AFC West Odds – Chiefs Gunning for 8th Straight Division Title

The AFC West has been a dynasty driven division since the turn of the century. From 2000-02, it was the Oakland Raiders that reigned supreme. From 2006-09, it was the San Diego Chargers. It was the Denver Broncos turn from 2011-15. But ever since 2016 – Andy Reid’s fourth year at the helm – the Kansas City Chiefs have proven to be the alpha. Since Patrick Mahomes was anointed the QB1, no other team has been able to sniff the division title which made it particularly easy for PointsBet Sportsbook to line the reigning Super Bowl champs the chalk favorites to take home bragging rights an eighth straight time. Betting against No. 15 has proven to be a losing proposition, but alas we must put the current futures odds under the microscope and get a pulse of what the division is all about heading into the 2023-24 NFL betting season.

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Kansas City Chiefs -160

Coming off a season in which it won a league-high 14 games and a second Super Bowl under the current coaching staff, it comes with little surprise to see the reigning champs and favorites to win Super Bowl LVIII odds-on favorites to win the AFC West once again. There’s so much to like about what the Chiefs bring back on both sides of the ball, and there’s no reason to get all bent out of shape when someone says Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback in the league. He is, and it’s by a country mile! Coming off a season in which he threw for a league-high 5,250 yards and 41 touchdown passes – even with Tyreek Hill taking his talents to South Beach – it was his efforts in the postseason playing on one leg that solidified that belief for me.

KC’s passing attack was a major question mark heading into last season. Mahomes still went HAM! I think it’s pretty safe to assume the Kansas City Chiefs will boast one of if not the best passing attacks with Travis Kelce, Kadarius Toney, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and Skyy Moore all back. The rich get even richer with rookies Justin Watson and Rashee Rice in tow! Isiah Pacheco proved to me that he can tote the mail as the RB1 in his rookie campaign, but Jerick McKinnon and Clyde Edwards-Helaire each return just in case he can’t. No need to dig into the defense. If any of the other three teams can’t figure out a way to stop No. 15, they won’t dethrone the reigning champs.

 Los Angeles Chargers +325

The Chargers have progressively gotten better in each of Justin Herbert’s first three years manning the ship. In his rookie year, LA went 7-9 and finished third in the standings. In his sophomore season, the team still placed third but churned out its first winning record since 2018 (9-8). Then last year, it went for 10 wins and punched a ticket to the second season where it would go on to drop an inexplicable 31-30 decision to the Jacksonville Jaguars who battled back from a 30-14 third quarter deficit to pull off the remarkable comeback win. Many figured that would be the end for head coach Brandon Staley, but upper management decided to bring the criticized shot caller back for a third season.

It’s a shame what the injury bug does to this franchise year in and year out. Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Joey Bosa, and Rashawn Slater only combined to play in 30 games last season. One can only imagine if they got 50+ from the impressive quadrant! Though they got swept by Kansas City in the pair of regular season meetings, each defeat came by a field goal and LA wasn’t at full strength for either matchup. Coming off a career-year in which he went for over 1600 scrimmage yards and scored 18 total touchdowns, Austin Ekeler is one of the premiere running backs in the game. TCU’s Quentin Johnston was added in the draft to give Herbert another weapon to tinker with, and Jalen Guyton is said to be fully recovered from his ACL tear. The Bolts offense is going to cook! Whether it can compete with the Chiefs for bragging rights will ultimately depend on the defense avoiding the injury bug and figuring out how to stop the run (No. 28).

Denver Broncos +500

The Broncos grossly failed to live up to all the offseason hype and came away as one of 2022-23’s biggest disappointments. Nathaniel Hackett was nothing if not an unmitigated disaster right from the start with the way he coached that season opener at Seattle proving to be some nasty foreshadowing of what was to come. Russell Wilson never once got comfortable running his offense, and it remains to be seen what will happen now that Sean Payton and Joe Lombardi will be calling the shots after being brought in immediately after the regular season came to a close.

There’s some nice pieces on the offensive roster, so hopefully it all comes together quickly allowing NFL bettors to quickly put behind the disaster that proved to be last season. While I’d like to think Javonte Williams will return to the huddle and beast immediately, it’ll likely take a while for the Broncos stud running back to find his bearings. I wouldn’t be reaching for No. 33 in your upcoming fantasy football drafts if I were you! Anyone buying Marvin Mims Jr. (+8000) for Offensive Rookie of the Year?!

Las Vegas Raiders +1200

The outlook for the Raiders could be a whole heck of a lot different if the rumors floating around about Tom Brady unretiring once again to lead the Raiders offense are true. Why he would want to playing in back of an offensive line sorely in need of a talent influx is beyond me, but you do you Tom. Vegas went into the NFL Draft needing big time help in the secondary and along both lines. Naturally, they did pretty much nothing to shore up the back end of the defense and went D-Line with two of its first three picks. Isn’t it so Raiders to ignore its most glaring weakness until the fourth round and use that pick to select another speedy undersized cornerback?

The selection of TE Michael Mayer in the second round could prove to be a huge get with him readily able to step right in and make the Vegas faithful quickly forget about Foster Moreau and Darren Waller. His addition to the O-Line when needed will also prove to be a boon for RB Josh Jacobs who will look to build off his breakout 2022-23 campaign in which he led the league in rushing with 1,653 yards and cashed a big underdog ticket at PointsBet by doing so. But with the uncertainty under center even with Jimmy Garoppolo brought in and what’s expected to be one of the tougher schedule strengths of all 32 teams, it’s tough envisioning anything better than a third place finish as top heavy this division is.

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