Sean Keeler: Let’s go, Niners! Am I right? Oy vey. The Chiefs Dynasty gets capital letters now. Four Super Bowls in five years — come back, Joe Burrow! — is historic, if painful, stuff. No matter how many things the football gods chuck at Patrick Mahomes, the dude keeps cementing his place as the Tom Brady of Gen Z, a January giant who’s elevated iffy receivers while somehow turning Andy Reid into both a genius game-manager and a hilarious commercial pitch man. No worries! Broncos Country has Sean Payton, jumper cables at the ready, to turn this Orange & Blue postseason engine over. Although I gotta admit: Sunshine Sean’s job just got a lot harder last week with Jim Harbaugh pulling a Pete Carroll and fleeing the NCAA posse to join the Chargers. Heck, I’d argue the Broncos now have the third-best coach in the division now — and said coach still hasn’t beaten two different coaches from the blankety-blank Raiders. I’d even argue Harbaugh gets the mercurial, weirdo, uncool, unloved Bolts back to the Super Bowl before the blue-blooded Broncos, the way things are shaping up over at Dove Valley. What say you?
McFadden: As long as Mahomes is the quarterback and Reid is calling the shots for the Chiefs, it’s going to be hard for any team in the AFC West to make it to the Big Game. But to answer your question, I think the Chargers have a better shot at making the Super Bowl under Harbaugh than the Broncos do under Payton. The key to most, if not all, Super Bowl-winning organizations is a franchise quarterback. Harbaugh’s return to the NFL is already off to a good start simply because he has Justin Herbert to work with. Herbert has proven he can be a top-10 quarterback in the NFL. He just needed a competent coach. Well, guess what? He has that now. Payton lacks a franchise quarterback and many more things. The future is bright in Los Angeles with Harbaugh and J Herbo. It’s hard to say that about Denver because it doesn’t have a clear cut direction for the future at the moment, despite having someone like Payton at the helm.
Keeler: What scares me, and why I wanted him for the Broncos job last January — the Broncos did, too, Condoleezza Rice is no dummy — is that like Mahomes, Harbaugh is a habitual elevator. A habitual winner. He grates. He burns hot and fast. He’s goofy. He’s awkward. He’s blunt. He’s taken about six too many shots to the head. But dang it, he elevates. There’s a little Bill Walsh there, a little Mike Ditka and a lot of Bo Schembechler. He made Stanford nasty. He unlocked the riddle that was Alex Smith. He beat Ohio State three times in a row. He brought the big one — a national championship — back to the Big House. Oh, and as I was reminded by our good pal Parker Gabriel on Monday morning, he has the same number of NFL postseason wins since 2011 (five) as Payton does, despite spending the last nine years in the Big Ten.
McFadden: Yeah, there’s no way Broncos Country should be pleased about Harbaugh in Los Angeles. Harbaugh led the Wolverines to a 10-3 record and a Citrus Bowl victory in his first season with the Wolverines. The year before Harbaugh’s arrival in Ann Arbor, Michigan went 5-7. In 2023, he led the program to a national title. Harbaugh is a proven winner and has the ability to make a change instantly. That’s why his name has floated around in coaching rumors for the past few years. Payton is a proven winner, too. I’m not denying that. But I have more faith in Harbaugh turning his team around quicker than Payton.
Keeler: Did I mention Harbaugh also habitually elevates his quarterbacks from OK to good and from good to great? (Oh, what could’ve been with Russ and that contract.) In the fall of 2010, the Niners were a 6-10 mess with Smith, a first-round bust at QB, going nowhere fast. In 2011, Harbaugh Year 1, Smith and those same Niners were in the NFC championship game. By Harbaugh Year 2, they were in the Super Bowl. Now you’re handing Justin Herbert to a guy who does nothing but win quick everywhere he goes? As galling as it is watching Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift rock the Super Bowl, the more gut-wrenching fact is this: The Chiefs’ greatest divisional threat isn’t rocking Orange & Blue anymore. It’s wearing Powder Blue and Gold.
McFadden: Over the past couple of seasons, there were talks about the Chargers possibly giving the Chiefs a run for their money in the AFC West. With Harbaugh, they actually have a shot in doing so. Harbaugh walks into the Chargers’ facility and is gifted an elite quarterback in Herbert. That’s like a coach’s dream come true. The Chiefs making it to a Super Bowl with a questionable wide receivers room proved to me they will continue to run the division for the foreseeable future. I’m not completely writing the Broncos off, but AFC West seems like it will turn into a two-team race between the Chiefs and Chargers.
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