We head over to the defensive side of the ball. The first stop? The defensive interior line.
The big guys in the middle have dual responsibilities. They are asked to keep anything from getting through, while also — hopefully — collapsing the pocket and generating some interior pressure on the quarterback.
Some do one, some do the other, and some do both. The pocket crashers are the most high demand among them. The AFC West has one of those.
1. Kansas City Chiefs
Chris Jones, Derrick Nnadi
While Nnadi is merely a marginal starter, Jones more than makes up for it. The All Pro defensive tackle had 15.5 sacks last season which is more by himself than any DT combo in the AFC West. In fact, it’s nearly twice as much as the next best duo. Pro Football Focus recently ranked Jones as the second best DT in the league, behind only Aaron Donald.
2. Denver Broncos
DJ Jones, Zach Allen
That PFF ranking of the top 32 DT’s had just two from the AFC West. Chris Jones at 2 and Zach Allen at 32. He joins the Broncos after putting up 20 QB hits last season for the Cardinals. Outside of Chris Jones, no other AFC West DT comes close to that. DJ Jones had somewhat of a down year, but is a season removed from putting up 56 tackles.
3. Los Angeles Chargers
Morgan Fox, Sebastian Joseph-Day
Both Fox and Joseph-Day are coming off career years. Fox put up a career-best 6.5 sacks, which was second in the AFC West. While Joseph-Day put up an AFC West best 56 tackles.
4. Las Vegas Raiders
Bilal Nichols, John Jenkins
Honestly, I’m not even confident in these two being the projected starters. Chargers cast-off Jerry Tillery could find his way into the starting lineup as could one of the mid-round drafted tackles from the past couple seasons. That’s because Nichols was a disappointment as a free agent addition last season and Jenkins is 34 and hasn’t started more than five games in seven seasons. There were positives to mention with the other three teams’ DTs. Not so much with this group.
