Like the AFC East, the AFC West has been home to some of the best quarterbacks in NFL history. You know that the Broncos have been fortunate to have John Elway and Peyton Manning bring home 11 division titles, and that the Chargers have 7 from Philip Rivers and Dan Fouts. For Oakland, Daryle Lamonica (5), Ken Stabler (4), Rich Gannon (3) and Jim Plunkett (2) have led them to division crowns, But don’t forget that Joe Montana and Drew Brees have led AFC West teams to division titles.
In the early AFL days, it was Jack Kemp, Len Dawson, John Hadl and Tobin Rote bringing home division crowns. The AFL / AFC West has always been a remarkably competitive division, with the Raiders, Chiefs, Broncos, and Chargers always fighting for division superiority. And two times, it was the Seahawks — behind Dave Krieg in ’88 and Jon Kitna in ’98 — winning the division.
The graph below shows the AFL / AFC West division winner in each year since 1960.
Some notes:
Behind one year of, yes, Tim Tebow, the Broncos won 5 straight division titles from ’11 to ’15 during the Manning era. That’s the longest streak in modern times, surpassing what Rivers and the Chargers did at the beginning of his tenure as a starter. But the most impressive run belongs to the Lamonica/Stabler Raiders, who won the division 9 times in 10 years from ’67 to ’76.
Oakland has not won a division title since 2002, but the longest streak without a division title goes to the Chiefs, who did not win one from ’72 to ’92.
Despite the lack of recent success for the Raiders, with 16 division titles, Oakland remains the leader in this division. The Broncos and Chargers have 15 apiece, and the Chiefs have only 11 titles.
In this always unpredictable division, you sometimes don’t even know who the best team is after the end of the season. In 1980, the Chargers won the division, but lost to the Raiders in the AFC Championship Game. In 1997, the Chiefs beat out the Broncos for the AFC West crown, but lost to Denver in the Division Round of the playoffs. Both of those times, the AFC Wildcard team went on the win the Super Bowl. Although overall, the home team (i.e., the team with the better record) is 8-2 in AFC West playoff games.
And how is this for surprising: until 2017, the Kansas City Chiefs had never won back to back division titles. But now after two years of Alex Smith and one season of MVP Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City has won three straight crowns.