Kansas City Chiefs: Five reasons why the Chiefs won’t win the AFC West

The Kansas City Chiefs have won the AFC West the last two years, but unfortunately the streak won’t grow to three consecutive titles.

It’s no secret that the Kansas City Chiefs have owned the AFC West over the last two years. During that time, they’ve gone 11-1 against their divisional foes. The one loss came against the Raiders in that high-pressured last second loss on Thursday Night Football.

While the AFC West is completely up for grabs in 2018, the Kansas City Chiefs won’t be “owning the West” for the third straight year. Let’s take a look as to why they won’t be the top dog in the division in 2018.

NEW QUARTERBACK

The easiest thing to point to as to why the Chiefs won’t repeat in the division this year is because they have a new person playing the most important position on the field. Alex Smith was dominant against the AFC West during his time as a Chief, but we don’t know how Patrick Mahomes will fare.

Having a new quarterback is a big change for teams. The Chiefs seemingly handled the transition the right way with not throwing Mahomes to the wolves right away and letting him sit for a year.

This isn’t a knock on Mahomes by any means, but it’s something fans need to keep in mind. Mahomes has started one game and this will be his first full season as a starter, so he’ll essentially be a rookie in 2018. Rookie quarterbacks have a lot of growing pains and that’s going to happen with Mahomes even if he isn’t a true rookie.

Even though I think Patrick Mahomes will be good, having a new starting quarterback is definitely working against the Chiefs when it comes to winning their third straight AFC West title.