AFC West Updates

[Steve]

It's up to the players. You can make all the moves you want, and rosters look great on paper, but what is going to show up on Sunday?

[Berserker76]

Well, this one isn't going to make many people around here happy. Win total predictions for all 32 teams:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/updated-2022-win-loss-predictions-160053323.html

We're going to have a worse record than the Patriots AND Raiders? Idiots...

[jamrock]

There’s a fair amount of media love for the Raiders who added Chandler Jones to pair with Maxx and Adam’s at WR. They should be better

[Velo]

There’s a fair amount of media love for the Raiders who added Chandler Jones to pair with Maxx and Adam’s at WR. They should be better

Trying not to let my anti-Raider bias influence my POV, but I don't see the Raiders being any better than last season. I know there is some media love for them, but I don't think Jones or Adams are going to make much of a difference. Maxx Crosby is a decent pass rusher but not elite. He had 10 sacks a rookie but only 15 total in the last two seasons. Yannick Ngakoue was better than Crosby last season. He had 10 sacks last season, but he got traded in favor of Chandler Jones, who is five years older and had 10.5 sacks last season in Ariz.

I don't think Adams is going to put up the receiving numbers for the Raiders that he did for the Packers. For starters, Carr is not Aaron Rodgers. We'll see. Other teams in the AFC West got significantly better as well. I think the Raiders will be good for about 10 wins. And if that is good enough for a wildcard, I think they will make another early exit. In fact, I would not be surprised if McDaniels looks for a new QB next off-season.

[RTPbolt]

Raiders did add some good players, but they didnt' really fix their most glaring weakness which I think is their OL and losing their RT just made it worse having Leatherneck as the starting RT....he was awful at guard last year. No matter how great a WR crew you have won't last long without an OL to protect Carr....he's going to be seen turtling up and as a now older QB getting hurt odds start to go up.

2ndly the Raiders (and Donkies) are both changing out their Head Coaches and philosophies are going to be adjusted. A new offense especially a more complicated NE type system aren't going to come quickly especially without even a mediocre OL protecting Carr.....Brady had typically a very good OL protecting him his whole career as a priority....good luck Carr. I don't expect a huge improvement and with all the change the likely might even take a step back considering the improvements of the Donkies (qb alone will help) and the Chargers.

Donkies i'm on the fence about. Clearly they have just sucked at QB since Manning left....mid level at best QB play has kept them down. So adding Wilson on paper is a potentially big improvement, but with a new offense and losing Fangio I think puts them into a bit more of a how will they learn and pickup the new coaching and philosophies.

As a whole year 1 coaches usually don't make the playoffs especially coaches with little to no HC experience. It takes time to put a team together as we well know. I dont think Denver or Vegas will be good enough to win the division....just very very unlikely. I can see sneaking into a wildcard but the AFC is loaded and wouldn't surprise me if we beat up on eachother and neither made the wildcard too.

[richpjr]

Raiders did add some good players, but they didnt' really fix their most glaring weakness which I think is their OL and losing their RT just made it worse having Leatherneck as the starting RT....he was awful at guard last year. No matter how great a WR crew you have won't last long without an OL to protect Carr....he's going to be seen turtling up and as a now older QB getting hurt odds start to go up.

2ndly the Raiders (and Donkies) are both changing out their Head Coaches and philosophies are going to be adjusted. A new offense especially a more complicated NE type system aren't going to come quickly especially without even a mediocre OL protecting Carr.....Brady had typically a very good OL protecting him his whole career as a priority....good luck Carr. I don't expect a huge improvement and with all the change the likely might even take a step back considering the improvements of the Donkies (qb alone will help) and the Chargers.

Donkies i'm on the fence about. Clearly they have just sucked at QB since Manning left....mid level at best QB play has kept them down. So adding Wilson on paper is a potentially big improvement, but with a new offense and losing Fangio I think puts them into a bit more of a how will they learn and pickup the new coaching and philosophies.

As a whole year 1 coaches usually don't make the playoffs especially coaches with little to no HC experience. It takes time to put a team together as we well know. I dont think Denver or Vegas will be good enough to win the division....just very very unlikely. I can see sneaking into a wildcard but the AFC is loaded and wouldn't surprise me if we beat up on eachother and neither made the wildcard too.

