Kansas City Chiefs: Predicting AFC West quarterbacks for 2021 season
By Cullen Jekel
There are going to be a lot of moving parts of the next several offseasons before each team in the AFC West has found its (potential) Franchise Quarterback.
Thankfully, the Kansas City Chiefs don’t have to play that game. By trading up in the 2017 NFL Draft to select Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs beat their closest competitors in acquiring and grooming their starting quarterback for the next decade. It was an added bonus that he was a quick-learner.
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But now the Broncos seem to have found hope in Drew Lock. How much will he improve? Can Elway build a contender around him?
For all of Denver’s warts, they seem like the biggest threat to the Chiefs moving forward, and a lot of that has to do with Lock. If he takes a substantial leap in 2020, the next decade could be a slugfest between the Broncos and Chiefs.
The Chargers could get back to competition by moving on from Rivers this offseason. They’ve got a lot of options: sign Winston, draft Herbert, trade up and draft Tua. All three of those quarterbacks would make the Chargers a dangerous team, though each has his flaws that L.A. will do its best to fix, or at least disguise.
Then there’s the Raiders. Honestly, the Raiders have the most to lose by botching their quarterback search. If they can’t put together a winning product quickly in Las Vegas, will the fans stick around? If they put a relatively anonymous guy under center, will the fans even show up?
Answering both of those questions is why I think the Raiders either land Tua this season or Lawrence in 2021.
dark. Next. Four Running Backs for Chiefs to Target in 2020
To conclude, here’s my ranking of my predictive AFC West Quarterbacks in 2021:
- Patrick Mahomes II, Kansas City Chiefs
- Trevor Lawrence, Las Vegas Raiders
- Drew Lock, Denver Broncos
- Jameis Winston, Los Angeles Chargers