AFC West Watch – Week 6 – Defensive Line

AFC West Watch continues every Friday, and in this Part 6 Installment, I’ll rank the defensive lines of the AFC West 1-4. The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders are playing “steady as she goes,” with the Kansas City Chiefs making a few moves and the Denver Broncos finding themselves in the middle of a complete overhaul. On to the ranks.

1) San Diego Chargers

The most underrated player, possibly in the entire league, is the beefy Nose Tackle Jamal Williams of San Diego. He just knows how to clog the gap and free up his linebackers to do what they do. Honestly, without Williams at Nose, would Shawne Merriman be the freak that he is? Ray Lewis will tell you “no” after he lost Tony Siragusa – speedy LBs need someone to take up blockers, and no one demands more attention on a defensive line than Jamal Williams. He had a career high in tackles last year… imagine what he could do if he actually got better.

At defensive end they have Luis Castillo, who is also solid and was even called by John Madden “the most important person on the Chargers defense.” I don’t know about that, but Castillo is definitely very good at his position. On the other side you have Igor Olshansky, who is solid as well but doesn’t get the spotlight of either Castillo or Williams. Behind them they have solid depth at all positions – it’s really no contest when you consider how important the defensive line is to a 3-4 defense, and how well the Chargers have been able to dominate at the line of scrimmage the past 3 years.

2) Denver Browncos

Wonder if anyone will catch that… The Denver Broncos have had a glaring weakness for most of Mike Shanahan‘s tenure – even in the years leading up to the Super Bowl we were always struggling to mount a really consistent pass rush. I think it’s safe to say that the team made the right moves to start to put that one to sleep, with 4 athletic draft picks in the past 2 years focusing on the D-Line and several free agent acquisitions at Defensive Tackle.

First, the player who really stepped us his game last year and is the one sure-fire starter at defensive end – Ebenezer Ekuban (pictured left). I think it’s safe to say that this is one “Brownco” who didn’t disappoint, and was well worth the price of Reuben Droughns in the trade a few years back. The other spot is wide open to competition, with Kenard Lang either the incumbent starter or rumored trade bait. With Day 1 picks Jarvis Moss and Tim Crowder chomping at the bit, as well as a possible increased role for impressive second-year player Elvis Dumervil, there really aren’t any guarantees though.

At DT, Gerard Warren returns (hopefully to healthy toes and 2005 form), with a whole mess of guys looking to start opposite him. I pencil Sam Adams to start at first, but I wouldn’t count out 4th rounder Marcus Thomas, or even Jimmy Kennedy if he wants another stab at it. Alvin McKinley adds depth if needed as well.

The deepest defensive line, by far, in the division is in Mile High, but with questions at starter it’s hard to rank them ahead of the already-productive Chargers. Potentially our defensive line could move ahead of them by the end of the season.

3) Oakland Raiders

The best defensive end in the division is Derrick Burgess, with 27 sacks in the past two years the easiest indication of his dominance over his opponents. At 6-2, 260 lbs., the guy is a freak of nature who really broke out since he dropped his Eagle wings for Raider… um, horns? Maybe an eyepatch… anyway, one of the hardest guys to block in the division is unhappy with his contract and is threatening holdout blah blah blah blah blah. Leading the league in sacks in 2005, Burgess will likely get what he wants – the Raiders can ill afford to let one of their most talented players go right now.

The other big star on the DL is sure-fire Hall of Famer Warren Sapp, who came back in a big way last year with an impressive 10 sacks. The 3-4 defensive end experiment of 2004 was a bust, but since then Sapp’s game has improved and he’s only barely beginning to show his age.

They drafted Quentin Moses, whose workouts left much to be desired and fell out of the first round completely. That could prove to be a very good move. I don’t see Tyler Brayton, Kevin Huntley (DE) or Terdell Sands (DT) as very bright spots on the line, though. Their defensive line was better than ours last year, but I just see too much potential in Denver and not enough in Oakland to rank them ahead of the Broncos.

4) Kansas City Chiefs

Let me just say this – all 4 defensive lines in this division are arguably in the better half of the league. The Chiefs struck gold with Tamba Hali last year, who showed he could handle run support as well as mount a decent pass rush. Jared Allen (pictured left) has been suspended for two games (down from an original four), but he is also one of the best pass rushers in the division. But it’s the interior of the defensive line that concerns me, as well as the line’s overall depth. A bit of me fears DeMarcus “Tank” Tyler, whom the Chiefs picked in the third round, but he has a bit of work to do as a pass rusher to start. Alfonso Boone was a nice depth-filler pickup also. Speaking of the draft, they addressed the defensive line often on draft day, ultimately selecting 2 more D-Linemen in April. Where they had virtually no depth they are now pretty deep, but with no clear cut starter at either defensive tackle spot and drafting what will end up being backup defensive ends only, they weren’t picks that are likely to make an impact this year.

If healthy, they could push to the second spot. You could make a case for Denver, Oakland and Kansas City to be ranked in any order 2-4, but I honestly feel this is what we’re looking at in 2007.

Average Rank So Far:

San Diego Chargers – 1.67
Denver Broncos – 2.00
Kansas City Chiefs – 3.16
Oakland Raiders – 3.16

The Chargers increase their lead, with the Broncos holding steady and the RAIDERS CATCHING UP TO THE CHIEFS!

There are only a few segments of AFC West Watch yet, combined with Pick ‘Em Mondays to culminate to when I predict the winner of the AFC West in August. In the next two Fridays I’ll be ranking the quarterbacks and coaching staffs, and if I have time I’d love to sneak in a ranking of the Special Teams. As always, if you disagree with the rankings feel free to leave a little feedback via the Comments below.