During the month of August, the Last Word on Sports NFL department will be breaking down every division in the league by position. This article contains a position-by-position breakdown of the AFC West offenses. The breakdown will contain “the best” at each unit followed by “the rest” in descending order.
AFC West Breakdown: The Offense
AFC West Breakdown by Position: Defense
Defensive Line
The Best: Denver Broncos
The Rest: Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers
Note that three teams in the AFC West are running or are expected to run a 4-3 defense (everybody except the Broncos), and the defensive ends for these teams are being sorted in “Edge Rushers” instead – which does greatly affect the ranking of some of these teams in the defensive line category.
The Broncos already had Shelby Harris on the line, who is coming off a career year in tackles and sacks – but then they traded for Jurrell Casey, who has made five Pro Bowls in a row. They even have the solid second-year Dre’Mont Jones as a backup. The only question mark that leaves is nose tackle, where their choices are Mike Purcell and the third-round rookie McTelvin Agim.
The Chiefs don’t have a ton of depth in the defensive tackle department, but they have easily the best player being sorted here in Chris Jones, who just got a massive extension – well-deserved given his 24.5 sacks over the last two years. After that, the options are the likes of Derrick Nnadi and Mike Pennel.
The Raiders have a bit more depth despite the lack of an explosive player among their defensive tackles. They had Maurice Hurst and Johnathan Hankins already and added Maliek Collins in the off-season as well. For the Chargers, they’re hoping that last year’s first-round pick Jerry Tillery will do better, but they brought in Linval Joseph and re-signed Damion Square to help out with depth.
Edge Rushers
The Best: Los Angeles Chargers
The Rest: Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs
The pass-rusher combo of Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram for the Chargers is about as deadly as they come, and can easily create problems for quarterbacks. The Broncos edge rushers (the outside linebackers, since they’re the lone 3-4 defense in the West) are also nothing to sneeze at – Von Miller and Bradley Chubb. While those two as linebackers are great all-around players beyond their pass-rushing abilities, they can get after the quarterback too. If Chubb stays healthy this year, those two will be a problem for teams as well. The only thing for these two teams is the lack of eye-grabbing depth, but their starters are outstanding enough to overlook that for ranking purposes.
The Raiders and Chiefs both have one clearly great edge rusher, and then some question marks. While Frank Clark has a better history and is coming off a Pro Bowl berth, Maxx Crosby had a rather outstanding rookie season with 10 sacks and four forced fumbles. If he improves at all, he’ll be a problem for quarterbacks. The Raiders appear to be a little better overall – they’ve got last year’s first-rounder in Clelin Ferrell, who wasn’t as impressive as Crosby, but also picked up Carl Nassib – who could play at either defensive end or outside linebacker and has gotten six sacks each of the last two seasons.
Despite having two 10+ sack seasons and “only” having eight in 2019, Frank Clark got his first Pro Bowl berth in 2019. He’s definitely the best of their edge rushers by a long shot. After that, it comes down to Alex Okafor (five sacks last year) with Tanoh Kpassagnon and Taco Charlton as depth. That’s not bad, but these options seem to have a lower ceiling right now than the Raiders non-Crosby options.
Linebackers
The Best: Las Vegas Raiders
The Rest: Los Angeles Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos
With the Broncos outside linebackers being sorted into Edge Rushers, the most eye-grabbing linebacker in the AFC West is the Raiders new addition in Cory Littleton. He’s had 100+ tackles each of the last two seasons, plus 7.5 sacks and five interceptions in the same time period. The Raiders other two expected primary starters aren’t so prolific (Nick Kwiatkoski and Nicholas Morrow), but they’re decent enough to round out the lineup.
With a lack of other current or recent Pro Bowlers to work with here, it comes down to depth after that. The Chargers have a surprising amount here; they already had Denzel Perryman, who finally stayed mostly healthy in 2019, plus Drue Tranquill who got 75 tackles in his rookie year, and Uchenna Nwosu – whose stats are less prolific but still has made some big plays. Then they brought in Nick Vigil, who had a career-high 111 tackles last year. And that still leaves the first-rounder Kenneth Murray. Even if a guy or two gets injured, they still ought to be in fairly good shape.
The Chiefs have a few good tacklers as well with Anthony Hitchens and Damien Wilson as the outside linebackers (88 and 81 tackles last year, respectively). Ben Niemann also had his moments last year, and they drafted Willie Gay in the second round. A little less depth, but still some.
For the Broncos, it comes down to their inside linebackers Todd Davis and Alexander Johnson. Davis had a career-high 136 tackles last year – even with missing two games. He’s also had 100+ tackles two years in a row. Johnson is also on the rise, as he had 93 tackles of his own last year. The issue is the lack of depth among their inside linebackers, which does hurt them. But as long as Davis and Johnson stay healthy, they’ll be fine.
