AFC West Roundup: Week 17 Finale
By Justin Smith
Kansas City Chiefs
They won the division. They get a week off, and a home game. It feels like it should, by right, be the Raiders. But the Chiefs took care of business. They also took care of the Raiders twice, and thus earned the title. The Raiders win one of those games, they’re division champs. It’s that simple.
Carr is healthy, do the Raiders beat an extra-motivated Broncos team at home? That’s no guarantee. What is a guarantee is that the Chiefs beat the Chargers straight up.
Much as Raider Nation might not like it, and as much as KC may feel like the most hateable team in the NFL in 2016, they are the champions of the AFC West, with the bye and home game that goes with it.
I think the Raiders do beat Denver with Carr, and have the division title. But it wasn’t destined, and so the Chiefs look to avoid choking in the playoffs yet again. Oakland would love a third crack at them, but the Chiefs dismantled them twice WITH Carr. Without him, it’s a tough task.
The Chiefs have the pieces to challenge the Patriots, but if the Steelers beat the Dolphins this week, Pittsburgh matches up well with Kansas City.
Best case scenario is that the Steelers win and put up 60 on the Chiefs in Arrowhead. Not likely, but man would that be fun to watch.
The Chiefs aren’t as well set up for the immediate future as the Raiders. They have some relatively young playmakers on offense in Hill, Spencer Ware, and Travis Kelce. Smith still has many good years left. But their defense has some aging pieces in Justin Houston and Tamba Hali that will need to be replaced.
Derrick Johnson has torn both Achilles in the past three years and may be done. Again, there are some nice young pieces in Dee Ford, Marcus Peters, Chris Jones and Rakeem Nunez-Roches. But their defensive leaders and stalwarts are aging and soon out the door.
Raider fans can take solace in the fact that both the Chiefs as a franchise and Andy Reid as a coach have vastly underwhelmed in the playoffs throughout their careers, and have even done it together. The Chiefs need at least one win to shake the “chokers” mantle, and will be in tough against a Steelers team hitting their stride, if it comes to that.