The AFC West still runs through Andy Reid, but the rest of the division has its own hierarchy taking shape behind him.
Reid sits alone at the top for a simple reason: his résumé is already in a different class. He’s a three-time Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs, and while his run with the Philadelphia Eagles was plenty successful, the arrival of Patrick Mahomes in 2017 pushed his coaching career into another gear.
He’s the kind of coach who could walk away tomorrow and still be a no-doubt Hall of Famer. At this point, there’s not much he hasn’t done.
That leaves Sean Payton as the clear No. 2 in the division. He’s now entering his fourth season with the Denver Broncos and brings 18 total years of head coaching experience to the table.
Over the last two seasons, Denver has gone 24-10 in the regular season, and Payton is 32-19 overall with the Broncos, a .627 winning percentage. The Broncos’ 2024 and 2025 breakouts only strengthened the case that Denver made the right move when it traded for him back in 2023.
And with Payton giving up play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Davis Webb, there’s even more reason to think he may have extended his coaching run by a few years.
Jim Harbaugh lands third, and the profile is pretty easy to read. In six NFL seasons as a head coach, he has never finished below .500, piling up five double-digit-win seasons and one eight-win year.
He’s also 5-5 in the playoffs and has reached a Super Bowl. With the Los Angeles Chargers, though, the results have settled into a familiar pattern: 11-6 in each of his first two seasons, followed by blowout Wild Card Round losses both times.
For now, the Harbaugh-Justin Herbert pairing has produced good football, but not much beyond that.
At the bottom is Klint Kubiak, the new head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Kubiak, the son of Broncos Super Bowl-winning coach Gary Kubiak, just came off a Super Bowl-winning season as the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator.
Now he’s taking on a Raiders job that has been unstable for decades; the last time Las Vegas had a head coach stay in place for at least five straight years was 1990-1994 with Art Shell. Kubiak’s path is a tough one, though he may at least get a real shot to develop rookie quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
Until he proves otherwise, he’s last in the AFC West pecking order.
In Other News...
Riley Moss Is Forcing A Broncos Decision They Cant Ignore
Riley Moss has gone from promising depth piece to one of the Broncos most important defensive answers since earning a starting job in 2024. His play on the outside has given Denver something it has long needed, a reliable No. 2 corner who can hold up against NFL receivers and create the kind of disruptive moments that change games.
That kind of production does not stay cheap for long, especially at a premium position, and Moss is already moving into the class of corners who can force a front office to think ahead. Denver has to weigh what it wants the secondary to look like beyond this season, with Moss not set to reach free agency until 2027 and the future shape of the room tied to how the younger pieces behind him develop. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Just Got Dragged Into A Wild NFL Scenario Again
CBS Sports writer Carter Bahns took a World Cup-style swing at the NFL calendar, dividing the league into groups and then running a full knockout bracket through the season. In that alternate setup, the Broncos came out of group play on top, handled a Round of 16 game, and kept themselves in the mix long enough to make the format feel a little too real for comfort.
Denvers path in the simulation included a tight knockout win over the 49ers before the run ended in the quarterfinals, which is exactly the sort of what-if that can make a fan think twice about how much a single matchup can change in a tournament setting. Bahns exercise ultimately had the Rams lifting the trophy, but the Broncos place in the bracket was enough to make the whole idea feel like more than a gimmick. [Read more 🡒]
Jaylen Waddle Just Sent A Strong Message About Denver's Receivers
Jaylen Waddles arrival in Denver has already started to change the conversation around the Broncos passing game. During offseason practices, the former Dolphins receiver has been upbeat about what he has seen from the wideout room, and that matters for a team trying to build more than just a deeper rotation. A receiver of Waddles caliber does not just add speed and separation, he also raises the standard for everyone lining up around him.
Courtland Sutton is part of the appeal, too, because the Broncos now have the kind of top-end talent that can make a defense pick its poison. Waddle has clearly noticed the chemistry in the room, and the early signs suggest Denvers offense may be getting a much cleaner fit than most outside observers expected. The real question now is how quickly that connection turns from offseason optimism into something the Broncos can lean on when the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]