One of Chiefs fan’s favorite offseason traditions is when sports media personalities pick the Los Angeles Chargers to win the AFC West.

Every once in a while the Denver Broncos or Las Vegas Raiders will get some love, but for whatever reason the Chargers are always the constant. Every year we hear about how deep their roster is, and how great their quarterback is, whether it’s been Philip Rivers or Justin Herbert.

No disrespect toward Rivers or Herbert, as they have played both played at a very high level. However, it can’t be dismissed that Rivers went 5-7 during the postseason and never reached a Super Bowl, and Herbert hasn’t won a single playoff game in five seasons played.

As for the Chargers as a whole, they have not won an AFC West division title since 2009. Kansas City has won 10 since then, including the last nine in a row. Los Angeles has won 13 division titles overall, meaning the Chiefs have won nearly 70 percent of that amount in the past nine years alone.

It only took me a couple of minutes too look up that information. I suppose some sports media personalities don’t have that kind of time to waste before they spew out their hot takes. The latest of which, Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd, has picked the Chargers to win the AFC West in 2025.

“So Kansas City does not have a great [offensive] line,” Cowherd said. “They’re going to try to figure it out using a backup at left tackle (Jaylon Moore) that hasn’t really started and been the man from the (San Francisco) Niners. And it’s a hard unit to create cohesion. And if you look at their first 10 games, even the teams that we view as weaker teams, like the Giants – good pass rush. Jacksonville (Jaguars) – pass rush. Raiders – Maxx Crosby. So even the W’s could create problems for them. [Don’t] forget Denver, that led the NFL in sacks, you face them. Conversely, the Chargers, Jim Harbaugh, look at his career in Year 2 everywhere he goes. Chargers – revamped run game. High-end left and right tackles. Have a cookie dough soft schedule in the middle of the season to gain momentum. So, my prediction that the Chargers win this division with a weaker schedule really plays in the middle of the season, you’re starting to get dinged up, you’re not playing with full rosters, it is really soft for the Chargers.

"[The Chargers] have a revamped run game, high-end left and right tackles and a cookie dough-soft schedule."@ColinCowherd predicts that the LA Chargers will dethrone the Kansas City Chiefs and win the AFC West this upcoming season. pic.twitter.com/FhRoURmShN

— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) May 15, 2025

 

“Look, it’s not like it’s crazy to believe that the Chargers could win the division. They were a playoff team last year and have a good head coach and solid roster. However, history is against them (as detailed above). Cowherd is certainly entitled to his opinion, but his argument doesn’t hold water.

First, the Chiefs swept L.A. last season, and Herbert is 2-7 in his career against Kansas City. Cowherd goes on to name the Broncos and Raiders as threats, who Andy Reid has a record of 37-11 against since taking over as the Chiefs’ head coach in 2013. It is true that the Chiefs will face some tough pass rushes in 2025, but they lost just one meaningful game last season with a much worse offensive line.

Finally, the strength of schedule argument makes no sense whatsoever, as both the Chiefs and Chargers’ 2025 opponents had a combined winning percentage of .522 last season per Fox Sports NFL. Again, research is hard.