The downfall of the Chiefs

The+four+teams+in+the+AFC+West.

Jenna Richey

The four teams in the AFC West.

During the off-season of football players, contracts end. Players turn into free agents, signing on to other teams, or getting re-signed to the same team they previously played for.

This offseason it feels like the American Football Conference (AFC) is trying its best to stop the Kansas City Chiefs from getting to the playoffs. To add to that, it was a surprise to learn that former wide receiver Tyreek Hill left the Chiefs to go to the Miami Dolphins. 

The reason this was such a surprise is that Hill had one of the best quarterbacks in the league and was a really good target for The Chiefs Quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The Dolphins offered the Chiefs five draft picks and Hill a high-paying contract. 

In the NFL, there are two conferences the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC) each with 16 teams. 

In each conference, the teams are divided into 4 divisions: 

AFC North (Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers). 

AFC East (Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New York Jets).

AFC South (Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans).

AFC West (Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Denver Broncos). These 16 make up the AFC Conference now the 16 that make up the NFC conference are.

NFC North (Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, and Minnesota Vikings).

NFC East (Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, and Dallas Cowboys).

NFC South (Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers).

NFC West (Arizona Cardinals, the Los Angeles Rams, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Seattle Seahawks.)

Lately, the AFC West has had the Chiefs always winning the division and making the playoffs. So with the teams in the Chiefs division always being under the Chiefs, they needed to make some key upgrades and All three of these teams got major upgrades and star players just in this division in the span of one month. 

Some of these players include former Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson to the Broncos and this is a big upgrade because they haven’t had a good quarter since Peyton Manning and that was from 2012 to 2015. I personally like their former Broncos quarterback, Drew Lock, but I can agree that he isn’t very good in that quarterback position. With the Russell Wilson trade, the Broncos had to trade away the ninth-best tight end in the league according to NFL.com, and one of my favorite tight ends in the league, Noah Fant.

For the Chargers they got two really good players to add to their defense former Chicago Bears linebacker Kahlil Mack and former New England Patriots cornerback J.C. Jackson. These are big upgrades because their linebackers haven’t really been spectacular. Probably their best linebacker is Derwin James and he is not even a linebacker. How this works is he is a Strong Saftey that subs in as a sub linebacker on certain defensive formations.  J.C. Jackson was the other player and he is a cornerback. He is a good upgrade because according to cbssports.com they have him ranked at number ten out of all 32 starting cornerbacks in the NFL. 

The Raiders got two huge upgrades to an already good team one of them is former Arizona Cardinals linebacker, Chandler Jones. This is huge because the Raiders have not had a good linebacker since Kahlil Mack and that was 2014-2017. The biggest trade in my opinion was the former Green Bay Packers wide receiver and best wide receiver in the league Davante Adams.

Even though Aaron Rodgers stayed on the Packers the reason was due to the fact that the Packers franchised tagged, Adams. 

NFL.com said, “Star receiver Davante Adams informed the Green Bay Packers that he will not play on the franchise tag in 2022.” 

This was most probably the main reason why Adams wanted out of the Packers even though they arguably have the best quarterback in the league with Rodgers and the best wide receiver and quarterback duo in the league. 

But another reason why he wanted out of the Packers and to the Raiders is that the Raiders Quarterback Derick Carr Played with Adams at Fresno State College so they kind of have a connection. 

Although there is still plenty of time for more trades, these are the biggest trades and signings so far.