The Kansas City Chiefs have run the AFC West since 2016, having come off their eighth straight division title this past season. The Chiefs have been such a mainstay in the division that the other teams are still trying as hard as they can to dethrone them.
At first, the other AFC West teams focused entirely on finding quarterbacks that could go toe-to-toe with KC. Recently, however, they've shifted their focus to finding the right head coach to lead their teams. The Denver Broncos traded for Sean Payton in the 2023 offseason hoping that he'd help them get back to their winning ways while the Los Angeles Chargers pried Jim Harbaugh away from the University of Michigan this past offseason, hoping that he'd replicate the magic he had with the 49ers.
With so many heavy-hitters in the division at the head coaching spot, let's rank the four AFC West head coaches from worst to first.
4. Antonio Pierce
After the Las Vegas Raiders fired Josh McDaniels midway through the 2023 season, Pierce was named the interim head coach and led the Raiders to a 5-4 record the rest of the way. Pierce's tenure was highlighted by a Christmas Day win over the Chiefs and it made sense for the Raiders to remove the interim label and let him take over as the head coach for 2024 and beyond.
Strangely, Pierce is in the bottom spot here considering how much better the Raiders looked under his tutelage a season ago, but that's how strong the rest of the division is when it comes to head coaches. Had Brandon Staley still been in the AFC West, Pierce would have been in the third spot but unfortunately for him, he's the bottom coach in a stacked division.
3. Sean Payton
Numbers two and three really are a toss-up, but I put Payton in the three-spot. Payton coached the Saints for 15 years but stepped away from coaching one year after Drew Brees retired. The Broncos lured him out of retirement a year later, which led to the Saints trading him to Denver and allowing him to try and fix the broken Broncos.
In Payton's first year on the job, the team started 0-3 on the year and at one point was 1-5 before getting back to .500 in Week 11. After the team fell to the Patriots in Week 16, Payton benched Russell Wilson for the final two games and that ended the potential threat of the Broncos stealing the AFC West crown from Kansas City (Yes, let's not forget this was a real scenario late in the season.)
Under Payton's tutelage in 2023, the Broncos beat the Chiefs for the first time since the 2015 season and also came close to securing their first winning season since 2015 (when they won the Super Bowl) so he showed signs of being able to turn the franchise back into a contender. Payton opted to cut Wilson, eat the big contract he was sitting with, and then spend a first-round pick on Bo Nix.
If Payton is right about Nix and can work his quarterback magic on the Oregon quarterback, the Broncos should be in good shape moving forward. If he's wrong, then he's tied himself to Nix and could be out of a head coaching job in a few years.
2. Jim Harbaugh
I'd hear the argument to put Sean Payton in the two-spot but for now, I have Harbaugh here. The Chargers didn't "Charger it" for once with the Harbaugh hire, swiping the Michigan head coach fresh off a National Championship with the Wolverines.
Yes, the NFL is a different animal than the college football world but Harbaugh has proven that he can coach at the professional level before, having coached the 49ers from 2011 to 2014. It's been a decade since Harbaugh has coached in the pros but when he last did coach, he led the 49ers to great heights, including a Super Bowl appearance in the 2012 season and a 12-4 record in 2013.
Harbaugh was a winner at Michigan as well, evidenced by his National Championship this past season. With a proven quarterback in Justin Herbert, Harbaugh will have the most important position taken care of for the foreseeable future. While the Bolts might not be a threat this year, by Year 2, he could have the Chargers vying for a division title and knocking K.C. off its throne.
1. Andy Reid
As stacked as the coaches are in the AFC West, none of them hold a candle to Andy Reid, who now has three Super Bowl rings to his name and has won two in a row. Reid has been the Chiefs head coach since 2013 after his 14-year stint in Philadelphia came to a close.
Since joining the Chiefs, Kansas City has never had a losing record and missed the playoffs one time (2014). Once he got Patrick Mahomes as his quarterback, that was it for the rest of the league, as the Chiefs have represented the AFC in the Super Bowl in all but two of Mahomes' seasons as a starter.
Not only is Reid the best coach in the AFC West, but he's the best coach in the entire NFL and Chiefs fans are lucky to have him in Kansas City. Until he retires, which let's hope isn't for a long time, he's the best in the AFC West and it isn't close.