Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: the Kansas City Chiefs won the AFC West and are the favorites to win the Super Bowl. Everyone has grown accustomed to the Chiefs winning everything, and the team is coming off of a 15-2 season with serious aspirations to pull off an unprecedented three-peat. Although Patrick Mahomes didn’t light the world on fire in the regular season, Andy Reid‘s team has a great shot at it.
With just two wins, they’ll reach the Super Bowl for a fifth time in the last six seasons. While the Chiefs prepare for the Divisional Round, the rest of their division rivals are watching from home. The Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos got crushed in the first round of the playoffs, while the Las Vegas Raiders are in despair and looking for a new head coach.
Will Ben Johnson avoid stacked AFC West?
As the Raiders zero in on a favorite to land the job, could the Chiefs being so good actually deter the best candidate? That’s what ESPN’s Adam Schefter believes might be going through Ben Johnson‘s mind.
If he takes the Raiders job, he’s now going to a division where the head coaches are Andy Reid, Sean Payton, and Jim Harbaugh, and the quarterbacks are now Patrick Mahomes, Bo Nix, and Justin Herbert. And you’re going to a team that doesn’t even have a quarterback, doesn’t have a draft pick to go land a quarterback… The Raiders have so much ground to make up, right now, especially in that division. And that, to me, is what they have to overcome here.
Schefter believes it’s not just Mahomes and the Chiefs that makes the Raiders job an unattractive one; the rest of the division is set up for success and the Raiders are essentially in rebuilding mode.
Sure, it would be an interesting challenge for Johnson, but one that could take years before rewards are reaped. Given how dire their quarterback situation is, Johnson might opt to go somewhere where that position is more settled: possibly with the Chicago Bears.