AFC West Power Rankings: After Week 1, at least the Raiders aren't the Broncos

It's already Week 2?! Time flies!!

We're 10 days into the actual NFL season, and now that all but two teams have played their first game, it's officially panic time in 15 cities across the nation. Everyone will tell you that one game out of 17 is no reason to freak out, but real ones will understand that's simply not how it works. We only get four months a year to have real reasons to be nuerotic about football on a weekly basis, and we're not going to waste one of those precious weeks just because it's "not good" for our "mental health."

And if we practice restraint, who will power rank? Who will decide that a team is washed? We have a duty to the people of the internet, and we take that duty very seriously. Here's how the AFC West looks after the biggest week in the NFL so far.

AFC West Power Rankings After Week 1 Look Awfully Familiar

4. Broncos

They gave the Seahawks a scare at the end there, but I'm not sure I saw all the reason to be optimistic about Bo Nix's performance that others did. 26/42 with 138 yards and two interceptions is just objectively very bad, and when you have announcers calling your picks before they happen, things aren't going too hot. Sean Payton's "genius" offense scheme got the Broncos just under 250 total yards and one (1) touchdown. Judging rookie QBs off their first game is not really time spent usefully, but all of the stuff that people didn't like about Nix' college tape, if you can believe it, showed up on Sundays too. They're not going to be good this year, it's just a matter of whether they're bad enough to let Payton spend the last few seasons on his contract golfing in Morrison.

3. Raiders

Truly heartbreaking to know how close they were to spending this week at #2 on the prestigious Just Blog Baby weekly NFL Power Rankings. They didn't play all that much better than the Broncos, but at least it felt like the Raiders, at some point during the game, had a chance of winning. Antonio Pierce's decision to punt while down six on the Chargers side of the field will definitely not come back to haunt him later this season. The Raiders' defense played well until they absolutely had to, and then they watched a guy named Ladd beat them in the final minutes. Gardner Minshew (25/33, 257 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) played more-or-less like everyone expected him to, and the offense couldn't really run the ball or pass protect. Letting a road division win slip through their hands like that was quietly one of the more brutal losses of Week 1.

2. Chargers

I mean, they're 1-0, which is more than half of the division can say. It was not exactly the debut that everyone who drank the Jim-Harbaugh-with-Justin-Herbert kool aid were expecting (17/26, 144 yards, 1 TD) but they did rush the ball for 176 yards, so it's not like they needed to push the ball downfield. It was the quintessential Week 1 performance for the Chargers: there wasn't anything from the game to be overly excited about, but enough guys played well to be satisfied with the direction they look like they're in. And anytime you can watch a division opponent fumble a win through remarkably poor coaching decisions, it's always a fun Sunday.

1. Chiefs

Believe it or not, the Chiefs looked much better than the rest of their division this week. And truth be told, 8 out of 10 times, that game-tying touchdown that Baltimore scored with no time left counts; there's a realistic world where the Ravens then convert the two-point play, win the game, and everyone in Kansas City/Bristol, CT spend the entire week panicking on if the Chiefs' era is coming to an end. But as every single NFL coach who's ever existed will tell you, that's how slim the margins are in professional football. Beating the Ravens on Opening Night is more than enough to keep you atop the JBB Power Rankings, though it's not like anyone else did much to dispute that.