Here are the team previews and best bets for the AFC West:
Kansas City Chiefs
In his nine years in Kansas City, coach Andy Reid has averaged 11.4 wins in the regular season, only winning fewer than 10 games once. The Chiefs have won the AFC West six straight years. Despite that consistent track record, many handicappers are predicting a Chiefs decline in the division after wide receiver Tyreek Hill was traded to Miami for five draft picks. DraftKings lists Kansas City as the + 175 favorite to win arguably the toughest division in the NFL. The other three teams are closing a wide gap, but Reid still is king of the hill until he gets knocked off.
Offense: Patrick Mahomes passed for 37 touchdowns with 13 interceptions last season, the worst TD-to-INT ratio of his four years as a starter. His numbers were down even with Hill in the offense, so was that the beginning of a trend? Probably not. Instead of busting the salary cap to re-sign Hill, the Chiefs rebuilt their receiving corps by adding JuJu Smith-Schuster from Pittsburgh, Marquez Valdes-Scantling from Green Bay and Skyy Moore in the second round of the draft. Mahomes is more than happy to welcome back wideout Mecole Hardman Jr. and tight end Travis Kelce, who combined for 151 receptions. The Chiefs can run the ball when they need to with Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Ronald Jones II. Left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. anchors a line that ranks among the league’s best. An offense that ranked fourth in the league in scoring (28.2 PPG) might be more explosive, and Mahomes likely wants to show he can put up bigger numbers without Hill.