After Week 7 of the NFL season, what do the standings look like in the AFC and AFC West? Where do the KC Chiefs stack up in the conference and division?
The NFL has now completed seven weeks of the regular season and the playoff picture is a long way away from being set. There will still be a lot of changes in the final 10 weeks, but most teams are still in contention for a playoff spot, while a couple of teams might have kissed their playoff hopes goodbye.
Week 7 featured five games involving two AFC teams, with two being divisional games, while five members of the AFC lined up against NFC teams, and one team had their bye week. Six teams came into the week with a winning record, six teams came in with losing records, and four teams entered the week at exactly 0.500.
On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs visited the San Francisco 49ers, the Las Vegas Raiders hosted the Houston Texans, the Denver Broncos hosted the New York Jets, and the Los Chargers saw the Seattle Seahawks come to town.
Here is how the AFC West standings look after Week 7:
The Chiefs absolutely crushed the 49ers in Santa Clara 44-23. The Texans bounced back after their bye week with a victory over the Texans. The Russell Wilson-less Broncos fell to the Jets. The Chargers got crushed by the Seahawks.
According to FiveThirtyEight (QB Adjusted), before Week 7, the Chiefs were the clear favorites to win the AFC West with a 68% chance to win the division. The Los Angeles Chargers, Denver Broncos, and Las Vegas Raiders followed at 25%, 4%, and 3%, respectively. After Week 7, the Chiefs are still the obvious favorites at 87%, followed by the Chargers at 8%, the Raiders at 3%, and finally the Broncos at 1%. (Due to rounding, the %s don’t add up to 100.)
Barring major injury problems and/or a collapse of epic proportions, the AFC West is the Chiefs’ division to lose this season like it has been for the past six seasons. The Chiefs now have their bye week and need to use it to get healthy, especially in the secondary.
In two weeks, K.C. will start a three-game stretch of the Titans and the Jaguars at home, plus the Chargers on the road. If they can manage to go 3-0 during the stretch and climb to 8-2, the AFC West will be pretty much race will be pretty much over, but that is a big if. For a supposed “rebuilding year”, the Chiefs still appear to own the AFC West.