off season grades for the afc west and nfc west
At the end of this writing, all eight of the divisions in the NFL will be properly assessed. Finally! I started this project after the draft. Only about four months ago. But you know, life and responsibilities get in the way sometimes.
AFC West:
Denver Broncos: 14-3
As is the case for most good teams, you don’t usually have to replace a coach unless they are poached by another team. Denver did not have to worry about that this off-season.
Denver was on a heater last year. In fact, if Bo Nix doesn’t get injured in the Buffalo game, the Broncos would have likely beat New England to make it to the SuperBowl. They won eleven straight games and 14/15 before losing the AFC Championship. Like with coaching, not a lot needs to be addressed with a great team unless someone leaves. The Broncos did not need too much in free agency. They re-signed RB JK Dobbins and LB Alex Singleton. The best move they made came in the form of a trade where they got Jaylen Waddle from the Dolphins. Now they find themselves with two really good WR’s and good depth at that position.
They didn’t have a pick until the third round. And every pick that they made was a depth piece.
Not a huge write up for Denver. The only hole they really had was WR and they addressed that by trading for Waddle.
Grade: A
Kansas City Chiefs: 6-11
A very rough season for the Chiefs last year. They lost games that they normally win. Patrick Mahomes did not play like the Mahomes of yesteryear. He had the worst completion percentage of his career. About 3.5 points lower than his career average. The team was third in the league in dropped passes with 30. It certainly seemed like they had more than that. Probably because almost every dropped pass that they had, came at a critical junction of the game. Either to extend a drive or to score a TD. The Chiefs were 5-3 going into the Buffalo game. From Buffalo on they went 1-8. There weren’t any coaching changes to speak of. Of course this regime had earned the right to go another round to right the ship.
The running game was practically non-existent last year. They didn’t have that true work horse. They had a running back by committee between Kareem Hunt and Isiah Pacheco. Enter the SuperBowl winning RB Kenneth Walker III. Seattle had their own RB by committee thing going on but Walker was the clear cut #1. He’s never had more than 228 rushes per year. He could easily eclipse 250 rushes this year for KC. They re-signed Travis Kelce which is eh at best. He’s struggled mightily the last couple years and he’s only getting older. I get it from KC’s standpoint. You re-sign one of your legacy players. They also improved a defense that definitely needed it. Signing DT Khyiris Tonga will make an impact. CB’s Kaiir Elam and L’Jarius Sneed should pay immediate dividends to help in pass coverage.
Speaking of CB’s, with the first round pick the Chiefs drafted Mansoor Delane, the CB out of LSU. The next two picks were used to help with depth on the defensive line. DT Peter Woods and Edge R Mason Thomas. Definitely moves that needed to happen to help with the defense.
Was last year for the Chiefs the anomaly or the near future? They need their pass catchers to perform better than last year. Which means that Rashee Rice needs to stay out of trouble and be better. Travis Kelce needs to play more like the future HOF’er that he is and not the guy that played last year. More importantly though, they need to get leads early and maintain those leads. The improvements to the defense should help there.
Grade: B+
Los Angeles Chargers: 11-6
The Chargers had a good year and then laid an egg in the wild card game against the Patriots.
The two most important free agent decisions were the signing of Center Tyler Biadasz and the extension to Safety Derwin James. I’ll get to James in a bit. The Chargers also signed Guard Cole Strange to help keep Justin Herbert upright. Herbert was sacked the third most in the league at 54, one behind both Geno Smith and Cam Ward. He was sacked six times in that wild card game loss. And Derwin James is the anchor of that defense. A couple of underrated signings were TE’s David Njoku and Charlie Kolar. With more and more teams going to a 13 personnel, having three good TE’s is needed.
With Khalil Mack most likely in the last year of his great career, the Chargers drafted Akheem Mesidor to sit and learn behind the future HOF’er. I could see him getting about 35 to 40% of snaps in his first year as they ease him in his rookie season. Their second round pick went to OL Jake Slaughter. Again, you have to keep your QB upright. And even though Slaughter is a backup, Oline depth is very important. DT Nick Barrett in the fifth round could be a steal.
Grade: B
Las Vegas Raiders: 3-14
Pete Carroll did not last long in the silver and black. The Raiders fired Carroll after just one season and hired Klint Kubiak as the new head honcho in Vegas. There is a lot of work that needs to be done for the Raiders to be competitive again.
One of the best ways to rebuild a team is through the trenches. Great line play can make up for the deficits in other areas more often than not. Signing C Tyler Linderbaum is a big move for the trenches. And then you bring in a Kirk Cousins that is a clear upgrade from Geno Smith. The problem with Kirk is that he has been injury prone two out of the last three seasons. And when he did play last year, his completion % was his worst since 2014. With the defensive signings, they should have a much better defense. They re-signed Edge Malcolm Koonce to back up new signing Kwity Paye. Both great signings for the trenches. And Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker are good signings for ILB spot. And CB Eric Stokes rounds out the good free agency that the Raiders had.
For the good that the Raiders did during free agency, I was not a fan of the draft. Taking Fernando Mendoza at #1 was the obvious choice. But I have my doubts about him being a good NFL player. Still though, he was the consensus number one and you had to pick him. He does, presumably, get to sit behind Cousins for a year. Of course there is discourse on whether or not it’s better for a rookie QB to sit or play right away. With everything in life though, what works for one may not work for everyone. The second round pick was curious for me. They took Safety Treydan Stukes when WR Denzel Boston was right there. And while Tre Tucker is ascending, he’s not there just yet. WR was a bigger need than Safety at this point in the draft. I liked the third round pick of G Trey Zuhn III and the first pick of the fourth round CB Jermod McCoy. But the rest of the draft was meh at best.
