KC Chiefs: What we learned about each team in AFC West after week 17
The 2019 regular season has come to an end and with it, so did the 2019 season for three of the teams in the AFC West. The Kansas City Chiefs were the only team from the division to make it to the playoffs.
Not only did the Kansas City Chiefs go 6-0 against the AFC West in 2019, but they were the only team from the division to have a winning record. In a year where many thought the division would be one of the better ones in the league, the other three teams in the AFC West didn’t come to play this year.
So, with the 2019 regular season coming to a close, let’s do our final edition of “What we learned about each team in the AFC West”. I’m going to miss taking this time to talk smack on our beloved division rivals.
We’ll start with one of the losers from the weekend.
WHAT DID WE LEARN ABOUT THE CHARGERS?
2019 will certainly be looked at as a “what could have been” kind of season for Los Angeles Chargers fans. as they failed to replicate the success of their 2018 campaign in which they went 12-4. This year resulted in a 5-11 record, but could have been a whole other story had the Bolts simply been able to close out games.
In their 31-21 loss to the Chiefs on Sunday, we saw that the Chargers could be a formidable opponent. They gave Kansas City all they had in both of their match-ups this year, but the Chiefs have the coaching advantage (no one is taking Anthony Lynn over Andy Reid), the quarterback advantage, and as strange as this is to say after how 2018 was, the better defense.
It’ll be interesting to see where the Chargers go from here. It’s unlikely that they’ll bring Philip Rivers back, as he’s hitting free agency this offseason and showed this year that he’s a shell of himself. It’d also be a bit odd for them to re-sign Melvin Gordon after he failed to be the running back he had been, even after holding out for the early portion of the season.
While there’s talk that Tom Brady could be the Chargers quarterback next year, he won’t be there for long. Los Angeles will more than likely be drafting a quarterback in the first round for the first time since 2004 when they actually took Eli Manning, but ended up with Philip Rivers instead. Not a bad trade, even if it didn’t result in Super Bowl rings.
Since this is the last edition of these AFC West roundup posts, I’ll close each segment by saying something I like about each team moving forward. For the Chargers, they have the talent to be a good team, as we saw in 2018. Injuries, bad luck, and a slew of other things cost them a chance to build on that 2018 success, but they played all of their opponents close this year, and even beat some good ones (looking at you, Packers).
If the Chargers can get a viable quarterback for the 2020 season, they can make a run at a Wild Card spot next year, but the division will be hard to capture until they find a franchise signal caller.