I agree that you just can't count on a brand new coaching staff hitting the ground running. Who knows how long it takes to pick up a new system and McDaniels had a spectacular flameout in Denver - has he matured?

[Velo]

Raiders did add some good players, but they didnt' really fix their most glaring weakness which I think is their OL and losing their RT just made it worse having Leatherneck as the starting RT....he was awful at guard last year. No matter how great a WR crew you have won't last long without an OL to protect Carr....he's going to be seen turtling up and as a now older QB getting hurt odds start to go up.

2ndly the Raiders (and Donkies) are both changing out their Head Coaches and philosophies are going to be adjusted. A new offense especially a more complicated NE type system aren't going to come quickly especially without even a mediocre OL protecting Carr.....Brady had typically a very good OL protecting him his whole career as a priority....good luck Carr. I don't expect a huge improvement and with all the change the likely might even take a step back considering the improvements of the Donkies (qb alone will help) and the Chargers.

Donkies i'm on the fence about. Clearly they have just sucked at QB since Manning left....mid level at best QB play has kept them down. So adding Wilson on paper is a potentially big improvement, but with a new offense and losing Fangio I think puts them into a bit more of a how will they learn and pickup the new coaching and philosophies.

As a whole year 1 coaches usually don't make the playoffs especially coaches with little to no HC experience. It takes time to put a team together as we well know. I dont think Denver or Vegas will be good enough to win the division....just very very unlikely. I can see sneaking into a wildcard but the AFC is loaded and wouldn't surprise me if we beat up on eachother and neither made the wildcard too.

Concur, especially the points in bold.

[Shock&Awe]

Problem with the Raiders is McDaniel's hasn't shown me he can be a head coach at this level and until he proves that the jury is out. Same thing for Hackett in Denver. Both McDaniels and Hackett made their careers off of Hall of Fame quarterbacks and I'm always skeptical of those guys. Now granted Hackett has Wilson now, but Wilson was just "okay" last year and they only won 7 games, mainly due to the offense which Wilson was quarterbacking. They didn't score enough. But we'll see how it plays out.

[FoutsFan]

Raiders did add some good players, but they didnt' really fix their most glaring weakness which I think is their OL and losing their RT just made it worse having Leatherneck as the starting RT....he was awful at guard last year. No matter how great a WR crew you have won't last long without an OL to protect Carr....he's going to be seen turtling up and as a now older QB getting hurt odds start to go up.

2ndly the Raiders (and Donkies) are both changing out their Head Coaches and philosophies are going to be adjusted. A new offense especially a more complicated NE type system aren't going to come quickly especially without even a mediocre OL protecting Carr.....Brady had typically a very good OL protecting him his whole career as a priority....good luck Carr. I don't expect a huge improvement and with all the change the likely might even take a step back considering the improvements of the Donkies (qb alone will help) and the Chargers.

Donkies i'm on the fence about. Clearly they have just sucked at QB since Manning left....mid level at best QB play has kept them down. So adding Wilson on paper is a potentially big improvement, but with a new offense and losing Fangio I think puts them into a bit more of a how will they learn and pickup the new coaching and philosophies.

As a whole year 1 coaches usually don't make the playoffs especially coaches with little to no HC experience. It takes time to put a team together as we well know. I dont think Denver or Vegas will be good enough to win the division....just very very unlikely. I can see sneaking into a wildcard but the AFC is loaded and wouldn't surprise me if we beat up on eachother and neither made the wildcard too.

People act like the defense will not change with Vic being gone. The D will take a step back. Donkeys will be a wash I think.

[21&500]

People act like the defense will not change with Vic being gone. The D will take a step back. Donkeys will be a wash I think.

I think Staley will have a particular advantage against the Denver D now that the master (Vic) is out of town.
coach Staley knows the system better than their current DC

[ChargersPowderBlue]

I don't think the Raiders or Broncos will make the playoffs either. Aside from the AFC West, there are other teams in the conference who will take away a win from them or also trying to make the playoffs.

[Boltdiehard]

Fuck Denver