Midseason Grades for EVERY AFC West team: Broncos, Chiefs, Chargers, and Raiders

Midseason Grades for EVERY AFC West team: Broncos, Chiefs, Chargers, and Raiders

Back here on HQ Spotlight, the AFC West certainly looks a little bit different than we’re used to seeing in recent years, right? So, after a slow start for the Chiefs, it looked like there was some life. Then they lose to Buffalo and they’re coming off the buy with a big division road game in Denver. And it feels like the Chiefs cannot afford to lose another game if they still want to make it into the playoff conversation. Speaking of the Broncos, they are there right there at the top. You see it sitting at 8-2 and they are a plus 125 favorite to win the division. Even so, Bo Nick Knicks hasn’t really looked his absolute best. The Chargers sitting at seven and three, chasing the Broncos in the division. It’s a team that’s dealt with a ton of injuries. And then there’s the Raiders. Oh boy, the Raiders. So many things going wrong for them this season, sitting at two and seven. But it is kind of peculiar seeing the Chiefs look up to not one but two teams in the division, a division that they’ve owned over the last almost decade. So we have Bian Wilson back with us here because we’re giving out mid-season grades for the AFC West. Starting with the Broncos sitting at top the division guys, but really on offense have not looked all that great. Bo Nicks has kind of been up and down. So Wilson, where are you at on the Broncos right now as things stand? What’s the grade? I give him an A minus and it’s for basically the reasons you’re talking about, Jacqueline. Just so much uncertainty uh on the off side of the ball. By the way, if you put the Cowboys offense along this Denver defense, this team is probably undefeated. Uh, and the fact that they’re 8-2 with the a sputtering offense led by Bo Knicks tells you a lot of what you need to know. Here’s the other thing that sort of stands out when you look at their wins. They did beat the Eagles. Hooray for that. That’s a huge win. Their seven other wins came against teams with losing records. So, the things are about to get real in the second half of the season with this schedule. And we’re going to find out real quick who Boix in this offense is. Uh, his completion percentage is really low. He’s thrown a ton of interceptions and that’s not going to work uh once you get to December and January football. So, I give him an A minus for what they’ve done. There’s no disputing they are in fact eight and two. Uh but the winds seem a little hollow and I’m curious how it looks like the final two months of the season, whether they can figure things out, Shawn Peyton and that offense. Yeah, and with that schedule, you certainly don’t want to have these sort of rankings in terms of your offense and how you stack up with other teams in the league. So, it’s an A minus for Ryan Wilson. Breach, you’re on the same page. I don’t know what’s going on. Like, is it a full moon or something? Because you guys are agreeing a lot. It’s an A minus for you as well for Denver. Are we in the same room? What’s happening here, Ryan? I just I’m so confused right now. I just He’s looking over my shoulder looking at my grades. Uh yeah, I did give the Broncos an A minus. And I do agree with Ryan. Yes, the wins have been a little bit hollow. They have five wins by four points or less. Uh including that 10 to7 win over the Raiders, 18 to 15 over the Texans. There’s been a lot of tight ones that could have gone the other way. But guess what? In the NFL, a hollow win counts as much as a regular win. This isn’t college football. You don’t have to impress anyone. All you have to do is win your games. And the Broncos have done that. And there’s absolutely something to be said for that. And yes, the offense has struggled. But the flip side there is that they’ve scored at least 28 points in four of their 10 games. So, the offense has shown that it can be explosive at times. It just needs to be more consistent and that’s really comes down to Bo Nicks. He’s the one that has to be more consistent. If this offense is going to succeed, the thing is if they do get deeper into January into the playoffs, it might be a thing where they say, “Hey, look, we’re going to depend on our rushing attack and our defense to carry us and cross our fingers and hope Bow Knicks can play well.” But so far, this team is eight and two first place. You can’t really argue against that. So, that’s why I gave them the A minus. Yeah, we’re we talk about style points and stuff in terms of college football and the CFP, but to your point, a win’s a win in the NFL. You just got to get in the playoff picture. No style points needed. This next team is so interesting and I’m so curious to hear you guys’ grades because we’re talking about the Chiefs. Started out 0 and2. So, we’re like, oh, this is the year we see a regression here. Then there was a bit of a spark, then they lose to the Bills. And so, I don’t really know how to feel because it feels like against Bronco, the Broncos, excuse me, Wilson, they need a win. They cannot they cannot afford a loss here. But so far based off of this roller coaster of a season, what is the grade so far for Kansas City? Oh, I went with a C. And um sorry, I didn’t I I didn’t know if you said Wilson or not, so I I wanted to be polite and let Breach allow him the chance to talk, but I’ll go. I gave him a C. And I gave him a C for the reasons you talked about. It’s crazy that they’re