What does Jim Harbaugh's previous coaching competition reveal about AFC West threat?

The AFC West has one-and-a-half new head coaches this year. Antonio Pierce is heading up the Las Vegas Raiders after an interim stint last year, while the only new coach in the division is L.A. Chargers leader Jim Harbaugh.

Harbaugh is fresh off a college football national championship, returning to the NFL after almost a decade. Usually when a coach is away from the professional scene for that long, their return is questionable. Harbaugh seems to be the exception. That's because before his successful tenure at Michigan, he was also successful in his four years with the San Francisco 49ers.

There's no disputing that Harbaugh produced results while in the Bay Area. Three NFC Championship appearances and one Super Bowl appearance in four years are impressive no matter who you are. But one question I found myself asking the other day is, "Who was he coaching against?"

It would be too much to research every single NFC head coach during Harbaugh's tenure with the 49ers, but it seems reasonable to do an analysis of the coaches he faced within the NFC West. These are the teams he played against the most.

The final question I am looking to answer is how did those coaches stack up against the coaches Harbaugh will now be going against in the AFC West? That might give Chiefs fans an idea of what to expect from the new leader of probably their strongest division rival.

Without further ado, here is the coaching break down of the three division rivals that Jim Harbaugh faced while with the San Francisico 49ers.

Los Angeles Rams (formerly St. Louis): Steve Spagnoulo & Jeff Fisher

Our first coach is actually a familiar face to Chiefs fans. Harbaugh's first year with the 49ers was the final year of none other than Steve Spagnoulo coaching the St. Louis Rams. Spags's tenure with the team was not great.

Spags is known for being one of the greatest defensive coordinators of all time, but as a head coach, he was an abysmal 10-38 over three seasons. It's not really a surprise that he's never been given a second chance, and Chiefs fans aren't complaining.

That year, the Rams only won two games and none of them came against Harbaugh's 49ers. In fact their first meeting was a 26-0 shutout. Their week 17 game was much closer, a 34-27 loss, but the Niners still earned the sweep.

After Spags came Jeff Fisher. Fisher had a strong pedigree from his many years with the Tennessee Titans. But his time with the Rams were mediocre at best. He went 31-45, and is now tied for the most losses in NFL history. Fisher's record against Harbaugh and the 49ers was 2-3-1.

I don't think either of these coaches would inspire much fear in fanbases. In fact, the one time the Chiefs played the Jeff Fisher Rams during the Harbaugh era, they destroyed the Rams 34-7.

Arizona Cardinals: Ken Whisenhunt & Bruce Arians

As far as win percentages go, both of these coaches were better than the Rams head coaches. Whisenhunt coached the Cardinals during Harbaugh's first two years with the 49ers and went 41-51 during his entire tenure. Even though he did have a winning playoff record during his tenure, he was only 1-3 against Harbaugh. Most of those losses were blowouts, too.

After 2012, Whisenhunt was replaced with Bruce Arians. He was one of only two head coaches that Harbaugh faced who had a winning record. Even though Arians was considered a relatively successful coach, he too went 1-3 against Harbaugh and the 9ers.

Arians' win total of 80-49 throughout his career with the Cardinals easily made him one of the better coaches that Harbaugh went against, but Arians still struggled to defeat his division rival while Harbaugh was there.

Seattle Seahawks: Pete Carroll

Pete Carroll was easily the most successful head coach in the NFC West during and after Harbaugh's tenure. Carroll doesn't technically have the best winning percentage, but his 137 wins with the Seahawks are most in team history and better than the other coaches on this list.

Carroll also regularly gave Harbaugh a run for his money. In their four years against each other, they split the division series. However, everyone knows the real fireworks happened in the postseason. Carroll and the Seahawks overcame their division rivals in the 2013 NFC Championship game on their way to winning the Super Bowl that year. The following year the Seahawks once again got the best of Harbaugh in his third straight NFC Championship game.

Of all the coaches on this list, Carroll is by far the best coach that Harbaugh faced in his division the last time he was in the NFL. Consequently, Carroll gave Harbaugh more losses than any of the other coaches.

How do these coaches stack up against the current AFC West?

Now that Harbaugh has made his way back to the NFL, he's flipped conferences and taking on an AFC West that I think is superior to the teams he was playing back then. That includes their head coaches.

There are some fitting parallels though. Antonio Pierce is still a bit of a question mark, but he's reminiscent of the Spagnoulo/Fisher Rams. Spunky, popular, probably not that good.

The Denver Broncos have Sean Payton. The former Super Bowl coach resembles Bruce Arians. Arians was a good offensive coach who eventually won a single Super Bowl in his career with a star quarterback. Payton has also won a single Super Bowl with a star quarterback, and outside of that has been a good, not great, head coach (I think Payton is a better coach than Arians was).

Finally, the Kansas City Chiefs have three time Super Bowl Champion and Hall of Famer Andy Reid. Reid is the (superior) Pete Carroll of the division and will easily be Harbaugh toughest task.

So where does this get us? I think the results will be similar. I think Harbaugh and the Chargers will pretty handily beat the Raiders, just like he regularly beat up on the Rams. The Broncos will probably be a little bit tougher, but they'll still have a winning record. Finally, with the Chiefs, I think Harbaugh will have a losing record.

That might be a bold prediction, but if Pete Carroll gave him enough trouble to go .500, I think Andy Reid will win out more often than not.

None of this is to say Harbaugh isn't really a great coach, but he only ever really faced one really good divisional head coach the last time he was in the NFL, and he really struggled against that coach, especially in the playoffs. That's why I'm not too worried about him posing a threat to the Chiefs.