Chiefs AFC West champs winners and losers: Big Red and John Dorsey

The winners and losers following the KC Chiefs win over the Chargers and their 12-4 finish as AFC West champions...

WINNERS

Big Red and John Dorsey

The Chiefs are AFC West champions with four straight winning seasons. Let’s appreciate that for a minute. The Chiefs head coach and GM have turned out to be a perfect pairing. We don’t ever hear of any problems in the Chiefs front office. I feel like the Chiefs have the coaching advantage on most Sundays and the injuries this year have proven how freakin’ deep this roster is. The Chiefs are down to their third inside linebacker, third or fourth cornerback, third running back ... what else? Last year’s best offensive and defensive player aren’t contributing right now but the Chiefs haven’t missed a beat. Color me impressed.

Dorsey can cut his third round pick a week into the season and by the end of the season we have probably his best draft class as a GM.

Charcandrick West

How about that? Over 100 total yards against the Chargers with Spencer Ware out. He is a good receiving back and had two touchdowns through the air in this game. This is a solid backup and complement to Spencer Ware. You hope that Ware can come back because he offers good stuff too but West made me feel pretty good about that position after this performance.

Tyreek Hill

The Chiefs rookie WR tied a franchise record with 12 touchdowns in his rookie season thanks to a franchise record 95-yard punt return.

What. A. Year.

I saw him in training camp and he clearly jumped out at you. I just kinda assumed he would be more Dexter McCluster or De’Anthony Thomas but he was more explosive than both of them. It’s one thing to make big plays and gain a lot of yards. Tyreek scores on big plays. That is unique.

Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

Chris Jones

Chris Jones is an energy player. So is Rakeem Nunez-Roches. I really like what’s going on with the defensive line from a pass rushing standpoint. (More on the run defense below) The Chiefs haven’t had a pass rushing interior lineman in forever and Jones is just so damn fun to watch. He’s going to be a problem for teams in the playoffs.

The Texans

Instead of the Chiefs they’ll be facing Matt McGloin or Connor Cook.

Daniel Sorensen

He’s always making plays. Fumbles last week and a great interception this week. Again, it comes back to Dorsey. Where does he find these guys?*

*Sorensen is a BYU guy so maybe we can credit Big Red for him

LOSERS

Chiefs run defense

We knew this would be a problem, especially after Derrick Johnson went down. And it is. It hasn’t been bad enough that the Chiefs can’t win - they keep winning - but the Chargers had enough success early on to make me uncomfortable. Maybe Justin Houston comes back and helps this out. Maybe.

Dadi Nicolas

The Chiefs young outside linebacker went down with a knee injury and was carted off. It looked serious. If this is something that affects his offseason, that will be disappointing. He had a little promise and I was hoping to see him after a year in the NFL weight room. No official word yet on what his injury is.

The Raiders

:(