The coaching changes and free agent signing were pretty good even if the draft was not strong in my opinion. The Raiders are still trending upward.
Grade: B
NFC West:
Arizona Cardinals: 3-14
What a terrible year for the Cardinals last year. To be fair though, it was a team pretty devoid of talent. But the coach is usually the person that goes first and that’s what happened to Jonathon Gannon. In comes former Rams OC Mike LaFleur to try and work with a team in need of a rebuild. It seems like the Cards have been rebuilding for ten years or so. Of course they had a couple of good years with Kyler Murray. It just seems like this is a franchise that if constantly starting over.
The Cards signed a lot of players in free agency. They needed help in the backfield so they signed Tyler Allgeier to go along with incumbent starter James Conner. More on the backfield in a bit. They signed four offensive linemen as either a starter or depth piece. But the main focus should have been on the defense. This is a team that was 29th out of 32 teams in points against, giving up 28.7 ppg. The Cards signed four defensive linemen including projected starter Roy Lopez. A couple new safeties as well, but none of their free agent signings were impact players.
The Cardinals spent the third overall pick on RB Jeremiyah Love. It’s not that I hate the pick. But this is a team that needed defensive help in the worst way and could have went with either Arvell Reese or Sonny Styles. I liked the second round pick in G Chase Bisontis. He’s a future starter. I really liked the first pick of the third round when they selected QB Carson Beck. I’ve said it about a couple of other teams in this exercise that I was surprised that other QB needy teams didn’t take a chance on Beck. The jury is out on whether or not he’ll be a good NFL QB. Give the Cards kudos for taking a chance on a future QB. I liked their fourth round pick DT Kaleb Proctor and thought that he had a good combine. But looking at the Arizona depth chart, I don’t see him listed.
They hired a first time HC in Mike LaFleur which is the good. The rest of their off-season is just meh. Again, I don’t hate the first round pick of Love. I just feel like they could have addressed the bigger needs that the team had.
Grade: C
Los Angelas Rams: 12-5
The Los Angelas Rams lost the NFC Championship game to Seattle last year 31-27. The Rams have made the playoffs three straight years in which they lost the Wild Card Game, lost the Divisional Game and then the Conference Game. If the trajectory continues, they at least make the SuperBowl this year right?
This is a franchise that continues to push all of their chips into the middle to go all in. The Rams defense was 10th in points against and 17th in yards against. So, they traded for Edge Myles Garrett, traded for CB Trent McDuffie, signed CB Jaylen Watson and re-signed Kamren Curl. That’s three fourths of the starting secondary and the best Edge rusher in the game. All in indeed!
As much as I love what they did in free agency, the draft; not so much. They made the curious choice of drafting QB Ty Simpson with their first round pick. Stafford IS getting older. But that man just won the NFL MVP last year. They could have drafted any one of the next 11 picks that could pay dividends this year and instead draft someone that may not play for two years if Stafford stays healthy.
They may get Aaron Donald back. If this happens, you could just pencil in the Rams going to the SuperBowl right now. And despite the fact that I did not like their draft, they still get a really good grade.
Grade: A
San Francisco 49er’s: 12-5
The fact that this team went 12-5 with the amount of injuries that they had is a miracle.
Most of what they did in free agency was purely for depth purposes. Except the signings of WR Mike Evans and OT Trent Williams. And they traded for a new starting DE Osa Odighizuwa. They did sign WR Christian Kirk and re-signed WR Deebo Samuel. An entirely new wide receiver core. Mike Evans is especially nice because he is a steady piece in the receiver room that has always been a great route runner.
The 9er’s didn’t have a first round pick and I did not like their first pick in the second round. WR De’Zhaun Stribling will be a WR4 at best this year. Any of the next three picks would have made an immediate impact. Guard Chase Bisontis, Edge TJ Parker, and DT Kayden McDonald would all have been a better pick. Nabbing Edge Romello Height was a good depth piece incase Nick Bosa is still dealing with the injury bug. I really liked the next two picks that they had in RB Kaelon Black and DT Gracen Halton. Halton is a little undersized but I really liked what I saw of him at the combine. The rest of their draft picks are depth pieces at best if they even make the team.
This team really needed to address the lack of a pass rush that they had last year. Whether it was due to injury or poor play, they really didn’t address it. They are hoping for a healthy Nick Bosa from a few years ago to walk through that door. Pretty risky play. I give them a good grade just based off of the signings at receiver.
Grade: B
Seattle Seahawks: 14-3
The defending SuperBowl Champions.
The two glaring losses that they had in free agency were RB Kenneth Walker III going to Kansas City and Safety Coby Bryant leaving for Chicago. We will see if Zach Charbonnet will be able to ascend into the starting spot at RB like he was projected to a couple of years ago. But Seattle addressed that in the draft as well. Then they are hoping that safety Ty Okada can replace Bryant. They were able to re-sign JSN and Rashid Shaheed. JSN is a superstar but re-signing Shaheed was just as important. Seattle was able to elevate their game even more after the trade deadline acquisition of Shaheed last year. Another good re-signing for Seattle was CB Josh Jobe. The SuperBowl Champs almost came back with the entire group.
With the final pick in the first round, Seattle took RB Jadarian Price. He didn’t get the same reps that Jeremiyah Love got at Notre Dame, but he made the most of the opportunities that he did get. Both players were so explosive that it didn’t matter who was in the game. With the last pick in the second round, they took Safety Bud Clark. He’s a back-up now but could easily find himself a starter in the near future. I really liked their fifth round pick OG Beau Stephens from Iowa. One thing is for sure, if you want a good O-Linemen, you go to Iowa.
I don’t think that the defending SuperBowl Champs got better, but they certainly did not get any worse.
Grade: B+