NFL Training Camps are Getting Started, Part 4: AFC West

In the NFL, personnel decisions are extremely important and can make or break a team’s future for half a decade or longer, and in no other division is this any clearer than in the AFC West.  The AFC West was once a powerhouse…the Raiders, Chiefs, Broncos and Chargers all having impressive looking teams all at once.  The bad blood ran deep as each team hated each other with a passion unmatched by other arbitrarily thrown together divisions like the NFC West and AFC South.

However, a series of fuckups by each team over the last 5 years has wrecked three of the teams while one boasts, arguably, the strogest roster in the NFL.  Lets take a look at the well-known individuals calling the shots…

• AJ Smith (SD) – an egomaniacal asshole who fired a coach 2 months after he just went 14-2…and it worked.  He, Polian and Pioli may be douchebags, but they know their football players.
• Mike Shanahan (Denver) – when it comes to football strategy, he’s in the top 3 in terms of NFL coaches.  Sadly, his personnel management is fuckign horrendous…seriously, MAURICE CLARETT IN ROUND 3?
• Carl Peterson (KC) – legendary reputation and iron-clad job security, his mismanagement and reliance on overrated vets has left both his offensive lines and WR corps dangerously AWFUL all the while striking out on defensive prospect after defensive prospect.
• Al Davis (Oakland) – senile.  What was once the best mind in football is now tapioca.

Sometimes the guy buying the groceries is responsible for a shitty meal.

Anyways…onto the previews.

San Diahgo Whale Vaginas: Yay, Anchorman references!!!  Yes, I still find that funny…suck it.

Lets continue the roster theme, shall we?  Best RB in the league until Adrian Peterson proves otherwise.  Hot shot QB tailor made for the system they run.  Best TE in the league provided his toe doesn’t fuck him over.  Stole Chris Chambers from the Dolphins for nothing and he fits the system like a fucking glove.  Stole Vincent Jackson in the 2nd round.  Premeir LT prospect in Marcus McNeill, premeir G in Kris Dielman, premeir C in Nick Hardwick.  Wow…that’s disturbing.  AJ Smith is responsible for ALL of that, and that’s just the offense.

I’m out of breath…ok…here we go.

Best NT for a 3-4 in Jamal Williams.  Best 3-4 ends in the league in Igor Olshanksy and Luis Castillo.  Best 3-4 OLB in Shawne Merriman.  Pro Bowler in Shaun Phillips.  Talented CB’s and Safeties.  Constantly finds MLB’s who fit the system late in the draft.  Best punter in the league, solid kicker, elite special teams…

Sounds like a Super Bowl contender.  Then again, they gave the keys to the NFL team equivalent of a McLaren F-1 to the NFL coach equivalent of an 85-year old Alzheimer’s patient.  Norv, the onus is on you, bro.

Prediction: This is the year, this is the team…14-2.

Kansas City Chiefs: See what AJ Smith has done in San Diego?  Damn, that’s impressive.  Why am I still talking about the Chargers?  Because Kansas City is following that model and is going to be INSANE in 4 years, trust me.  Kansas City is going to own the NFL like hotcakes because Carl Peterson, for two years now, has drafted logically and has had a boatload of picks.  I know, I know, we still don’t know if these picks are going to pan out, but at the same time, he’s drafting football savvy, intelligent, versatile kids with high ceilings, and he’s getting them by the dozen.  Oh, and pardon me if I sound ignorant, but Branden Albert sounds to me like the perfect center…super athletic, smart, nasty, versatile…could you imagine him with a swift RB who can get on the edges with Albert pulling and leading him downfield, why pigeonhole him as the tackle for the future when he’d be the guy who you should build your O-line around?

Back to this year…it’s not looking so good.  I want to like Bama Bangs Croyle (I like his GF plenty, however), I really do, but not with the O-line in it’s current state and Larry Johnson revelling in bitchitude.  Their defense is, shock, not bad, and Glenn Dorsey is the real deal…and would I be surprised if Croyle is out there kicking ass with Dwayne Bowe and Tony Gonzales?  Well, yea I’d be shocked, but if the Derek Anderson era has taught me anything it’s that sometimes shit turns to gold.

