaul, and the real pressure is on defensive coordinator Paul Guenther.

Los Angeles Chargers

Jason Reed, Bolt Beat: The best part about the team is the defense, but I do not think it is necessarily overlooked. I would have to go with the running game. Many probably assume that the Chargers are hurting without Melvin Gordon and are going to take a step back and that is not the case as all.

This is going to be an offensive scheme with more moving parts and more creativity in running the football, and I really like Austin Ekeler as the RB1 and having Justin Jackson (who has thrived in his chances) and a college workhorse like Joshua Kelley as backups is ideal.