KC Chiefs: Peyton Manning Retiring Changes Direction of AFC West
KC Chiefs fans had mixed reactions when it was announced on Sunday that Peyton Manning was finally going to call it a career after 18 years in the NFL.
Peyton Manning took his first regular season NFL snap on September 6th, 1998. At that time, he was a member of the Indianapolis Colts, who took him with the first overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft.
Flash forward to March 6th, 2016, and Manning announced that he’d holding a press conference the following day to officially announce his retirement.
Despite how Chiefs fans feel about Manning, the guy had a hell of a career, and he sure whooped up on our team during his 18 years in the league. In 14 games against Kansas City, Manning went 12-2 and threw for 3,670 yards, 28 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions.
I, for one, won’t miss watching Peyton manhandle the Chiefs each season. It was nice, however, to finally see Kansas City beat him in the 2015 season. They picked him off four times and got him benched in that game, so that was fun to watch.
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Anyway, back to the point of the article, with Peyton Manning retiring, the AFC West is a whole new ball game now. We saw Manning decline greatly in 2015, but now the Broncos are without a quarterback. More than likely, they’ll re-sign Brock Osweiler to a bigger contract than what he deserves, and this is good news for Chiefs fans.
If the Broncos drop $45 million to Osweiler, that will make it increasingly difficult to re-sign guys like Malik Jackson and Danny Trevathan. Those two guys leaving means the Denver defense is a little less scary, which is great for KC Chiefs fans.
With Manning out, the AFC West is wide open. Sure, the Broncos are the defending champions and had a great defense this year, but now they will be rebuilding their offense. This is great news for a Kansas City Chiefs team who only lost out on the division title by ONE game in 2015.
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In fact, an underrated team in the division is actually the Oakland Raiders, who could be a playoff contender in 2015. While I don’t see the Raiders winning the AFC West, they definitely could give the Chiefs a run for their money at the division title.
When Peyton Manning arrived to the AFC West in 2012, he dominated the division. From 2012-2014, it was the Broncos’ division to lose. Manning was still putting up great numbers and the Chiefs were slowly trying to rebuild with new personnel and a new quarterback.
Now, however, it might be changing to the AFC West being the Kansas City Chiefs’ to claim. They haven’t won the division since 2010 and I’d say it’s about time for that to change.
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So, Peyton, thanks for all you did and thank you for retiring. You were fun to watch, but it’s time to let another team win the AFC West for once.