The AFC West is easily the best division in football, but each of the four teams still have weaknesses across their loaded rosters.
The 2022 AFC West may very well go down as one of the best divisions in the history of the NFL when the season ends.
All of the Broncos, Chargers, Raiders, and Chiefs are perfectly capable of winning double-digit games and making the playoffs.
Both the Raiders and the Chiefs won 10 or more games in 2021, and the Chargers went 9-7. The Broncos added Russell Wilson to the mix, and he’s won an average of more than 10 regular season games per year of his career.
It’s going to be a bloodbath in the division. There are arguments to be made that each team could win the division, and it is technically possible for all four teams to make the playoffs with the seven-team playoff format.
However, as we know, each roster has a weakness. Some of the worst rosters in the NFL have multiple, severe weaknesses, and even the best rosters are weak in certain spots, but perhaps not to an urgent degree.
So, let’s look at each weakness of every AFC West team.
Identifying weaknesses for each AFC West team for 2022 NFL season
Denver Broncos – Inside linebacker and tight end
I think the two biggest holes on the Denver Broncos’ roster lie at tight end and inside linebacker.
The team had to ship Noah Fant to Seattle in order to acquire Russell Wilson, and they then turned around and drafted Greg Dulcich in the 2022 NFL Draft. A tight end room that features Dulcich and third-year man Albert Okwuegbunam is promising but extremely unproven.
The inside linebacker position is in a similar state. The team re-signed Josey Jewell, who has emerged as a very good player for them but decided to not re-sign Kenny Young, Micah Kiser, or Alexander Johnson.
The first two players have found new homes on the Raiders for 2022, and Johnson is still a free agent.
The team did not address ILB during the NFL Draft and seems to be relying on Jonas Griffith, a former 49er and primarily special teams player to take over the second ILB spot for 2022 and perhaps beyond.
Denver has a loaded offense on paper and has great talent along their defensive front seven, so I don’t anticipate ILB or TE being major weaknesses for 2022.