Broncos General Manager John Elway said recently that the Chargers “may be the ones to beat” in the AFC West this season and there are likely others who feel the team is in good position to make a playoff run after finishing last year with nine wins in their final 12 games.
Those nine wins left the Chargers with a winning record, but not a playoff spot as their 0-4 start came back to bite them. The Chiefs were the division champs last year and Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said they remain on the top rung when asked about Elway’s comment on Thursday.
“That sounds like a mousetrap to me,” Lynn said on NFL Network. “That’s all I can say about that drill. We know Kansas City won this division, they had a good draft, they brought in some key free agents. To me, that’s still the team to beat in this division. Until we beat Kansas City, we can’t even talk about playoffs and things like that. We gotta beat Kansas City. I take it as a compliment, but we have a lot of work to do.”
Lynn did say he thinks the team has the pieces in place to improve on last season’s finish and it would do them a lot of good if those pieces come together a bit earlier than they did in 2017.