AFC West

Our Off-season Depth Chart Outlook series continues today with the AFC West division.

What I’m doing here is going team-by-team and taking a look at each team’s roster situation at the four key offensive Fantasy Football positions (QB RB WR TE). I’ll also be speculating on a few potential off-season moves we could see each of these teams make.

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The fourth stop on our all division tour of the 2011 season (AFC East, AFC North, AFC South) sees us head out West as we tip our hat to the top individual performers from the AFC West. In a season when no team could sustain a high level of play throughout, there were both some tough choices due to excellent play and some tough choices due to a distinct lack of quality.

As with the other All-Division Teams that we’ve presented this week, some discretion was required for defensive personnel to ensure the best players make the team rather than the best players that fit a certain scheme.

Here, then, is PFF’s All-AFC West Team for the 2011 season:

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Tim Tebow brought his Denver Broncos to Foxboro hoping to shock the world twice this postseason, but that plan was left in tatters by the wayside as the Patriots strolled to an easy win. The Broncos have a remarkably good record against Tom Brady and Bill Belichick but all of that was well before Tebow was involved, and the New England pair moved to 2-0 against Denver this season with a result that was never in doubt.

Denver came out and made an early decision to treat Aaron Hernandez as a receiver and play in nickel formations when he was on the field. The Patriots then simply used him as a running back and dominated against the light fronts and smaller personnel that Denver had on the field. Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski combined to destroy the Denver defense and New England romped to a five-score lead by the time the half arrived. The second half was largely a procession as Denver just tried to get back on the scoreboard and the Patriots simply tried not to give them any reason to think there was any way back. Read the rest of this entry »

The seeding might suggest otherwise, but make no mistake, the Denver Broncos pulled off a huge upset last week when they took down the Steelers. Tim Tebow furthered his own enigmatic legacy by finally showing some ability as a passer, and made Pittsburgh look foolish for daring him to beat them through the air.

Tebow notched over 300 passing yards on just 10 completions, most of which went to Demaryius Thomas as the pair victimized Ike Taylor, and the Broncos earned themselves a rematch with the Patriots in the Divisional round of the playoffs.

The Patriots, by virtue of locking up the No. 1 seed in the AFC, earned themselves a bye for the Wild Card weekend along with the benefit of facing a team they have already defeated this season. Read the rest of this entry »

Pittsburgh traveled to Denver to take on the Broncos sporting a record that was four wins better than their adversaries over the regular season. It stood to reason that the Steelers were expected to walk away from this game the victors after proving to the league why Tim Tebow can’t get it done on the big stage. As usual, it just didn’t work out like that.

The Pittsburgh offense was able to overcome injuries (and a clearly restricted Ben Roethlisberger) to score 23 points and move the ball pretty well, but for once they were let down by their defense–a D that sold out against the run more than we can ever remember seeing a team do before, daring Tim Tebow to beat them deep. Unfortunately for them, he obliged, and ultimately it cost them the win with one play in overtime that encapsulated the encounter.

Tebow was able to hit the deep passes against man coverage all night and the Steelers never backed off their aggressive game plan. As a result, Denver now moves on to play the New England Patriots, while the Pittsburgh Steelers move on home.

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Pittsburgh may have won 12 games, but they did not take the AFC North and, as such, they travel to the heights of Mile High where they face the AFC West winners, the 8-8 Denver Broncos. The home field advantage at Mile High is a significant one, claiming its first victim even before the teams have arrived to play. Steelers’ safety Ryan Clark has been told by his head coach that he will not be playing in this game, after the last trip to Denver caused him to have a nasty medical reaction to the rarified air that resulted in a hospital stint and a serious risk to his health.

Pittsburgh is reeling from several injuries in recent weeks that have robbed them of some of their better players, and they have struggled in their past few games because of this. They may be, in theory, the much better side, but they showed last week against Cleveland that they are unlikely to blow anybody away, let alone a playoff team. 

The Steelers are four wins better than the Broncos this season, but this is the playoffs where anything can happen, and if there is any time for Tim Tebow to prove that he really does just get the job done, this would be a pretty good stage to prove it on. Read the rest of this entry »

While San Diego may have already been eliminated from playoff contention, you could tell from the kickoff that they were intent on preventing Oakland from winning the division. Philip Rivers was in the kind of form that very few other quarterbacks have ever produced, with his nagging injury long in the past. This was another season where probably the best overall team in the division will find themselves at home during the postseason.

For the Raiders, they couldn’t stand the pressure in front of their home fans when the Broncos were losing to the Chiefs, opening up the chance at the AFC West crown. It was their front four that won them the first matchup, sacking Rivers six times. This time, with Jared Gaither controlling the dangerous Kamerion Wimbley, Norv Turner was able to call up the vertical pass plays which are such a staple of the Chargers’ offense and gash Oakland through the air.

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In a game the Broncos had a win and in situation, their offense didn’t seem to get the message. Neither team was able to do much when they had the ball in their hands, but Kansas City was able to get the ball into the end zone once, which was good enough for the win.

In the fourth quarter, we’ve grown to expect Tim Tebow to come up with some sort of heroics to make the game winning score and clinch the division. In this game there were no signs of Tebow making big plays at any point, so when it came to the fourth quarter Denver didn’t look like they had much of a chance despite only being down by four.

Even though Denver couldn’t score more than three points, they can thank the Chargers for helping them make the playoffs. Only parts of this team look playoff ready, while the rest of the team needs to get better fast if they want a chance against Pittsburgh.

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While the 2010 AFC West division champion Chiefs won’t be repeating the feat this year, they are in a position to help determine who will represent the division in the postseason. The Raiders, who eliminated Kansas City last week, must now rely on the Chiefs doing them a favor by beating Denver. No one will be more motivated to keep the Broncos out of the postseason than Kyle Orton, who never had the full support of the Broncos fan base from the moment he was thrown into the Jay Cutler trade.

The last time these teams met, in Week 10, was the game in which Tim Tebow threw eight passes and completed only two. The Broncos ran the ball 55 times with no pretense of a passing game and still racked up 244 yards, which along with a 56-yard touchdown to Eric Decker (-5.4) was just enough to get a win. Denver has tried to balance the offense more in recent weeks but haven’t had great results, so they might try to get back to what they do best against a team they had no problem running on before. Since the Chiefs have already experienced the Broncos’ read option attack, though, I’d expect Denver to favor a more traditional approach running the ball with some option plays mixed in.

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The Chargers won’t be able to realize their ultimate goal of winning a Super Bowl this season, but now that they’ve been eliminated they can take solace in spoiling a division rival’s playoff hopes. It’s a small consolation, but just enough motivation to keep the dejected Chargers competitive. There’s also a good chance it will be the team’s last time playing for Norv Tuner, which could cause the players to give their best effort in an attempt to send their head coach off right even if things didn’t go as planned during his tenure.

The Raiders obviously don’t need any extra motivation with a division title still in sight and a chance for the sixth seed wild card spot even if Denver wins. Oakland has won their last three meetings with San Diego, each by at least a seven point margin. Carson Palmer (-3.1) got his first win as a Raider against the Chargers back in Week 10 and, in a small sample size, has historically played well against San Diego. He played the Chargers twice as a Bengal since PFF began collecting data and graded well in both games, with his best grade in 2010 coming against San Diego. Now that Palmer is a Raider, will the Chargers become the division rival he always saves his best efforts for? Read the rest of this entry »