Prediction:  Scary team in a few years…right now, not so much.  6-10.

Denver Broncos:  Believe it or not, Mike Shanahan might be the best coach in the NFL.  Shocking?  Most likely.  How can i seriously legitimize that statement and not look like a total retard?  Easily, because Mike Shanahan is so absolutely, fucking awful at drafting players and making personnel deciisons, he has saddled himself with a roster chock full of garbage; an aging line with no real prospects behind it, a poor group of WR’s outside of Brandon Marshall who may, or may not be clinically insane, perhaps the most nameless collection of RB’s in the NFL, and that’s just the offense.  Seriously…the guy still has a job after the picture on the left ACTUALLY happened…not only just happened, happened in the 3rd FUCKING ROUND!!!  Jay Cutler is a great QB prospect, however, and he’ll be elite one of these days, but he needs to change his name so people don’t confuse him with the steroid abuser bodybuilder who shares the same name. 

For some strange reason, Mike can’t figure out how to acquire decent defensive linemen.  Sure, the Broncos have some amazing CB’s, but at the same time, they have no pass rush because the only two guys in the front 7 worth a damn, DJ Williams and the mighty midget Elvis Dumervil, are overwhelmed.

Despite this, Shanahan usually fields a team that’s competitive.  And despite his poor personnel, his offensive scheme is so fundamentally sound that it doesn’t matter who’s running it.  You give him some athletic linemen, a shifty runner and some WR’s with good size, and he’s set.  People always say that John Elway was responsible for Shanahan’s reputation, but that’s not entirely true.  Anyone who watched those Broncos realize that the offensive line, one of history’s defining units which goes criminally underrated, and Terrell Davis were the engine of that team, Elway just drove.  That team was loaded, and when coupled with Shanahan’s scheme, it was damn near unstoppable. 

If Shanahan ever drops the ego and gets a capable personnel head…the Broncos would be scary again, I just don’t see it happening.

Prediction:  I just don’t like the roster at all and they’ll lose a few close games and get a nice draft selection for Shanahan to fuck up…4-12.

Oakland Raiders:  I really like this team, not their contracts mind you, but the roster.  For some stupid reason, I just think they’ll surprise everyone this year because they resemble the Raiders of old…sleek and nasty.  That M-1 Abrams Supertank they call a QB has no ceiling and if he can put it together upstairs, he’ll be scary good.  JaMarcus got some burn at the end of last year and I caught most of his PT, and let me tell you, his arm strength is must-see TV.  This could be the only team in the NFL that can legitimately run a 25-yard deep out on the near-hash with success just because you know JaMarcus can get it there.  Javon Walker is the perfect WR for him, well, Randy Moss was, but Al Davis decided to give him to the Pats for jack shit and the Raiders’ running game is solid, and deep enough, to take the pressure off of JaMarcus and open up opportunities for play-action all day.  Seriously…who are you going to try and stop, D-Mac or JaMarcus?  Both are big plays waiting to happen.

Their defense is quite solid too…especially considering they have Toast, oops, I mean DeAngelo Hall and Ndami Asomugah (is that spelled right?  Who knows…) with Michael Huff back there.  I like their D-Line a lot, even though Tommy Kelly was, for a second, the highest paid defensive player in NFL history…what the hell were they thinking with that one?  Regardless, he’s a good player.  They have two of the best kickers in the game in Shane Lechler and Sea-Bass, and frankly, I think a lot of teams are going to overlook them like they did with the Browns last year. 

Call me crazy, but this year the Raiders are going to be good.

Prediction:  Well, I kinda spelled it out already, think they’ll be good, but still, the AFC is just too loaded for them to break into the playoffs.  9-7.

Up next: NFC East…or as I like to call ‘em, “Big market division where every team, other than the Cowboys, is ridiculously overrated.”