Is the AFC West Gap Between the Chiefs and Everyone Else Closed?

Life comes at you fast in the NFL, as teams oftentimes are contenders one year and pretenders the next. For the better part of the last decade, however, the Kansas City Chiefs were the exception.

Unfortunately for the multi-time Super Bowl champions, the luck pendulum swung in the other direction a year ago and some roster deterioration showed in the process. With general manager Brett Veach attacking the offseason aggressively, is Kansas City back to being among the NFL's elite?

How about simply within the AFC West division? Multiple teams made headline moves to improve their rosters. Has the gap between the Chiefs and others closed? Tucker Franklin and Matt Verderame discussed all of that and more on the latest episode of the That Football Show podcast on KC Sports Network.

Don't forget that the Chiefs typically run the AFC West

Not so fast. Sure, coming off a 6-11 effort in 2025-26, the Chiefs aren't exactly operating from a place of leverage. With that said, they won the division for nine years running before that. Even in 10- or 11-win campaigns, it was head coach Andy Reid's team that reigned supreme.

The aforementioned stretch included a trio of Super Bowl victories and two more appearances. Before last season, the worst outcome the quarterback Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs knew was overtime of the AFC Championship Game.

Only last year's Denver Broncos can match that level of success, and they only did it for a year. Being a consistently great team is what earns respect and rankings.

How much did the lowly Raiders improve this offseason?

It isn't hard to improve on a 3-14 season, but the Las Vegas Raiders do deserve some credit for what they've done. Not only did general manager John Spytek add new head coach Klint Kubiak, but he may have transformed the future of the franchise in the 2026 NFL Draft.

Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza is far from the flashiest or most athletic signal-caller, yet he's a bright player with adequate arm talent and is oozing with intangible traits. Vegas then had a very nice Day Three haul, which included Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy, Arkansas running back Mike Washington and Oregon wideout Malik Benson.

Add in free agent moves for center Tyler Linderbaum and others, and you get a vastly different team. Is it enough to get above the .500 mark? Likely not, but the Raiders may no longer be a laughingstock.

Be aware of offseason hype trains

It's spewed by national media pundits seemingly every offseason: Watch out for the Los Angeles Chargers. They do deserve some buzz, especially with a dynamic head coach-quarterback duo of Jim Harbaugh and Justin Herbert, but this is a team that has won 11 games in back-to-back years and been sent home in the first round of the postseason.

Los Angeles had a low-key offseason, adding players along the fringes of its roster and going trenches-heavy in the NFL Draft. While that approach may keep the Chargers in the conversation of contenders, it doesn't appear to make them real championship hopefuls on paper.

Slowing down the Denver hype train is much more difficult. Boasting an elite defense, a plus head coach and new wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, this is a club that figures to be back in the playoff mix in 2026-27.

At the end of the day, though, perhaps this has more to do with whether the Chiefs return to form than anyone else in the division ascending higher.

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