Did you somehow miss yesterday’s AFC South preview? Well, there’s the link, ya clown. Let’s finish out the week by hitting up the least interesting most up-for-grabs division in the AFC, the West.

The San Diego Chargers have dominated this division for the better part of six years, thanks mostly to an opportunistic defense, the running game led by LaDainian Tomlinson, and a couple of quarterbacks named Rivers and Brees. The Broncos glory days under John Elway have faded from Denver fans’ minds, and they’ve been kicking around replacement quarterbacks since. This is sad: Jake Plummer was more successful in the Mile High City than Jay Cutler. From 2000-2002, the Oakland Raiders won the division. No, seriously. Look it up. They used to play football there. And Kansas City had an aberrant 2003 (oh, those halcyon days of Trent Green, Dante Hall, and Priest Holmes) but has been largely irrelevant otherwise this decade. In the last dozen years, the Chiefs have as many AFC West titles (1) as do the Seattle Seahawks…who relocated to the NFC during the 2002 realignment. While I don’t expect sea changes out of KC and Oakland (the last time these two teams managed to finish 1-2 in the division was 1993), the window of opportunity has cracked a little in the West. Let’s see what will happen, eh?

DENVER BRONCOS

If media coverage is correlative to athletic talent, we can project Tim Tebow’s abilities to lie somewhere between Brett Favre and LeBron James.

2009 record: 8-8
2009 record against playoff teams: 4-4
Final rankings in total offense/defense: 15th/7th
Key additions/subtractions: NT Jamal Williams, LB Akin Ayodele, DT Justin Bannan, QB Brady Quinn, LB Joe Mays, RB LenDale White/WR Brandon Marshall, LB Andra Davis, RB Peyton Hillis, RB J.J. Arrington, QB Chris Simms
Schedule study: Once a staple of the prime-time schedule, the Horsies only square off once under the lights this year, a week 11 Sunday nighter at San Diego. After that, Denver gets a home breather against the pitiful Rams before embarking on a three-game road trip in mid-December. At least the trips to Kansas City, Arizona, and Oakland will put the team in better climes than the Rocky Mountains.
Player to watch: I’m going to ignore the anointed one in this category – I really don’t foresee him doing anything of consequence his rookie year save for a few trick plays – and instead harp on RB Knowshon Moreno, last year’s first-rounder. I realize that being a running back in Denver has about as much staying power as Lindsay Lohan’s jailhouse conversion to Christianity, but Moreno was drafted specifically to be The Guy for the next 8-10 years. Josh McDaniels believes this. He’s already traded away their two most prominent backups, Peyton Hillis and J.J. Arrington. Correll Buckhalter is perpetually hurt (I understand Moreno has his own issues in that realm). And unless you think LenDale White, he of the traded-to-Seattle-then-immediately-cut-then-received-four-game-suspension ilk is the wave of the future, you too are pinning Denver’s success on Moreno’s continued development. It’s not like he had an awful rookie debut. Nine total touchdowns are a pretty nice start. But he needs to improve his consistency (11 games without a rushing touchdown is unpleasant) and leadership. The team is set in that department on the defensive side (Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins) but who’s going to step up on the offense? Certainly not Kyle Orton. Instead of a speech to fire the team up, he’d give a speech applauding emotional temperance. It’s gotta be Moreno.
2010 prediction: This team has the chance by the way of its schedule to string together enough wins to make the playoffs. I’m predicting here that they don’t do that. More than likely, they’ll finish with a 9-7 record and be in the playoff picture all the way through the final game of the season but end up drawing the short straw. Sorry, I just don’t know where the offense is going to come from, and that defensive front seven still makes me nervous. Jamal Williams is a nice add, even if he hasn’t yet passed his conditioning tests, but I’m hesitant to proclaim Elvis Dumervil the next Reggie White. I’m not even sure he’s the next Jevon Kearse. (Blogger’s note: I wrote this paragraph late last night. As I woke this morning, reports out of Denver state that Dumervil may have torn his pectoral muscle in practice, a very serious injury with a lengthy rehab time. I’d like to take this time and apologize to the Broncos fans for my inadvertent jinx.)

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

2009 record: 5-11
2009 record against playoff teams: 0-6
Final rankings in total offense/defense: 25th/30th
Key additions/subtractions: RB Thomas Jones, G Ryan Lilja, TE Jerheme Urban, S Eric Berry (rookie)/WR Bobby Wade, TE Sean Ryan
Schedule study: Nothing like kicking a team while they’re down, huh? Last year’s 5th-worst squad kicks off the year by facing San Diego and San Francisco in the first three weeks, followed by the dreaded week 4 bye. Immediately after that, two road trips to face Indianapolis and Houston in consecutive weeks! Unless Matt Cassel in 2010 resembles 2008 Matt Cassel and less of 2009 Matt Cassel, all of the Chiefs’ summer goodwill could be used up by the time the Jaguars roll into town on October 24th.
Player to watch: WR/RB/KR Dexter McCluster (rookie). The Chiefs apparently made a huge push to sign the Chargers’ slash-player Darren Sproles before they managed to reel him back into the fold. So they went out and grabbed the smallish but explosive McCluster in the draft, who is for better or worse a Sproles clone. He’ll line up in the slot, he’ll line up in the backfield, he’ll return kicks and punts and anything else you want to throw at him. The Chiefs don’t have a lot of firepower on offense, but McCluster will make opposing defenses cross-eyed. Imagine a Wildcat-esque backfield with last year’s late-season revelation Jamaal Charles, newcomer Thomas Jones and McCluster all running around, mixing up schemes. At the very worst, Chiefs fans playing fantasy football can reach for McCluster and feel super-good cheering for his touchdowns this year.
2010 prediction: I honestly see opportunities on the schedule for the Chiefs to win 7 or 8 games. Then I remember that the Chiefs have no cornerbacks. No legitimate strong safety. A mid-season pickup of Chris Chambers – at best the fourth-best receiver on the Chargers – immediately became the best wide receiver on the Chiefs. Poor Dwayne Bowe. By the way, can we officially make his nickname “Double”? As in “Double Dwayne Bowe”.

