The AFC West has been one of the benchmark divisions in the entire NFL for the last couple of decades, whether we're talking about the reign of the Peyton Manning Denver Broncos or the Patrick Mahomes Kansas City Chiefs.
Entering the 2026 offseason, each team in the AFC West is facing a unique challenge with the Denver Broncos taking the division crown from the Chiefs for the first time in a decade.
When it comes to players dealing with injuries, salary cap space, draft capital available, coaching continuity, and more, which AFC West teams have the best (and worst) situations in the division heading into the offseason?
NFL Power Rankings: Every AFC West team's offseason situation ranked wrost to best
4. Kansas City Chiefs
- Cap space: $-11.35M
- Draft capital value: 2200 points (Trade Value Chart)
The entire offseason situation for the Kansas City Chiefs comes down to a few key factors. The first is the most obvious: Patrick Mahomes, for the first time in his NFL career, is dealing with the recovery process of a devastating knee injury.
The Chiefs just added a ton of salary cap space by restructuring Mahomes's deal, freeing up over $43 million in total space. But this team was nearly $55-60 million in the red to start the offseason. They haven't drafted overly well, they have a handful of key players past their prime, and they might be in a situation of having to offload some talented players (Trent McDuffie?) to reset the clock and save money for the future.
It's not a great offseason situation for the league's most recent dynasty, but they'll give themselves some flexibility to reset.
The primary issues right now facing this roster are not limited to Mahomes recovering from injury, either. Rashee Rice is once again facing off-field trouble and the Chiefs will likely have one more year of Travis Kelce, at most. Their running back position is in rough shape.
There's a lot more that's needed for this team than people realize.
- Cap space: $91.52 million
- Draft capital value: 4035.6 points
The Las Vegas Raiders have a lot going for them this offseason.
They won the sweepstakes to hire Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak as their new head coach, and that should be a huge jolt to their offense overall. They have over $91 million in projected cap space and the best war chest of draft assets in the division.
However, the Raiders also have the most roster holes in the division heading into the offseason, a patchwork defense, and very few true foundational players at premium positions. The quarterback position is an unknown, even if we "know" they're taking Fernando Mendoza. The offensive line is in need of multiple major additions, which could come via free agency.
The Raiders have to make smart moves in free agency and the NFL Draft, which goes without saying, but they're objectively in a great position to reload this offseason without any real expectation that they're going to be a "worst to first" type of story in 2026.
The true issue facing the Raiders this offseason is the situation with Maxx Crosby. If that situation results in Crosby being traded, this team's situation plummets to worst in the division, maybe worst in the conference.