five and four as we sit here. Uh and look, I understand the losses to the Chiefs to start the season. Chiefs are a pretty good football team. Eagles, your Jacksonville Jaguars beat them on that last second play and you lose to the Bills. There’s no crime in that. Uh, and it feels a little different than the conversation we just had with the Broncos because uh, the hollow wins that we talked about. It feels like the Chiefs are this close. And I will never sleep on a team that includes Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. I know they’re five and four. I know their chances of getting the first round buy or even winning the division are long shots at this point. Uh, but those are it’s going to be one of these teams that we say do not let them in the playoffs because we know what happens when they get how they win football games is hard to wrap your brain around when January rolls around. So, see through how they played thus far. If you told me to grade the second half of the season and predict it, I’m going to say A because I don’t think this team is going anywhere. Um, so, so it’s not an A just yet. And, and again, I’m with you, Ryan. You don’t want to ever count out a team that has been there before and always finds a way to win. But I want to present a hypothetical situation to you. So what if this team does lose to Denver and they’re sitting there what at 500? Does your perception of this team change and shift a little bit at that point if that is the outcome here going into week 11? Uh no. and 500 with seven or eight games to go, it still feels manageable if you’re the Kansas City Chiefs again because they’ve been here so many times. If this were another team uh that hadn’t had the playoff experience like say the Denver Broncos, maybe even the Chargers who’ve been in and out of the playoffs but have struggled once they’ve gotten there historically at least prior to Jim Harbaugh’s arrival. Uh, I’m riding with this team until it’s clear that they are out of it because again, even if they get into the playoffs with nine wins and they’re gonna have to go on the road. Uh, are you telling me the Bills want to face them in Buffalo in January given how the postseason’s played out when these two teams matched up? So, uh, yeah, lose to the Broncos, that’s fine. I I’m not worried about that. Uh, I think they should beat the Broncos given the conversation we just had. Uh but again, until it’s clear to me that they have uh more than eight losses basically, I I still think this team is dangerous. It’s crazy because right now, technically, the Chiefs are on the outside looking in if the season ends today. Also, Breach did give the Chiefs a C as well. I don’t know what’s going on here with you guys. You’re like literally in lock step. Let’s go to the Chargers. The defense showed up in a big way against your Pittsburgh Steelers, Ryan. Um, and the O line, we know about all of the injuries they’ve been dealing with almost all season long. So far, I don’t know, it feels kind of bleak down the stretch when we think about the injuries, but at this point, Ryan, what is the grade for the Chargers? B+. And again, we typically talk about the Chargers chargering this point in the season, in years past. Jim Harbaugh knows nothing of chargering. all he knows is khakis and white sneakers and whether or not he’s going to wear a shirt or not while playing catch uh with his little football gloves on there. Uh this team feels completely different and you talked about all the things that have gone against this team which historically would have sent them in a into a spiral. Um they lose uh twothirds of their offensive line and two of the best players in along the offensive line in the NFL and their bookend left tack offensive tackle doesn’t matter. They lose Naj Harris and Amari and Hampton their running backs doesn’t matter. Justin Herbert continues to play at a high level and Jesse Mentor the defensive coordinator who’s probably going to be in the running for that Giants job has this group playing with their hair on fire. So I give them a B+. I’m not worried about what their schedule looks like because they don’t seem to care either. The way they put a whooping on the Steelers as you talked about. Thanks for pointing that out. Jacqueline told me all I needed to know about this team being completely different than previous versions under Anthony Lynn and Brandon Staley. This team feels like they know they can win football games down the stretch. So I give him a B+ and I don’t think that’s going to change. And Ryan, this is a conversation that we’ve had for a lot of teams, right? The Niners comes to mind here when we’re talking about injuries and it’s next man up, but just how many times can it be next man up? How many more guys are there, right? And you talked about it in the running back room in terms of the O line. So, at what point in the season are you going to get a little concerned because this list, it feels like it kind of just gets longer and longer. even Lad Mani who’s limited uh entering week 11 who’s been a huge part of that offense. Where at what point do you get give some pause here and you have real concerns and the alarm bells start start going off in terms not the division but just getting into the playoffs in general. Oh yeah. No, right now I mean you can’t afford to lose too many more guys. And when the list includes guys like Quinton Johnson who’s finally turned the corner as a former first round pick and Lad Maki the second