The Kansas City Chiefs don't have the luxury of an easy division, at least not anymore. The other three teams in the AFC West have tried everything to knock K.C. off its pedestal from trading for expensive quarterbacks to swinging for the fences with high-end defenders and then hiring competent head coaches who could turn them from losers to winners.
While the Broncos and Chargers flipped the script and made the playoffs this season (along with the Chiefs, of course), the Raiders floundered and finished the season with just four wins. Antonio Pierce was fired and the Raiders did something unRaider-like and hired Pete Carroll, a competent head coach.
The Raiders have looked somewhat competent recently thanks to minority owner Tom Brady practically running their franchise for them. Brady has another trick up his sleeve too, as it's been reported that he's putting in the work to woo Matthew Stafford and get him to agree to be traded to Las Vegas.
Tom Brady's latest assignment could make things even tougher for the Chiefs
If Stafford joined the AFC West, that'd mean the four starting quarterbacks in the division were him, Patrick Mahomes, Bo Nix, and Justin Herbert. The jury is still out on Nix but that's quite the gauntlet of quarterbacks.
Sure, Stafford isn't the same dominant quarterback he once was, but he's a Super Bowl-winning quarterback and has shown that he still has plenty left in the tank. He threw for 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions last season and helped the Rams win their division and win a playoff game.
It's bad enough that the head coaches in the division are all potential Hall of Fame coaches but now the quarterbacks will make it even trickier for the Chiefs to continue their success in the AFC West. A division that the Chiefs once ran roughshod over is now looking not only competent but terrifying.
Let's hope Stafford either agrees to remain in Los Angeles or that he ends up with a team that's not on the Chiefs' schedule twice a year for the foreseeable future. This whole 'The Raiders might be moving toward being a competent franchise' is not something that Chiefs fans are enjoying though, that's for sure.
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