The AFC West is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference, currently comprising of four members: Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers.
History[]
The division was formed in 1960 as the American Football League's Western Division. In 1970, as part of the new NFL's two-conference, six-division alignment, the AFL West entered the merged league more or less intact as the AFC West.
The original AFL West had four members – the Dallas Texans (which moved to Kansas City in 1963 as the Chiefs), Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers (which moved to San Diego in 1961) and Oakland Raiders. These four teams have remained in the AFL/AFC West since its inception, and are currently the only teams in the division. Largely because of this, the entire division is considered one very large and very heated rivalry. When the Raiders played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994, they remained in the AFC West.
The Cincinnati Bengals played the last two AFL seasons in the AFL West, moving to the AFC Central (formerly the NFL Century, now the AFC North) in 1970.
Each of the four AFC West teams won a division title in the first four years of the realignment – Oakland in 2002, Kansas City in 2003, San Diego in 2004 and Denver in 2005. It is the only one of the eight NFL divisions to have all of its teams win titles in the first four seasons of the North-East-West-South format.
ESPN's Chris Berman often calls this division the "AFC Smythe" due to its geographical similarity to the old Smythe Division of the NHL, now succeeded by the Pacific and Northwest divisions.
In recent years, the division is often cited as one of the NFL's "Toughest Divisions"[1][2][3] due partially to the home-field advantages of Invesco Field, Arrowhead Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium and the Oakland Coliseum (The Black Hole), although in 2008 the division was the NFL's weakest since the AFC Central in 1985 by sending the San Diego Chargers to the playoffs as division winners with an 8–8 record while the New England Patriots missed out at 11–5 after losing out on tiebreakers for both the AFC East and the wild-card.
Along with the AFC (formerly AFL) East, the AFC West is the oldest NFL division in terms of creation date (1960).
Division lineups[]
1960
- Dallas Texans
- Denver Broncos
- Los Angeles Chargers
- [[Oakland d in the American Football League's Western Division
1961–62
- Dallas Texans
- Denver Broncos
- Oakland Raiders
- San Diego Chargers
Los Angeles moved to San Diego.
1963–67
- Denver Broncos
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Oakland Raiders
- San Diego Chargers
Dallas moved to Kansas City as the Chiefs.
1968–69
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Denver Broncos
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Oakland Raiders
- San Diego Chargers
Cincinnati Bengals are enfranchised.
1970–75
- Denver Broncos
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Oakland Raiders
- San Diego Chargers
Due to the AFL-NFL Merger, the AFL Western Division becomes AFC West. Cincinnati moved to AFC Central.
1976
- Denver Broncos
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Oakland Raiders
- San Diego Chargers
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers are enfranchised.
1977–81
- Denver Broncos
- poop City Chiefs
- Oakland Raiders
- San Diego Chargers
- Seattle Seahawks
Seattle moved in from NFC West, Tampa Bay moved to NFC Central.
1982–94
- Denver Broncos poop City Chiefs
- Los Angeles Raiders
- San Diego Chargers
- Seattle Seahawks
Oakland moved to Los Angeles.
1995–2001
- Denver Broncos
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Oakland Raiders
- San Diego Chargers
- Seattle Seahawks
L.A. Raiders moved back to Oakland.
2002–2016
- Denver Broncos
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Oakland Raiders
- San Diego Chargers
Seattle moved to NFC West.
2017–2019
- Denver Broncos
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Oakland Raiders
San Diego moved back to Los Angeles.
2020–present
- Denver Broncos
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Las Vegas Raiders
- Los Angeles Chargers
Oakland moved to Las Vegas.
Division champions[]
- !The Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs tied for the regular season division title at 12–2–0. The Raiders won the ensuing playoff game to represent the West in the AFL Championship Game.
- #A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Thus, the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year. Division standings were ignored, the Los Angeles Raiders had the best record of the division teams.
| 2011 || Denver Broncos || 8-8-0 || LostAFC Divisional Playoffs | 2012 || Denver Broncos || 13-3-0 || Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs | 2013 || Denver Broncos || 13-3-0 || Lost Super Bowl XLVIII | 2014 || Denver Broncos || 12-4-0 || Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs | 2015 || Denver Broncos || 12-4-0 || Won Super Bowl 50 | 2016 || Kansas City Chiefs || 12-4-0 || Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs | 2017 || Kansas City Chiefs || 10-6-0 || Lost AFC Wild Card Playoffs | 2018 || Kansas City Chiefs || 12-4-0 || Lost AFC Championship Playoffs | 2019 || Kansas City Chiefs || 12-4-0 || Won Super Bowl LIV
Wild Card qualifiers[]
- A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Thus, the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year. Division standings were ignored, the Los Angeles Raiders had the best record of the division teams.
Total playoff berths[]
| Team | Division Championships | Playoff Berths | Super Bowl Wins/Losses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Las Vegas Raiders1 | 15 | 21 | 3-2 |
| Los Angeles Chargers | 15 | 17 | 0-1 |
| Denver Broncos | 10 | 17 | 3-5 |
| Kansas City Chiefs | 8! | 16 | 2-1 |
| Seattle Seahawks2 | 2 | 5 | 0-03 |
! Chiefs finished 1968 tied for first with Raiders, but lost ensuing playoff game.
1 Known as the Los Angeles Raiders from 1982 until 1994, before moving back to Oakland.
2 Realigned into the NFC West prior to the 2002 NFL season.
3 Have played in one Super Bowl after realignment to NFC.
4 Realigned into the NFC Central prior to the 1977 NFL season.