Kansas City Chiefs: Experts Agree AFC West Is Wide Open
By Bobby Miller
Kansas City Chiefs rival Denver Broncos were recently named second most vulnerable division champ in the NFL. Find out what this and other experts say.
The Kansas City Chiefs are sitting pretty heading into the 2016 season.
Due to the now fluid hierarchy of the AFC West, the Kansas City Chiefs are in prime position to take the division crown held currently by the Denver Broncos.
Although the Oakland Raiders have improved and the San Diego Chargers should not be dismissed or overlooked, the road to a 2016 AFC West division title is appearing to be paved by the Kansas City Chiefs.
Recently, Gil Brandt of NFL.com named the Broncos the second most vulnerable division champion in the NFL, and named the Kansas City Chiefs as their biggest threat.
In fact, Brandt also said he liked the Kansas City Chiefs “to take the cake” in the AFC West.
NFL Network analyst Elliot Harrison predicted flat out that the Kansas City Chiefs would win the AFC West.
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In doing so, Harrison also predicted the Kansas City Chiefs would be a third seed in the 2016 NFL Playoffs.
Football Outsiders projected the Kansas City Chiefs to finish the 2016 season with a 12-4 record in this ESPN Insider piece by Aaron Schatz.
Needless to say, Football Outsiders also thinks the Kansas City Chiefs will win the AFC West.
Fellow FanSider Matt Verderame of Arrowhead Addict also deemed the Kansas City Chiefs “favorites in AFC West”.
Verderame compared the Kansas City Chiefs to the Broncos and concluded that “Kansas City is the superior team at this juncture”.
Despite the consensus reached by the experts I have named above, not everyone believes the Kansas City Chiefs will win the AFC West.
Most notably, ESPN’s Adam Teicher predicted the Kansas City Chiefs would go 1-1 against every other AFC West team and that they would ultimately finish 10-6, one win shy of ESPN’s Jeff Legwold’s predicted record for the Broncos of 11-5.
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In my opinion, Teicher’s projections represent a relatively unlucky scenario that is certainly within the realm of possibility.
That being said, I do not think it is likely the Kansas City Chiefs will finish 3-3 in the AFC West, but this projection represents a cautionary tale.
The Raiders and Chargers are both teams that could hand the Kansas City Chiefs one loss a piece for several reasons.
The Raiders are much improved and undervalued, while the Chargers may be two quintessential trap games.
As for the Broncos, a weakened division rival is still a division rival.
Do you think the Kansas City Chiefs will win the AFC West?
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Watch Joe Montana discuss the 1993 Kansas City Chiefs in the video below.