Updated AFC West Power Rankings after Monday Tampering Period Day 1

Day one of the NFL Free Agency tampering period was absolutely wild for the AFC West, and frankly, nobody should have expected anything different. Although the division, as a whole, was a massive disappointment in 2022 compared to expectations, the Kansas City Chiefs were the Super Bowl champions. Everyone else is just trying to keep up.

Shocking moves have really just become the norm for this division. The Raiders have moved on from Derek Carr. The Broncos are spending their new Walmart money after trading for head coach Sean Payton. The Chargers replaced their OC (who is also now in Denver) and may soon be trading Austin Ekeler. The Chiefs made another bold move at offensive tackle.

Where do things stand in the AFC West after the first day of the NFL Free Agency tampering period?

Updated AFC West power rankings during Free Agency Frenzy

1. Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs’ offseason started with a bang when offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy left to go to the Washington Commanders. Since that move, we’ve now seen others from the Chiefs join Bieniemy in the nation’s capital, including offensive tackle Andrew Wylie.

The Chiefs not only let Wylie walk in free agency, but also last year’s franchise player and the team’s left tackle, Orlando Brown Jr.

Brown is being replaced by the Chiefs’ big-money acquisition on Day 1 of the tampering period, former Jaguars offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor. Taylor has been Jacksonville’s right tackle the last four years and now becomes the left tackle of the Chiefs, a position he’s never played in the NFL on a full-time basis.

That shouldn’t be a big deal for the Chiefs, who have the infrastructure in place to make it work. Taylor gets $80 million over four years from the Chiefs along with $60 million in guarantees. General manager Brett Veach is obviously extremely confident this is going to work out and it’s hard to blame him.

We’ll see what happens with the rest of the KC offseason as the Chiefs need to make moves at receivers and on the defensive front, but for now, the Jawaan Taylor deal looks like one of the best and boldest in free agency.

2. Denver Broncos

The Denver Broncos obviously had a horrendous year in 2022. After the team completed the blockbuster trade for Russell Wilson, expectations went through the roof because the Broncos had finally acquired a quarterback after years of searching and coming up empty.

The first year of the Russell Wilson era in Denver was a disaster. Head coach Nathaniel Hackett was fired the day after Christmas. Wilson had the worst year of his NFL career coupled with a variety of injuries that impacted his season. It wasn’t just that the Broncos had a bad year, either. They tied themselves to Russell Wilson contractually before ever seeing him play a down for the team.

Now, the Broncos have hired Sean Payton in Nathaniel Hackett’s place. Well, technically, they hired him after trading their 2023 first-round pick (acquired in last year’s Bradley Chubb trade) and 2024 second-round pick to the Saints.

On day one of the tampering period of NFL Free Agency, the Broncos have been swinging big with that new Walmart money. With Sean Payton in place and his coaching staff assembled, the team put together an impressive haul on just the first day of the “unofficial” start of NFL free agency.

• OT Mike McGlinchey – 5 years, $87.5 million
• OG Ben Powers – 4 years, $52 million
• DL Zach Allen – 3 years $45.75 million
• QB Jarrett Stidham – 2 years, $10 million
• LB Alex Singleton – 3 years, $18 million
• TE Chris Manhertz – 2 years, $6 million

Now, winning free agency doesn’t always equate to winning on the field, but these upgrades were more than necessary for the Denver Broncos. They also lost Dre’Mont Jones to the Seattle Seahawks, so signing Zach Allen from Arizona was really critical.

The biggest moves here are obviously the moves to upgrade an offensive line which has been a weak spot for the Broncos now for years. McGlinchey and Powers will be new anchors for Sean Payton’s group and between the roster upgrades and coaching staff upgrade, I think the Broncos are due for a massive bounce-back year in 2023.

3. Los Angeles Chargers

The Los Angeles Chargers’ 2023 offseason got off to a somewhat-surprising start when the team decided to bring back head coach Brandon Staley. The only thing that was worse than Staley’s roster management in Week 17 going into the postseason was his team’s epic collapse against the Jaguars in the playoffs.

Many NFL pundits were certain that the Chargers would fire Staley but they committed to him for at least another year with Kellen Moore moving to Los Angeles from Dallas to be Justin Herbert’s new offensive coordinator. The Chargers managed to keep Keenan Allen around after some questions about his contract, but will the same be true for running back Austin Ekeler?

Asking permission doesn’t mean you’re going to get your trade request granted, but Ekeler is certainly deserving of a big pay day after scoring about 900 touchdowns in the last couple of years. All kidding aside, any deal to trade Ekeler would put the Chargers in a brutal spot considering how much he does for their offense right now.

The Chargers did agree to a deal on the first day of the legal negotiating window with linebacker Eric Kendricks, a California native and UCLA alum. Kendricks is a veteran who can help Brandon Staley’s defense which is likely to lose a key player in Drue Tranquill.

The Chargers will once again be a strong team in 2023, and with Justin Herbert under center, you can’t help but think they might even be contenders. With that being said, though, how will Herbert fare in a new offense? What are the Chargers going to do with Ekeler?

There are plenty of questions remaining for this team early on in NFL Free Agency.

4. Las Vegas Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders have had quite the offseason already in 2023.

The team made the decision to move on from Derek Carr late last season, and it ended with an ugly separation for the team. Carr was given permission to seek a trade and meet with other teams, and he strong-armed the Raiders into releasing him outright instead of getting anything in return in a trade. From Carr’s perspective, it was a brilliant move.

For the Raiders? Yikes.

Carr is a good player. If you poll 100 Raiders fans, you might find 50 who love the guy and 50 who absolutely will tell you he was the problem. I’m not so sure. The Raiders undoubtedly were hoping Tom Brady would hit NFL free agency, but that opportunity vanished and they made quick work pivoting to Jimmy Garoppolo.

Garoppolo will have a pretty easy job handing the ball off to Josh Jacobs, the first-team All-Pro running back and now the Raiders’ franchise player. He should have a pretty easy job distributing the ball to the Raiders’ top playmakers. But this team has a long way to go yet. They need a long-term solution at the quarterback position even if Garoppolo is an acceptable stopgap.

I’m a pretty big Garoppolo apologist, it’s just hard to see this team going very far with Josh McDaniels.