In our final part of the Second Look series, we take a peek in the AFC West and see what’s happening with the training camps well underway and pre-season getting going too.

In 2-3 weeks’ time, we’ll take a final look before setting our season predictions in stone (for future gloating and/or ridiculing).


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Josh McDaniels has been running a tough camp. It remains to be seen if that’s the right way to motivate the players as in other places, players haven’t responded to it.

Kyle Orton will be wanting to shine, but has already had some boos and catcalls from the watching fans. He’ll be looking to get motivated from that. Brandon Marshall is sitting out with an injury at the moment, and don’t forget he has a court appearance coming up soon too. He could yet see a second suspension. In his absense Brandon Stokley has been stepping up. The veteran goes into what could easily be his final season and is surely looking to make an impact.

Rookies Knowshon Moreno and Roberts Ayers have signed and are in camp. I’ll keep an eye on these guys, Moreno in particular, to see how they shape up.

This is a difficult team to predict, but it would take a brave call to have them moving forward from last season.

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Another coach who’s running a tough camp is Todd Haley at Kansas. The players there are getting put thoroughly through their paces an no-one is a guaranteed starter (well, he says that but we all know some players are).

Matt Cassel – assuming he’s the starter of course, not much of a stretch – will have Armani Toomer to add depth at reciever. He and Bobby Engrams being the old men here. Dwayne Bowe will be wanting to build on his 1,000 yard season in 2008. Here’s hoping he can hold onto the ball.

There are a few injuries across the defense, but nothing too alarming at this point. It remains to be seen how they adjust to the 3-4 scheme, something that should become clearer during the pre-season.

Haley apparently isn’t afraid of upsetting anyone, or selecting starters based on previous form. This all makes for Kansas City to be a story worth following this year. But not, I expect, into the post-season.

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I was hoping to get all the Second Looks out before the pre-season started, but that’s not happened. Accordingly, some of my harsh words about the Raiders have been tuned down a little bit after they looked sharp against Dallas last night.

Oakland open the season with three back-to-back divisional games. So their season could effectively be over at week 4. But perhaps I’m being unfair. Darrius Heywood-Bey has settled in well after the usual rookie adjustment period. He could really do with having Javon Walker on the field as well, he’s currently injured, as if the Dallas game is any indication he’s being treated as a real threat and covered accordingly.

Chaz Schilens got a lot of looks from JaMarcus Russell and could be worth bearing in mind for those in deep fantasy leagues.

Perennial backup QB Jeff Garcia has been injured, likely pushing Charlie Frye towards the number 2 spot. Garcia can never be counted on to not make an appearance at some point during the season though.

In short though, and despite last night’s showing, I still don’t see much I like here. Certainly nothing to make me think this is a team making huge strides forward.

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I don’t really know what to say about the Chargers. To me, they’re so obviously head and shoulders above the rest of the division it’s almost unfair.

On top of that, it seems the biggest news coming from their camp is that Antonio Cromartie doesn’t rate the food. With Quentin Jammer on the other side, if Cromartie is fit (and gets a good meal) this is a corner pairing as good as any across the league.

Darren Sproles and his new contract will be one to watch. With LaDanian Tomlinson now ‘getting on’ (in running back terms) and, it seems, notoriously absent in the post-season, it’ll be interesting to see how the backfield shakes up. One thing’s for sure – most coaches would love to have these two guys to call on.

Summary
I can’t look past San Diego here at all. Second place to be tight between the Chiefs and the Broncos, but neither to make the post-season.

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