NFL 2024 Division Previews; AFC West Edition; Chiefs Continue to Reign Supreme, Struggles Elsewhere

Over the next few months, I will go through each division and give an overall projection of how they could perform in the upcoming season. The record projection should be taken with a grain of salt as we are still months out before the season even starts and roster changes and injuries will occur in that time.

1) Kansas City Chiefs – Projected Record 13-4

There’s not much else that can be said about the Kansas City Chiefs last season. They had a good regular season and for the third time within the last few years, they were once again Super Bowl champions. There were times last season when they weren’t as impressive during the season, games where Mahomes were making numerous mistakes and issues with drops, regardless it didn’t matter in the end.

Looking forward to the upcoming season, another Super Bowl appearance is the legit expectation with this team. That’s what happens when you’re a dynasty. If there could be any concerns, maybe on the backside of the defense? Losing L’Jarius Sneed is a legit big deal and will be hard to replace but if any team can overcome it, it’s this one. Offensively they still have Mahomes and Kelce, now they are trying to add some serious speed to their weapons. Adding Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy will scare a lot of people and give teams flashbacks to when Tyreek Hill was running for the offense. As long as drops aren’t a big issue this team will put up plenty of points.

2) Los Angeles Chargers – Projected Record 7-10

If we’re being honest, the Los Angeles Chargers have grossly underachieved in the last few years. They have had some extremely talented teams that were not able to capitalize and utilize some elite talent. Players like Khalil Mack and Derwin James were on defenses that were struggling and it wasn’t just them. An offense that has an incredible top 5 quarterback in Justin Herbert and the offense was limited at times to a lot of short routes that didn’t always take advantage of that arm talent.

Big change was needed and big change is what they got with new head coach Jim Harbaugh. A new style comes with a change that big and it's evident was coach Harbaugh wants to do. Letting multiple receivers go and with their first-round pick, they drafted a big physical offensive line to establish that and the run game to go along with it. Harbaugh wants the run the ball to open it up for Herbert even though it might not be very easy this season, it should start to build a nice culture in Los Angeles. For now, though this soft rebuild has them losing games to the more established rosters.

3) Las Vegas Raiders – Projected Record 6-11

The Raiders are an odd team to look at as of right now. I can’t quite figure out what their identity is going forward, where is this team going to shine? Last season they were a mess for most of the year but Antonio Pierce seemed to get the most out of their players. That will be necessary this season if they want sustained success.

Their run game is not expected to be great, they lost Josh Jacobs who they couldn’t block for last season, and now have Zamir White and Alexander Mattison can any of them be a top back? They’re talented but unproven in that role. Quarterback is a concern, I don’t believe their franchise guy is on this roster by any means, Aidan O’Connell had a good preseason last year and some solid games last season but not enough to warrant true hype, he’s in a battle with Gardner Minshew who is the ultimate bridge quarterback. Where they are strong however is the weapons and defensive line of this team. Whoever they do get to be their franchise guy is going to be happy when they have talent like Davante Adams, Jakobi Myers, Michael Gallop, and now rookie Brock Bowers, legit talent there. On that line is of course Maxx Crosby who is a monster, now paired with Christian Wilkins and they still have Tyree Wilson which is a serious line. Regardless this team is about a year or two or at least a quarterback away from being contenders.

4) Denver Broncos – Projected Record 4-13

The Broncos were a tale of two very dramatic seasons last year as they could not have started worse at 1-5 and even their one win was a collapse from Chicago. Their defense was one of the worst the NFL had ever seen at that point and that’s not an exaggeration. They then went 6-1 with the defense playing better and Russel Wilson playing solidly. Despite Russel Wilson playing pretty well, he’d be benched at the end of the year for seemingly no reason as it was clear to the whole team that he would never be Sean Payton’s guy and the way the Broncos went about it was not a good look. So they ended up with a losing record at 8-9 and went through some roster changes which included letting go of Wilson.

This team for the upcoming season is just not talented enough and doesn’t have an elite quarterback to make up for that as some other teams do. What they do have is a rookie quarterback that was selected in the first round which was somewhat of a reach in Bo Nix. He’s talented but he’s already 24 and who knows how ready he’ll be to take the reigns over. The talent around him is not great outside of Courtland Sutton and that’s the story of this team. On the defense, they only have one true star which is Pat Surtain II, outside of him it’s sort of average to below-average everywhere. A low record of 4-13 seems to be in the cards for the Broncos.