The AFC West should be a top heavy division this year. The Broncos look to continue their success from last year and the Chiefs look to get back into playoff contention after years of struggling. On the bottom half, the Chargers and Raiders look like they will both be in contention for the #1 overall draft pick in 2014.
Since this is a Philly Site all games against the Eagles are highlighted.
1. Denver Broncos Projected Record 13 and 3 League Rank: T-2nd
Welker has mentioned that he is glad
to be away from New England.
The Broncos open up their season against the Baltimore Ravens, who heartbreakingly eliminated the Broncos from the playoffs on their way to a Super Bowl title. Denver already had one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and with the addition of wide receiver Wes Welker, Peyton Manning should continue to perform as a top-level NFL QB. The Broncos do have a lack of depth at the running back
position relying on unproven talent such as Ronnie Hillman and Montee Ball. On special teams Matt Prater will hopefully continue to be one of the top kickers in the league.
Schedule Thanks to ESPN and depth chart to ourlads.com.
2. Kansas City Chiefs Projected Record: 11 and 5NFL Rank: T-15
Can he save the day?
After reaching the playoffs in 2010 the Chiefs fell into the bottom half of the NFL the past two years but with a new coach and a new quarterback things are starting to look up. Andy Reid had years of success in Philadelphia before McNabb aged and he mistakenly chose Mike Vick to be the quarterback. Alex Smith was off to a successful start in San Francisco last year before an injury put him on the sidelines. The Chiefs look to be average across the board but the one place where they are at their brightest is at tight end with Anthony Fasano (picked up from Miami) and Travis Kelce. The Chiefs not only favor from playing in a division featuring 2 of the worst 3 teams in the league, they also got lucky drawing away games in Jacksonville and Indy (both winnable games.)
3. San Diego Chargers Projected Record: 2 and 14 NFL Rank: 30
Has not been given much
to work with
Well the Chargers are just truly awful. This is unfortunate for Philip Rivers as he might not be the best quarterback in the league, he is definitely nowhere near the worst. The problem is that his receiving corp of Eddie Royal, Malcom Floyd, and Vincent Brown isn't very impressive. He will get some help on the ground as Ryan Matthews and Danny Woodhead along with Ronnie Brown can provide some spark every once in awhile. Their biggest problems are their offensive line that ranks in the bottom 3 of the league and a defense that is in the bottom 3rd. Nothing that Rivers can do about that. The schedulemakers could have been kinder to the Chargers by switching the Jaguars and Houston. They would lose to Houston no matter what but facing Jacksonville at home would boost their projected record to 3 and 13.
To be honest, I had the Raiders at 0-16 before they cut Chris Kluwe signyfing that Marquette King would be their starting punter (Doesn't seem like a huge change but punters are 4% of the formula and that moved them up enough to beat Jacksonville.) San Diego is also another potential win but I view that as a loss and the week two matchup between them and Jacksonville will decide who has an imperfect season. Whether Matt Flynn or Terrelle Pryor takes the snaps (or even Matt McGloin) this Sunday, they will definitely be one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL (Maybe they should sign Tebow.) Darren McFadden is a strong running back but his offensive line is absolutely terrible and won't get many touches since they'll be throwing most of the time to catch up (defense is pretty bad too.) They have one of the best kickers in the game, Sebastian Janikowski, but will probably not get to use him very much.
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