The AFC West has really begun to settle and take shape over the last few weeks. Compared to other divisions around the entire league, we pretty much know what we know about all of these squads. The Kansas City Chiefs are still the best until someone knocks them off the pedestal. Both of the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers are going to be frisky inside of the AFC Wild Card race. And for the Las Vegas Raiders, well, they remain to be as disappointing as they have been over most of the last 20 years.
Three out of four teams in the AFC West emerged victorious on Sunday. In the lone division matchup of the day, the Chiefs took down the Raiders to remain undefeated. Each of the Broncos and the Chargers got wins at home against NFC South teams.
How do the AFC West teams stack up entering Week 9? Here is where things stand in our latest power rankings for the division.
1. Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City offense looked in rhythm and under control throughout most of the day in Las Vegas. Patrick Mahomes found some easy completions with Travis Kelce and DeAndre Hopkins. Names like Noah Gray and Justin Watson also continue to be trusted pieces for Mahomes. The passing attack showed just how versatile and dangerous they can still be, just by how the skill players were being utilized.
The defense continues to dominate when the situation is not always easy. After the deflected interception by Las Vegas' defense set up the Raiders well, Kansas City stood tall with a fourth down stop inside the Chiefs' 10-yard line. The run defense simply amazes us every week. With that stingy run stuffing ability, it is making opposing offenses one-dimensional as a result. The Chiefs now sit at 7-0 with a couple of home games coming up. That sounds pretty good if you are the defending Super Bowl champs.
2. Denver Broncos
Say what you want about the opponent the Broncos played. Denver is physically imposing in the trenches. They can move the ball in multiple ways. The Broncos defense suffocates you in plenty of ways at all three levels. And most of all, Denver is playing with more confidence than they have in a decade, while still being a fairly young squad.
They are consistently building and stacking progress together in consecutive weeks throughout the season. It has not always been perfect. Though, they are playing team football and can lean on various players in numerous situations. Two huge road games await with Baltimore and Kansas City in the next two weeks. But as we have seen, the current iteration of the Broncos is not going to back down against anyone.
3. Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles bounced back after a tough loss on a short week. Justin Herbert used his legs and delivered some tight balls down the field to create explosive plays. Rookie Ladd McConkey remains a reliable target in any moment, as he added a pair of touchdowns on Sunday. And of course, the scoring defense of defensive coordinator Jesse Minter's unit has been routinely strong.
The Chargers may not always be the most exciting team or the most dangerous team each week. But like Denver, Los Angeles has been able to stack wins together while other teams who had high expectations are faltering. With those increases in the win column, the Chargers are giving themselves a great shot at the playoffs in year one of the Jim Harbaugh era.
4. Las Vegas Raiders
With Sunday's loss to the Chiefs, Las Vegas has gone to 0-3 against the division so far this season. Their losing streak also now sits at four games, overall. The Raiders have too many questions about the long-term future with not a lot of answers currently available.
One question we can wonder about for this particular season is, how far behind the rest of the division rivals will they finish? The Raiders will look to end their losing streak this Sunday by traveling to Cincinnati to face an equally frustrated Bengals team. If the Vegas offense continues to struggle as bad as they have against a leaky Bengals defense, the pressure will only continue to rise.