AFC West Report: Chiefs Tumble while the Chargers Rise

Las Vegas Raiders

The biggest AFC West news this week is obviously the resignation of Raiders head coach Jon Gruden following the release of years of emails displaying racist, homophobic, and misogynistic language.

Gruden’s troubles began when 2011 emails from Gruden to Bruce Allen were revealed in which Gruden used racist language to talk about NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith. It only got worse when the New York Times released a story documenting years of such language. Gruden quickly resigned and his resignation was accepted by Mark Davis. Most recently, the Buccaneers released the following statement:

Gruden’s downfall has been swift and sudden, but reveals a troubling picture of what is considered acceptable in the upper echelons of the NFL. It remains to be seen what additional fallout might happen, but for now, the Raiders are left with interim coach Rich Bisaccia to lead the team out of this disaster. Coming off a bad loss to a struggling Bears team, no one will fault the Raiders if they struggle the rest of the season. The whole situation is disappointing and sad. We will just have to wait to see if anyone else is taken down with Gruden or if we see typical NFL stonewalling and closing of ranks.

Following the loss to the Bears, the Raiders continue to watch Derek Carr get beat up. He took a shot to the head that knocked him into the blue tent with a neck injury, but he was back after a few plays. Johnathan Hankins was not quite as lucky. A hit to his back knocked him out of the game.

Next week, amidst the turmoil, the Raiders head to Denver to take on the Broncos, while the Broncos are certainly not a good team, this will be a test for the Raiders as they will need to band together if they are going to have any hope of winning. We will just have to wait and see if the Gruden fallout causes too much of a distraction for the Raiders to pull out a win.