The Chargers Winning the AFC West Looks Like the Biggest NFL Lock of the Year

It hasn't been a great month to be a fan of any team in the AFC West that isn't the Chargers. Okay, you could say it hasn't been a great previous couple years either, but the last month in particular has been a little agonizing. Here's a quick rundown of recent developments dogging the rubble the Chargers will have to step over to claim this bottom-heavy division.

Broncos: Denver appears to be reaching the crescendo of its offseason-long meltdown. Not only did the Broncos have to watch its defected former quarterback play mostly effective ball against them last night, they saw Kyle Orton, the player who they got in exchange for Jay Cutler, leave the game early with an injury to his throwing hand. It may not be an incredibly serious one, but quarterback is hardly the only issue in Denver. The defense looks wholly unimproved from the porous one from a season ago. Right guard Chris Kuper also left the game against the Bears with an ankle injury.

Chiefs: Three quarters of the way through a preseason in which the offense has scored only two touchdowns, the team announced the sacking of offensive coordinator Chan Gailey. Firing coordinators midseason is a troubling enough sign, but a dismissal before the season even starts augurs much worse. This move, of course, follows days after the team lost starting quarterback Matt Cassel for two-to-four weeks with an MCL sprain. Hardly auspicious signs for an overhauled team under a reactionary new coach who will probably need some early success to stay at an even keel.

Raiders: Even as the Tom Cable coach slugging fiasco slowly fades into the ether, the team responded by dropping a preseason game to the Saints by a score of 45-7. Again, sure, it's a preseason game and it means nothing. But the caveat is usually more of a relief when the team's starters aren't responsible for surrendering 31 points in the first half to the other team.

Meanwhile, the biggest news to come out of San Diego of late has been Philip Rivers, the NFL's highest rated passer in 2008, being signed to a long-term extension. That's the kind of preseason you yearn for your favorite team to have. And it may take an injury to Rivers, and maybe a few others, to make a division which last year wasn't decided until the final game of the NFL regular season even competitive in 2009.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.