Kansas City Chiefs look scary for next year

Jan 16, 2016; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) hugs Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith (11) after their AFC Divisional round playoff game at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots won 20-27. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports /

The Oakland Raiders made great strides this year toward building a contender for the future. The Los Angeles Chargers have Philip Rivers and the No. 3 overall pick in May so things can change quickly there. Then you have the Denver Broncos with quarterback Peyton Manning on his last hurrah.

The Broncos have a strong, young defense and youngster Brock Osweiler taking over for Manning. He has some learning to do but he’ll be okay with all the playmakers he’ll be surrounded with. But if your a fan of an AFC West team that isn’t the Chiefs, you have reason to be concerned next year.

They went into the game with a hobbling Jeremy Maclin and still came in with an onside kick of forcing overtime against the defending champion New England Patriots on Sunday. Quarterback Alex Smith will have him and athletic freak Chris Conley to throw to along with tight end Travis Kelce.

Then there’s mercurial running back Jammal Charles, who went out for the season with a torn ACL in Week 5. And that’s not even counting the defense that Justin Houston, who wasn’t 100 percent on Saturday. On the other side at OLB, it may even be time for Dee Ford to take over for Tamba Hali.

In the secondary, they have one of the best safety tandems in the NFL in Eric Berry and Ron Parker. They also have one of the best corner tandems in Sean Smith and Marcus Peters, who has mightily improved. The Chiefs came up a little short this year but all that talent over there has them set to be scary in 2016.

They already seemed to have figured it out with a 10-game winning streak to end the season.

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