{"id":238901,"date":"2025-07-06T16:00:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T20:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=238901"},"modified":"2025-07-05T19:57:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T23:57:27","slug":"colin-cowherd-has-bold-take-on-chiefs-chargers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/07\/06\/colin-cowherd-has-bold-take-on-chiefs-chargers\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;They&#8217;re A Wild Card Team&#8221; &#8211; Colin Cowherd Has Bold Take on Chiefs, Chargers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Kansas City Chiefs have been the kings of the AFC West for the better part of a decade, but Colin Cowherd believes the Chargers can give them a run for their money in 2025. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/shows\/the-herd-with-colin-cowherd\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">During a recent segment<\/a>, Cowherd and John Middlekauff gave their bold predictions for the season, and Cowherd made his case for why Jim Harbaugh&#8217;s team can overtake Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, and the Kansas City Chiefs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They [the Chargers] built the culture last year, but free agency and the draft &#8211; and you know, Harbaugh&#8217;s good at the draft, I think they&#8217;re going to be one of the better teams in the league,&#8221; Cowherd said. &#8220;&#8230;the Chiefs come into the season, which would concern me, with offensive line issues, so I like the Chargers to win the division.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_238903\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-238903\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-238903\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/07\/Chiefs-Chargers-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Chiefs Chargers\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/07\/Chiefs-Chargers-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/07\/Chiefs-Chargers-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/07\/Chiefs-Chargers-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/07\/Chiefs-Chargers-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/07\/Chiefs-Chargers-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/07\/Chiefs-Chargers-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/07\/Chiefs-Chargers-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-238903\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sep 29, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid shakes hands with Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh after the game at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;I think Kansas City is a wild card team.&quot;<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/colincowherd?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@colincowherd<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnMiddlekauff?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@JohnMiddlekauff<\/a> give their bold predictions for the AFC. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QeTpGowafm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/QeTpGowafm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Herd w\/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheHerd\/status\/1937563545807237331?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 24, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Colin Cowherd: Chargers Will Usurp Chiefs, Win AFC West<\/h2>\n<p>The Chargers made the playoffs last year in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, so it&#8217;s easy to see why Cowherd is bullish about their upcoming season. Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh are the two most important parts of this team, but the rest of the roster is just as strong.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater are arguably the NFL&#8217;s best tackle duo, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/03\/14\/mekhi-becton-signs-contract-los-angeles-chargers\/\" target=\"_self\">addition of Mekhi Becton<\/a> should give Los Angeles a top-five offensive line. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/07\/01\/omarion-hampton-fantasy-football-outlook\/\" target=\"_self\">First-round pick Omarion Hampton<\/a> is a perfect running back for Harbaugh&#8217;s hard-nosed style of football, and the defense is largely comprised of the same group as last year. While the receivers and tight ends still leave something to be desired, this team has the talent to be in the thick of the Super Bowl race. However, do the Chargers have enough talent to keep the Chiefs from winning the division for the first time since 2015.<\/p>\n<h3>The State of the Chiefs<\/h3>\n<p>The Kansas City Chiefs are coming off an impressive 15-2 record and Super Bowl appearance, but they didn&#8217;t play quite as well as their record suggests. The team went 11-0 in one-score games in the regular season, which is an incredible outlier. Everyone goes around .500 in a large enough sample, so Kansas City played like a 10- or 11-win team that had a lot of balls bounce their way.<\/p>\n<p>Kansas City&#8217;s offense should improve with a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/06\/28\/top-10-receiver-chiefs-have-high-expectations-rashee-rice\/\" target=\"_self\">healthy Rashee Rice<\/a>, but the offensive line worries are legitimate. First-round pick Josh Simmons offers some hope at the left tackle position, but left guard is a glaring weakness following the Joe Thuney trade. If 2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/03\/04\/kingsley-suamataia-2024-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_self\">second-round pick Kingsley Suamataia<\/a> cannot improve in his new position, they&#8217;ll need to find someone who can.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the Chargers and Chiefs are similarly loaded teams with great quarterbacks, proven head coaches, and one or two weaknesses on offense. While Kansas City could still win the division, Los Angeles should put up a fight as both teams chase a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Kirby Lee &#8211; Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kansas City Chiefs have dominated the AFC West for a while, but Colin Cowherd thinks the Chargers can change things in 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":238904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,16,18],"tags":[188,7642,7811,1556,1652],"class_list":["post-238901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-chiefs","category-chargers","tag-andy-reid","tag-chargers-featured","tag-chiefs-featured","tag-colin-cowherd","tag-jim-harbaugh"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238901"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238929,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238901\/revisions\/238929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}