Biggest remaining needs for each AFC team heading the 2023 NFL season

Denver Broncos, AFC West – Interior O-line depth

Broncos Football

The Broncos are experiencing a dramatic shift defensively, going from Vic Fangio leading into one of his disciples in Ejiro Evero, who wants to base things around a lot of split-safety structures and light boxes, to the aggressive mindset of Vance Joseph, who wants to dictate terms to his opponents by bringing extra bodies in the passing game.

While there may be a bit of an adjustment period and they’ll need some of their young guys to step up, they have all the pieces there to continue playing at a high level.

Once Sean Payton took over head-coaching duties, he immediately took the reigns away from general manager George Paton and invested major financial resources into the offensive line with left guard Ben Powers and right tackle Mike McGlinchey (who they’re paying nearly $140 million combined to over the next four years).

However, looking at the rest of the depth chart, while Julian Fleming I’d label as a quality backup with extensive experience at either tackle spot, they don’t have anybody of note to back up one of those three interior spots.

Quinn Bailey and Luke Wattenberg have combined for just over 300 snaps in their young careers so far (five combined seasons) and Kyle Fuller – not the former Bears Pro Bowl cornerback – has logged triple-digit snaps in just one of his five seasons as a pro.

With the third-to-last selection of this year’s draft, they did add Oregon’s Alex Forsyth, who I actually looked at as one of the bigger sleepers at that position. However, considering the makeup of this Broncos O-line, a more gap-heavy approach seems likely based on the personnel at hand.

While I looked at the rookie as a pure wide-zone center, unless you facilitate a role that enhances his blocking on the move, which creates a pretty stark contrast to their current starter at the pivot in Lloyd Cushenberry III.

Kansas City Chiefs, AFC West – Big-bodied pass-catcher

As I said in my AFC West draft and roster review, I wasn’t a huge fan of the class Kansas City put together in late April or the way they’ve approached the departure of their starting tackle duo.

While they paid a steep price for Jawaan Taylor at 20 million annually, if they keep him at right tackle, I think that’s a definite upgrade over Andrew Wylie. But for the reason to feel comfortable with that move to be signing veteran Donovan Smith to protect Patrick Mahomes’ blindside is worrisome to me. Not only did he allow six sacks last season, but he was also tied for a league-high 13 penalties called against him – and there could have easily been even more.

Considering they still have Lucas Niang as the primary backup and selected a developmental player in Wanya Morris at the end of the top 100, I trust them for now. And while Frank Clark now having signed for a year with their division rivals in Denver means they don’t have the high rusher and finisher-type off the edge, they did re-stock that group and I will instead focus on the pass-catching group offensively.

The Chiefs have a couple of potential young breakout candidates among it in Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore, along with a designated threat vertically and horizontally in Marquez Valdes-Scantling and a reliable over-the-middle-of-the-field target in Richie James Jr.

Kadarius Toney #19 of the Kansas City Chiefs scores a five yard touchdown reception against the Philadelphia Eagles during the fourth quarter in Super Bowl LVII a

However, with the loss of Juju Smith-Schuster as their power slot, unless you consider MVS anything like a “big” receiver other than having a long build, the only receiver with any pro experience is Justin Watson, who saw the field a lot, but more so as a blocker and sporadic deep threat.

They don’t have anybody other than Travis Kelce, who they consistently like working between short-to-intermediate zones with the frame to lend itself to that role. Maybe they expect fifth-rounder Cornell Powell or UDFA Justyn Ross from last year to actually contribute, as they combined for just three snaps due to injury so far. Otherwise, DeAndre Hopkins would almost be a perfect fit.

Las Vegas Raiders, AFC West – Right guard

Even the most optimistic Raiders fans have to be concerned about this defense, which other than an under-the-radar superstar in Maxx Crosby has maybe two other players who would start on half of the other teams across the league.

I could see a bunch of recent draftees step into prominent roles fairly quickly, but if this pass-rush can consistently get home without sending extra bodies (with the addition of a freak of nature in seventh overall pick Tyree Wilson), DC Patrick Graham has shown that he can muddy up the picture on the back-end enough to give the front some time to win.

I’d rather look at the offensive side of the ball, however, where Josh McDaniel will continue building around more of an old-school 21-personnel rushing attack spearheaded by Josh Jacobs. But despite the lack of a traditional deep-threat receiver, they also have enough pass-catchers who can win matchups and understand how to attack space, when they want to spread defenses out.

Assuming Jimmy G’s foot is fine by the season opener, the O-line is the one unit that really worries me. In particular, if Dylan Parham stays at left guard in his second season, the right side could end up being a major problem. Alex Bars and Jermaine Eluemunor are currently slated to start at guard and tackle respectively.

The latter has a track record that would suggest this past season was more so an outlier, but he did earn by far his best PFF grade of his career (75.3) and might have settled in at one spot. Bars on the other hand has never graded above 53.3 in his four seasons as a pro, with 50 total pressures across 965 pass-blocking snaps.

Behind him, Netane Muti and Hroniss Grasu have combined for just 750 snaps over the last three years and Greg Van Roten has always been a replacement-level option. The only name I’m somewhat excited about is UDFA McClendon Curtis, who has tremendous natural power but will face a drastic learning curve coming from UT-Chattanooga in the FCS.

Los Angeles Chargers, AFC West – Combo tight-end

The big story for the Bolts heading into 2023 is the fundamental shift from the areas they want to attack on offense. Going from the least vertically-oriented and pretty static offensive coordinator in Joe Lombardi to a much more diverse play-caller in Kellen Moore, and drafting TCU’s Quentin Johnston in the first round, opponents will need to account for a downfield passing attack and yards-after-catch threats to a far larger extent.

However, looking at the underlying numbers for the Moore-coordinated ’22 Cowboys (in neutral game-script situations), they were the most efficient out of 12 personnel. Now, by drafting Johnston to give that receiving corp more run-after-catch dynamism, to add to a ball-winning vertical target in Mike Williams and a slippery route-running master in the slot in Keenan Allen, you’d think they want to get those three guys out on the field together quite a bit.

Yet, their OC has generally worked with more traditional Y tight-ends and in order to still have that run-pass balance, a guy at that spot with the ability to be a plus contributor in both facets should be something they’re looking for in order to complete that skill-position group.

Gerald Everett is more so a glorified slot receiver and H-back, who should benefit from getting the ball thrown to him on the move with space to work with on RAC opportunities, but he’s not somebody you want to run behind at the point. Donald Parham is your typical former basketball player converted to an oversized flex TE, who can win over the heads of defenders and in particular on the goal line.

Finally, Tre’ McKitty has the profile for that role, but he’s been almost a pure blocker and he’s been questionable at that. For his two-year career, he has a yards-per-route-run mark below 0.5 yards and last year he literally ranked dead-last among the 103 tight-ends with at least 50 blocking snaps in terms of PFF grade (32.2).

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