The Bills, Chargers, and Chiefs are the three favorites to win the AFC and they all started the regular season 1-0 after Week 1.
Buffalo opened the season with a 31-10 throttling of the Rams, only to be outdone by Kansas City’s 44-21 win in Arizona. Meanwhile, the Chargers held on for a 24-19 win over the Raiders.
The Chargers and Chiefs are now set to face off on Thursday Night Football. It’s one of the biggest games of the season and it’s only Week 2. It can go a long way in how the AFC shakes out this season.
Kayla Knierim, Cody Tapp, and Nick Schwerdt of Audacy’s “It’s Always Gameday in Kansas City” podcast discussed where the Chiefs stand in the AFC and who their biggest threat is this season.
“It’s obviously the Chargers because they’re in their division,” Tapp said (3:05 in player above). “If the Bills were in the division, maybe it’d be them.”
While the Chiefs play the Bills almost every single year, they have two guaranteed matchups against the Chargers, plus “Justin Herbert is every bit as good as Josh Allen,” Tapp said.
Even if you take away the frequency of playing the Chargers twice as opposed to the Bills once, he believes that Los Angeles is on the same level.
“Yes, because you have Herbert,” he continued. “My only question about them is coach. They have a star defensive end. They just paid their star safety. They have really good wide receivers; maybe none of them are the guy you’re saying that’s one of the five best receivers in the NFL, but I don’t think anybody’s going to complain about Keenan Allen and Mike Williams and Austin Ekeler at the running back position catching stuff for you. So there's no reason to think they’re not going to be around for a long time with Justin Herbert other than the coach.”
“People liked Staley coming into there. He says a lot of smart things. His philosophy is good. And sometimes you just still have moments where there’s something stopping them from being better than that. But I’m not like over the moon with Sean McDermott. He’s a very good coach, too. He’s gotten them to an AFC title game. So he’s gotten his quarterback further than Justin Herbert but he’s also a couple years deeper into this.”
Allen was drafted in 2018, McDermott’s second year in Buffalo. Herbert, on the other hand, was drafted in 2020 and this is head coach Brandon Staley’s second season in Los Angeles.
“So no, they’re every bit of a challenge because they’re just as good,” Tapp said. “They have one of the best rosters in the NFL – it’s not quite as good as the Bills. They have one of the best quarterbacks. They are the toughest competition because you’re going to have to face them twice. It is them or the Bills, but I think it’s the Chargers in this case.”
Knierim was quick to point out that the Chargers are the only team that has beaten the Chiefs in Kansas City in back-to-back seasons. Los Angeles won 30-24 on September 26th last year and 38-21 in Week 17 of the 2020 season. However, Mahomes has still yet to lose a divisional road game.
“I feel like a lot of people would answer the Bills to this, which is funny because if we would rewind to a year ago today, I don’t think a lot of Chiefs fans were buying the Bills yet because it was the same thing that a lot of people are saying about the Chargers, which is well, prove it, right?” Tapp said. “Prove that you have staying power. Win big games. Go to the playoffs. Win games in the playoffs. The Bills did that last year. And so now there’s this newfound respect that wasn’t there a year ago. I feel like the Chargers are in that same exact spot.”
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