So what I do is I consider which divisions are playing each other (i.e. this year the AFC West plays the AFC North and the NFC South), any recent developments having to do with injuries or acquisitions within the division, and that gut feeling I have when it comes to that division race when I’m predicting the season this early. I try to stay as objective as possible but my two loves often times get in the way. As you know, I bleed silver and black. But almost as equally as important, I loathe the Cheatriots more than anything. I won’t go on a rant here (because I am sure I will in the future), but boy do I hate T. Brady and company.

So what you see below, a detailed projection of not only division races, but of the playoffs themselves, will be performed by yours truly two more times during the season and again right before the playoffs start. I encourage you guys all to do something similar – it’s fun!

So without further ado, this is how I envision the 2012-2013 season to play out (Note, the Chiefs are in last place in the West. Cause they suck):

And, for the 8th straight year, we’ll see plenty of Bradying. And isn’t that what it’s all about, folks?

I recently wrote an article predicting whom I thought would represent the AFC West in the playoffs this coming year (unfortunately, it’s the Chargers), but surprisingly to me, it wasn’t that prediction, nor the prediction that Manning would have struggles, but that the Chiefs suck that angered most. This was shocking to me, because I didn’t even realize that this was a debate. The Chiefs do suck.

So, I am going to write a few more points why the Chiefs will be in the basement of the AFC West for the second straight year (remember folks, they finished last in the West last year), and, why we need not worry about the Chiefs.

Most teams build year to year, and one can usually see progress coming as gradual steps in improvement are taken step by step. This logic would mean that the team likely to win the West this year will be one that showed signs of optimism last year. Well Chiefs fans, that’s where your aspirations die out. Allow me to show you:

In 2011, the Chiefs were a dismal, dismal team. Their offense sucked almost as much as it blew. Here are some stats for you:

-The team ranked #27 in total yards per game. 27^th! They averaged 311 yards an outing. And guess what the Tebow led Broncos averaged? You guessed it: more (317). Needless to say the Raiders quite handedly out gained the Chiefs per session (380), so did the Chargers (393), and when the Chiefs are compared to the elite – the Saints averaged 467 per game.

-The Matt Cassel led “aerial attack” ranked 25^th in the league. Here is a list of the QB’s Matt out threw (brace yourself, it’s not very impressive): Curtis Painter, Christian Ponder, Alex Smith, Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow, and the pretty box in Jax.

-The Chiefs were in the 75^th percentile of interceptions thrown during the year at 18. Bravo, Matt. Bravo!

-Matt threw five more balls to the other team than he threw to his team in the painted area at the end of the field.

-The Chiefs were in the middle of the pack when it came to sacks last year as M. Cassel was sacked 34 times on the season.

-A couple of highlights from the year: losses to Miami (who was dreadful during the year), AT HOME might I add – 31 to 3. The team also lost to the Bills at home 41 to 7, and to the Patriots 34 to 3.

-The Chiefs averaged 13 points per game. Ha! You can’t even win a baseball game with that! And, 13 points reflects not only the average per game for the entire season, but it too was the average the team scored when Romeo coached in those three games at the end of the season. What makes you think the same won’t happen next year?

Ok, say Chief fans… “our offense sucks, but our defense is stellar.” To them I say, hardly not. Their defense ranked #11 last year in both yards allowed per game and points allowed per game. #11. Don’t get me wrong, that’s good. But great? Hardly. Especially if they are counting on that to carry that dismal offense.

So now I hear Chief fans clamoring to the fact that they were in the playoffs only two seasons ago. Their once-in-a-blue-moon trip to the postseason in 2010 apparently has led these fans to delusional ideas. But, let’s talk a little bit about that 2010 team. For starters, that team lucked out BIG time as the Chargers stumbled early in one of their trademark slow starts that year. The Bolts got hot late, but were unable to catch up with the Chiefs (missed ‘em by 1 game). But I tell you this, had those two teams met at the end of the year for the right to represent the West, we would not have seen those awful red paints in the post season.

So in 2010 the Chiefs finished 10-6 and went to the playoffs. But here are some interesting stats people forget:

-4 of their 10 wins were by 7 points or less. One missed field goal here, or a penalty there, and the Chiefs would have missed the playoffs.

-The Chiefs enjoyed a VERY, VERY favorable schedule that year as in 2009 they finished (once again) dead last in the AFC West. That meant that they had the easiest strength of schedule in the division in 2010.

-The Chiefs offense has been pretty bad for quite some time. In 2010 they scored 10 points or less 7 times. I tell you what, are they playing football or cricket over there in KC?

-Finally, when the team unrightfully  made the playoffs that year, they got DESTROYED by the Ravens (30 to 7). It was clear they didn’t belong there.

Alright so now I have discussed the team and their recent history. Pretty solid argument if I do say so myself, with plenty of reasons to not believe in KC in 2012. If those aren’t enough though, let’s discuss a few of the broken pieces of the KC puzzle:

The GM – Scott Pioli

What has this guy done? Many Chiefs fan will say he just orchestrated the greatest off season in KC history, but time will tell on that one. Plus, I didn’t see too many teams running to give Kevin Boss or the overly priced Stanford Routt a contract (that’s why the Raiders got rid of them).

Ok, so what has this guy done? Well, he was part of a dynasty in Boston (a dynasty built off of cheating, video taping, and terrible tuck rule calls, but that’s for another day). What has he done since? Not much. And, I would even go so far to ask, what did he really do in New England? Matt Cassel, who is mediocre, has proved one thing in New England – plug in pretty much anyone, and the ship still runs smoothly. Couldn’t the same be true here for what Pioli did in New England? Just saying.