round pick who should have been a first round pick that’s when you because look Justin Herbert can’t throw the ball to himself and you don’t want him running every single play. We know how good he is when he does decide to run the football. Uh but you’re up against it and when you’re down to your third stringers at several positions, you you cannot afford to have every single player out there uh not have been part of the starting conversation back during training camp and preseason. So they need guys to get healthy. you’re going to need a little bit of luck in keeping those guys healthy because right this is the part of the campaign as you turn the corner here to the second half of the season that you can’t consistently win football games with guys who are not out there all the time uh only because they’ve taken so many hits along the injury list to guys that have been critical to their success and they’ve overcome that thus far but it won’t be sustainable if those names in the list can’t continue to go over the next two months so it’s a B+ grade for Ryan Wilson Breach Are you on the same page? What’s the grade for you? We’re on the same page. Same line, same everything here. The Chargers, despite all the injuries that you guys talked about, have still managed to get to seven and three. And really, that’s the impressive part. I think for me, the thing I’ve liked the most is that number one, they started the season by winning three straight division games. So now that gives you a leg up in the division. And even though they’re seven and three, they’re seven and one against AFC opponents, which gives you a huge leg up when you start talking about playoff tiebreakers. And then of course, when you’re dealing with injuries, you need people to emerge for you. That’s where someone like Keenan Allen comes in. He comes back at 34 years old, returns to Los Angeles. He’s been a huge surprise. And then, of course, Arande Gads in the second, a fifthround pick has come in and played a huge role. So, you need guys like that to come through when you’re dealing with injuries. And the Chargers have gotten it. And of course, Justin Herbert’s been a superstar. So, B+. All right. Finally, we have made it towards the bottom or at the very bottom of the division with the Raiders. The offense is a mess. They’ve only have two wins on the season. I feel for Gino Smith. Every time he’s out there, it’s like he just cannot avoid being sacked. Oh my goodness. Wilson, what is the grade here? The only person that’s gotten an F, it hasn’t even been a team. It’s only been Jerry Jones. So, is it a Jerry Jones grade or you giving him a little bit of a higher one there for Gino and and Pete Carol and company? It’s as close as you can get to an F. I gave him a D minus. The only reason they avoided a full-on failure is because somehow in week one they beat the New England Patriots. The Patriots started one and two and since won eight straight. If I told you when you just arrived here from the moon that hey, guess what? This this Raiders team beat the Patriots, you would think that I was do a drug test. Uh that’s the only thing that’s gone right for this team. Everything else has seemingly gone wrong. Brock Powers was banged up earlier in the season. Uh we we’ve seen the struggles with the rookie wide receivers not be able to make plays. They traded Jacobe Brassette because excuse me, Jacobe Myers because he wasn’t happy. And their number one is 5 foot 10 Trey Tucker. Uh he’s a good football player. He shouldn’t be your number one in the defense as it has in recent years. Struggles to get off the field. Max Crosby is one of the few bright spots there. So I gave him a D minus. I can’t even call Gino Smith Eugene Slith the third because he’s playing more like Gino Jets version. Uh and it’s all bad. Yeah, for some reason I guess I liked the Raiders a little bit more than Wilson. I gave them a D. Uh, but the problem is, I’m not sure what the plan here is, but whatever the plan is, it’s not working. You look at the off season, they made the trade for Gino Smith. They were hoping he would be an upgrade over what they had at quarterback last year. And maybe he’s been a small upgrade, but he has not been great this year. They drafted a running back. They were hoping that Ashley Jensen would be able to carry that offense or help Gino Smith carry that offense. That hasn’t worked. And then you look at this defense. You have Max Crosby, a superstar, but you don’t really have a lot of help behind him. And now they’ve given up 30 points or more in three of their past five games. And then you have a head coach who’s almost 75 years old. So that’s a little old when you’re talking about a team that really needs to be in a rebuild phase because it doesn’t feel like they’re close to being a Super Bowl contender. Uh, and like Ryan said, I don’t know how they pulled that win off against the Patriots, but that saved them from an F. So they got a D in my book. So, the only person to get an F in both of these segments belongs to the one and only Jerry Jones. Only one F, though. Ryan Wilson gave him an A. Brian Breach, we certainly appreciate it. Giving out mid-season grades for the AFC West and the NFC East a little bit earlier in the show. We appreciate you guys.

Ryan Wilson and John Breech join CBS Sports HQ Spotlight to bring you midseason grades for every AFC West team.

(00:00) Broncos
(03:45) Chiefs
(07:05) Chargers
(11:06) Raiders

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