Cornerbacks
The Best: Los Angeles Chargers
The Rest: Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs
The Chargers are in a pretty good situation with their cornerbacks at the moment. They already had Casey Hayward as their main starting corner. But then they signed Chris Harris this off-season to be their new slot corner. They still have Desmond King (though he may get traded) too, and though his role seems to be expendable now, they should still be able to find some use for him. While the spot opposite Hayward isn’t nearly so flashy name-wise, Michael Davis is good enough to not get burned often.
Speaking of Chris Harris, the Broncos lost him this off-season but brought in A.J. Bouye via trade. They’re also getting Bryce Callahan back from an injury that kept him out most of last year. One of the only problems is that with Bouye, it depends on which version of him they get. And there’s also a lack of depth after those two, so they’ll be hoping for some young talent to break out if need be.
The Raiders and Chiefs are both in positions where they have one solid veteran and a bunch of young pups they’re hoping will break out. The Raiders have the newly-signed Prince Amukamara, plus their new first-round pick Damon Arnette. For the Chiefs, it’s Bashaud Breeland as their main guy while they’re hoping that the likes of Rashad Fenton or Charvarius Ward step up. Given that Arnette is a first-round pick, the Raiders position is slightly more comfortable, but both teams are still depending on non-proven youth to help round out their starters.
Safeties
The Best: Los Angeles Chargers
The Rest: Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders
This is a rare case where all four teams in the AFC West have rather solid groups – you could arguably switch up the order a bit if you really wanted to. Every team has at least one current or recent Pro Bowler (or All-Pro), and/or some good depth.
On the part of the Chargers, they have Derwin James returning from a 2019 season that he missed most of and didn’t seem quite 100 percent when he did return. But his ability to play almost anywhere in the defensive backfield makes him quite the threat. Then there’s Rayshawn Jenkins, who had an impressive breakout season during a year when basically all the starting safeties were on injured reserve. Now it looks like he’ll keep his starting spot. Jenkins and James will be a good combo for the Chargers. Having last year’s second-round pick Nasir Adderley for depth doesn’t hurt either.
The Chiefs have Tyrann Mathieu as their own prolific starting safety, who had his best season in a while in 2019. Juan Thornhill had a nice rookie season, and they’re in good enough shape with Daniel Sorensen as depth. He managed to mostly shut down George Kittle in the Super Bowl – nothing to sneeze at.
The Broncos have the least depth in the AFC West, but their starters – Justin Simmons and Kareem Jackson – are both good. Simmons had an excellent season in 2019 and got voted Second-Team All-Pro as a result. He’s pushing his way up on the list of safeties, and the Broncos will definitely want to extend him.
The Raiders might have the most depth, but they also have zero Pro Bowlers. They already had Lamarcus Joyner, whose 2019 season was a little underwhelming after the contract he got. There’s also Johnathan Abram (2019 first-round pick) returning, who missed almost all of his rookie year – plus Erik Harris, who had a couple of great games and something of a semi-breakout year. They also signed Damarious Randall and Jeff Heath, who both have solid histories but are coming off down seasons. It’s hard to know how that lineup is going to shake out with at least five options to choose from. But if Harris keeps his momentum going and Abram lives up to his first-round billing, they’ll be in good shape.
Special Teams
The Best: Kansas City Chiefs
The Rest: Los Angeles Chargers, Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders
While the Chiefs do have an undrafted rookie at punter in Tommy Townsend, they still have the best kicker in the AFC West (Harrison Butker) and the best return man in the division (Mecole Hardman). Considering how long they stuck with Dustin Colquitt, they must have good reason to be trusting Townsend. But having Butker and Hardman does send their special teams unit to the top.
The Chargers finally have both a solid kicker and punter, via Michael Badgley and Ty Long, respectively. Long is even capable of stepping in as kicker if needed in an emergency. Their return game is less prolific, though Desmond King is serviceable. He only had 5.6 yards-per-punt-return, but he did have one touchdown – thus he is capable of the occasional flash.
The Broncos brought in a good new punter in Sam Martin, but they’re still rolling with Brandon McManus at kicker. The thing about McManus is that he can kick it a long way, but he has no idea where it’s going sometimes. They do have a decent return man in Diontae Spencer, though.
The Raiders have the shakiest special teams of the lot. Kicker Daniel Carlson, after bouncing back during his 2018 season with the Raiders, came back down to earth in 2019, kicking a rather poor 19-for-26 (73.1%). That leaves the second-year punter A.J. Cole III, who had an average season in 2019. And with Dwayne Harris and Trevor Davis gone, it’s actually not entirely clear who will be doing return man duties – besides maybe Jalen Richard. That level of shakiness at the special teams unit leaves them at the bottom in the AFC West.
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