OAKLAND RAIDERS

I wish I too could get millions of dollars to be a complete waste of time.

2009 record: 4-12
2009 record against playoff teams: 2-5
Final rankings in total offense/defense: 31st/26th
Key additions/subtractions: QB Jason Campbell, QB Kyle Boller, OLB Quentin Groves, ILB Rolando McClain (rookie)/ ILB Kirk Morrison, RB Justin Fargas, WR Javon Walker, DE Greg Ellis, DT Gerard Warren, OLB Kamerion Wimbley
Schedule study: I couldn’t find anything terribly interesting or enlightening about the Raiders schedule. It’s very straightforward and balanced. However, I did notice that on Halloween, the Seahawks travel to the Bay Area to play the Raiders. As it shows up on NFL.com’s schedule page, the game is labeled “SEA@OAK,” which makes me think of one of my all-time favorite short stories, “Sea Oak,” by the endlessly witty George Saunders. For your intellectual convenience, here is a link to the text. It’s about a crappy apartment complex, male strippers, and a dead relative rising from the grave. I promise you’ll love it.
Player to watch: How can you not run with QB Jason Campbell? There hasn’t been a renewed sense of optimism about Oakland’s quarterbacking position since reports detailed that JaMarcus Russell had checked himself into a weight-loss day spa. OK, I made that up, but for a second it sounded reasonable enough, didn’t it? Fun facts about Jason Campbell: He was born on New Year’s Eve in 1981, he was drafted exactly one spot after current Packers starter Aaron Rodgers, and has three times as many career touchdowns as departing Raider quarterback JaMarcus Russell. He also has not been arrested this year (Campbell 2, Russell 0) and – this is not confirmed – is believed to be able to drive by a Taco Bell without ordering three combo platters. While Jason Campbell has improved his completion percentage every year he’s been in the league, JaMarcus Russell has significantly increased his sulking percentage, so there’s that. It probably won’t be this year, but given an offense-heavy draft, this team could be, dare I say, on the right track?
2010 prediction: Vegas currently has the over/under on the Raiders set at 6 games, which sounds about right. 6-10 isn’t a death sentence for this team, even with a pretty manageable schedule. For once, Raider Nation can comfortably set its compass to future dates without sounding hollow. And if Al Davis should cede control, well–OK, that’s not happening. Someday, sooner rather than later, they will exhume his corpse and find a competent owner.

SAN DIEGO CHARGERS

2009 record: 13-4 (0-1 in playoffs)
2009 record against playoff teams: 3-1
Final rankings in total offense/defense: 10th/16th
Key additions/subtractions: WR Josh Reed, TE Randy McMichael, RB Ryan Mathews (rookie)/RB LaDainian Tomlinson, NT Jamal Williams, TE Brandon Manumaleuna, WR/ST Kassim Osgood
Schedule study: Are TV execs expecting a late-season surge from the Chargers? Four of San Diego’s last seven games are going to be prime-time affairs (not discounting the possibility one of the other three contests could be flexed to Sunday night, although I doubt it seeing as they’re against Oakland, KC, and Denver). A week 12 road trip on Monday Night to Indianapolis has the makings of a classic game, but I’m most interested in a week 15 Thursday nighter against fellow Golden Staters San Francisco. That has the appeal of a brutal, run-heavy game with playoff implications on the line. By the way, proponents of the West Coast Pity Party, the AFC and NFC West play each other this year. No complaints about unfair travel schedules.
Player to watch: K Nate Kaeding. Don’t get me wrong, Kaeding’s a fantastic kicker and (I assume) a fantastic person. Last year, he connected on 32 of 35 figgies for a 91.4% conversion rate, tops in the league. So what happens in the playoffs? Kaeding whiffed on three opportunities in the Chargers home loss to the Bengals in the divisional round in a game ultimately decided by three points. Kaeding has infamously missed a potential game-winner against the Jets in the 2005 playoffs and a potential game-tying field goal against New England in 2006. (Less dramatically, he also missed a field goal in Charger wins over Tennessee and Indianapolis in 2007.) Kickers are fickle beings, as anyone who plays fantasy football will tell you. Will the former third-round pick bounce back from a horrid end to 2009, or will the demons of that Cincy game haunt him into this season?
2010 prediction: 12-4 doesn’t seem unreasonable for a team that has talent on both sides of the ball, even with departures of the likes of Jamal Williams, LT, and special teams ace Kassim Osgood. I suspect Vincent Jackson will emerge from his three-game suspension with a huge chip on his shoulder, now that Antonio Gates has received a huge five-year extension. Not like San Diego will need Jackson too much in those first three games (@KC, JAX, @SEA). Anyway, no team in the division has managed to cobble together enough of a threat to take down the reigning champs. We’ll see those Super Chargers back in the playoffs in 2010, hosting a first-round game.

Next week, we crack into the other side of the league by exploring the intricacies of the NFC North, a division with special meaning for me.