After coming to KC, Pioli’s first move was hiring a head coach. He, himself, chose Todd Haley. And, Chiefs and Raider fans can come together on this one and all agree that that was a terrible hire. Who is to say he hasn’t screwed up again with Romeo? And while we are on this Romeo subject, have Chiefs fans forgot that there were a lot of rumors swirling around late last year that Chiefs were trying to get Josh McDaniels. That didn’t work out, and perhaps the Chiefs were bummed out and had to settle with Romeo. Just saying, but the Chiefs may have gotten their backup choice as head coach.

One last thing on Pioli, he is a slime ball. He is Belicheat reincarnated in the front office. Look how he treated Haley! We’ll never know the whole story there, but Pioli did some messed up things (just google why Haley grew out a beard during the year).

The Coach

A lot has been said by me about Romeo, so I won’t go too in depth here. I’ll just go over the highlights: he wasn’t the Chiefs first choice, his coaching record sucks, and the offense they ran under his reign as HC last year averaged 13 points per game.

The Quarterback

Matt Cassel didn’t even start in college, and there are what, 200 colleges to play for? What makes you think he’s really good enough to be a quality starter for one of the 32 teams in the NFL?

Finally, do you think the Chiefs could be “cursed?” Let’s consider this:

-Have lost an NFL worst 7 straight post season games

-Haven’t won a Championship in over 40 years

-Wear ugly red pants

-Play in the mid-west.

Alright, those are my points. The conclusion here is of course, we need not worry about the Chiefs.

The AFC West will be one of the most talked about divisions in all the league this year as Peyton ‘The Man’ning will be wearing orange. It will be interesting to see what he can do, especially if Tebow could lead that team to not only a division title last year, but a playoff victory. A lot of hype will be surrounding this team, and each loss will bring a lot of attention and scrutiny to Dove Valley. In my opinion, I see Denver being a victim of overly optimistic expectations, a weak offensive line, and an aging secondary.

So, if my theory is that the Broncos won’t live up to the hype, who in the West is going to take over? Let’s examine the possibilities:

The Kansas City Chiefs

Has anyone else noticed the rather high expectations and unjust optimistic outlook on the 2012 Kansas City Chiefs? Before Manning signed with Denver, pundits nation wide had this team winning the West. To that I ask a simple question: why?!

This is the same team that has Matt Cassel at quarterback. The man has done about as much in the NFL as Herbie Hancock did.  Additionally, this team has a new head coach in Romeo Crennel. You know what the success rate of a coach in his first year is in taking his team to the playoffs? Well…neither do I, but common sense says it’s pretty low. Also, Romeo has a less than stellar pedigree – a 24-40 record in Cleveland. Tell me why again people are high on Romeo?

On a positive note for this team, I will say that their vanilla quarterback has some rather fun toppings to work with. See what I did there? I stuck with an ice cream theme. Anywho, the team has some talent at wide out (Bowe), tight end (the Benedict Arnold himself, Kevin Boss), and their loaded backfield (Dexter McCluster, Jamaal Charles, and Peyton Hillis). With all that in mind however, I just don’t see Cassell and the defensive minded coaching staff in KC rising to the occasion. In fact, I see KC having the worst record in the West this year.

Moving on…

The Oakland Raiders

So I said I would dissect the West from an unbiased stand point. We’ll see if I can do that.

Ok, so the Raiders enter the 2012 season after finishing the second straight 8-8 season. In each of the last two years the Raiders had a lot of supporters, and were even predicted to win the West by most analysts last year. As we all know, they came close, but in the end they not only lost in the division race, but they lost their coach after quite the rant. But, they were just a ½ game out of the playoffs. So close!

So, why is nobody talking about our boys this year? By most accounts, nobody has the Raiders winning the West. First, let’s discuss the reasons to be optimistic:

Carson enters his first full season as a starter with Oakland. And, he will finally have Run DmC to play with. That spells deliciousness to me. Additionally, he too has some toys to play with. The receiving corp is quite talented, and a full offseason working with Palmer should only help their chemistry.

The negatives – well, the more I think about them, the more I can list. They have a young, very inexperienced head coach. The rest of their staff has changed hands yet again. Their defensive backfield is both inexperienced and full of unknowns. And their receiving corp, outside of Louis Murphy, is as one dimensional as a loose leaf piece of paper – all of them are built on speed – no power wideouts. And that is something that I worry about. I mean, take it from Randy Moss, you gotta be able to take the top off the defense.

So, even with reasons to be optimistic about our boys, we are going to see a lot of growing pains in Oak Town this year. Unfortunately, I do see these growing pains holding us back from a division crown in 2012. But, and not to let the cat out of the bag, that doesn’t mean I don’t see the Raiders in the playoffs this year.

However, no division crown for OakTown, means only one thing as once again, the San Diego Chargers will be taking the West.

The San Diego Chargers

As I see it, it’s almost a certainty that the Bolts win the West this year. Think about it: for the most part they still have all the pieces in tact from their years of reign atop the West; and nobody is talking about them.  Offensively, Philip Rivers is still at the top of his game, Ryan Matthews only stands to get better, and they still have Antonio Gates. Naysayers may point to them losing Vincent Jackson in the off-season as a worry, but I would counter with them picking up Eddie Royal.

I know my reasoning for the Chargers isn’t iron clad, but they’ve been too good for too long to discount them now. Their time is coming to an end, but at least not in 2012.

That’s it for now, but look forward (or maybe not forward) to my possibly exhaustive predictions for what is to come in 2012.