2010 American Football Conference Championship Contenders – The Best of the Rest

There is a huge logjam with ten teams sitting at 1-1 in the American Football Conference. The majority of those teams are contenders in the AFC while a handful of them are pretenders.

While everyone is looking up at the the Steelers, some of the following teams will challenge in the AFC. We discussed the Colts being one of the best 1-1 teams in the conference but it’s a close race. There is a ton of talent, without a lot of separation, in the AFC and the race is going to be neck and neck all season long.

AFC Title Contenders – Wild, Wild AFC West

On the sunny west coast, the San Diego Chargers rebounded from an embarrassing Week One loss to the Chiefs with an impressive 38-13 pounding of the Jaguars. The Chargers have been dealing with a lot of off-field issues and injuries of late but they are still the class of the AFC West.

AFC Title Prediction: The Chargers need to get their house in order if they are going to make a serious run at the AFC Title.

Up in Mile High country, the Denver Broncos are the only team that looked decent in defeat and impressive in victory on the way to their 1-1 start. They stayed with the Jaguars on the road in a 24-17 Week One loss and then rebounded with a 31-14 thumping of the Seahawks in Week Two.

AFC Title Prediction: The Broncos just got their stud rookie wide receiver Demaryius Thomas back but are now dealing with injuries to sophomore running back Knowshon Moreno. Denver will try to stay close in the AFC West but we see their 2010 NFL season ending with an 8-8 record.

AFC Battle Brewing -The Beasts of the AFC East

The New York Jets garnered a lot of attention with their playoff run in 2009 and stayed in the spotlight for good and bad reasons during the off-season. We are having a tough time getting a handle on this team. They are still playing decent defense and they are starting to show signs of life on offense but they are still an enigma to us.

AFC Title Prediction: We don’t see the offensively challenged Dolphins or the declining Patriots winning the AFC East so the Jets get it by default. With a limited offense however, an AFC Title is a long shot at best.

Over in New England the Patriots won a shootout with the Bengals in Week One but looked very ordinary in losing 28-14 to the Jets. Though no one seems to want to admit it, the Patriots have shown signs of decline in each of the past two years since their 16-0 2007 dream season that ended with a nightmare loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

AFC Title Prediction: We’ll say it: The Patriots are in decline. While they may battle to a Wild Card berth in the playoffs, an AFC Title seems unlikely at this point.

All four of these teams were considered to be AFC Title contenders when the season opened. After shaky starts, the odds for them to advance to Super Bowl XLV are now somewhat longer. If we had to take one of then, we would back the San Diego “Super” Chargers at this point.