Over the course of eight days, we will be unveiling our All-Division teams here at CBSSports.com. What does that entail? We're picking a quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, two tight ends, five offensive linemen, two defensive ends, two defensive tackles, four linebackers, three cornerbacks and two safeties from each division that we believe will have the best 2016 season. Over the last few weeks, we've narrowed down the final roster, and we'll present them in this space. We'll continue today with the AFC West.
Quarterback
Even during Derek Carr's breakout 2015 season, you can still make a reasonable argument that Philip Rivers was the better player. Rivers had the edge in completion percentage (he led the NFL in both completed and attempted passes), yards per attempt, passer rating, and QBR.
Plus, as our Sean Wagner-McGough showed a few weeks ago, there are reasons to be concerned about Carr's second-half slump. Until the young Raider shows that the potential he showed during the first half of 2015 is more real than the other season-and-a-half of his career, Rivers is still the best bet to be the best quarterback out west.
Running Back
Jamaal Charles is coming off a torn ACL. That's concerning. The last time he was coming off a torn ACL, though, all Charles did was run for a career-high 1,509 yards.
He was 25 for most of that season and 29 now, so maybe he won't bounce back quite as strong, but Charles has never had a fully healthy season as the starter in which he's failed to run for 1,000 yards. He's also never averaged fewer than 5.0 yards per carry in any season, healthy or not, starter or not. His career average of 5.5 per carry is the single best mark among the 197 players in NFL history with at least 1,000 carries.
The history is definitive: When Charles is on the field, he's one of the league's best running backs. There's no reason to expect that to stop being the case in 2016.
We couldn't decide which of the Broncos' running backs (C.J. Anderson or Ronnie Hillman) was more likely to be the better player this coming season, so we settled on Latavius Murray as a fallback option. He's taken his 348 career carries for 1,490 yards and eight touchdowns. There are worse running backs out there.
Wide Receiver
Through the first three years of the Peyton Manning Era in Denver, Demaryius Thomas averaged 99 catches for 1,494 yards and 12 touchdowns. That was with Manning playing at just about as high a level as anyone has ever played the quarterback position. With Manning a shell of himself in 2015 and Brock Osweiler not exactly lighting the world on fire, Thomas still managed to post a season of 105 catches for 1,304 yards and six scores.
Whether the Broncos have Mark Sanchez or Paxton Lynch under center in 2016, Thomas is going to be fed a ton of targets. And when he gets targets, he produces big numbers.
In post-merger NFL history, Amari Cooper's 72 catches during his rookie season are the 15th best. His 1,070 receiving yards and seventh best.
He's an absurdly precise route-runner that often creates two-to-three yards' worth of separation from his man; and even when he doesn't, his body control is so good and his hands are so strong that he usually comes down with the ball anyway. He and Carr will grow together over the next few years, helping each other get better along the way.
Keenan Allen had 71 catches in 15 games as a rookie, 77 in 14 games as a sophomore, and was on pace for 134 when he got seriously injured on a ridiculous touchdown catch in the Chargers' eighth game last season.
Keenan Allen has made a zillion catches this season but none of them looked like THIS. #SDvsBALhttps://t.co/v4iwaTmxzF
— NFL (@NFL) November 1, 2015
The presence of Travis Benjamin as a deep threat should open things up a bit more for Allen underneath. Philip Rivers will find him often. He always does.
Tight End
Antonio Gates is a legend, one of the best tight ends in NFL history. His snap share has decreased a bit over the last few years as he's aged, but he still changes the way the defense operates when he's on the field, especially in the red zone. He should play a greater helping of snaps now that Ladarius Green is in Pittsburgh rather than Southern California, and when Gates is on the field for big snaps, he usually puts up big numbers.
Over Travis Kelce's two seasons as the starter, the only tight ends with more catches (139) are Greg Olsen, Delanie Walker, Rob Gronkowski, Martellus Bennett, and Jason Witten. The only tight ends with more receiving yards (1,737) are Gronkowski, Olsen, and Walker.
It's somewhat unfortunate that he's paired with a quarterback (Alex Smith) that is not physically equipped to take full advantage of Kelce's capabilities as a downfield receiving option, but so long as he remains the 1B target to Jeremy Maclin's 1A (or the other way around), he should continue to produce at a high level.
Offensive Linemen
Donald Penn, Raiders; Kelechi Osemele, Raiders; Gabe Jackson, Raiders; Rodney Hudson, Raiders; Mitchell Schwartz, Chiefs
The offseason addition of Osemele (and retention of Penn) pushed the Raiders into a tier with only the Dallas Cowboys in terms of offensive line strength. It was tempting to just use all five of their guys as the All-Division offensive line. The way the line has come together in a very short period of time is really impressive.
Penn was signed away from Tampa Bay two years ago and has had arguably his two best seasons since. Hudson was signed away from the Chiefs last offseason and immediately had his best year. Jackson was drafted in 2014 and became an immediate quality starter, then improved in his second season. Osemele has been one of the NFL's best guards for a while and even excelled at tackle last season. Now he's moving back inside to play on an even better line.
Austin Howard is a quality player and showed improvement kicking back outside to right tackle after a season at guard, but Schwartz may have been the NFL's best right tackle last season. He allowed only 11 combined sacks and hits last season, per Pro Football Focus, and he had a solid run-blocking season as well. Oh, and he hasn't missed a snap since entering the league.
Defensive End
Khalil Mack's four-sack rookie season looked a bit disappointing on the surface, but the fact that he had 52 pressures meant improvement in 2015 was likely coming. And come it did.
Mack leapt from four sacks to 15, and improved on that pressure figure as well, finishing the year with 84. He's still two or three years away from his physical prime and he's already one of the best pass rushers in football. He showed in Year 2 that he is more than capable of handling himself in the run game as well (his 54 run stops, per PFF, led all edge defenders).
Big things are in store for this guy over the next decade or so.
The Broncos re-signed Derek Wolfe to a bargain of a deal by getting him to put pen to paper during the playoffs rather than after the Super Bowl. They've got to be happy he's back on a four-year, $36.7 million contract, especially after losing Malik Jackson following his big playoff run. Wolfe was no slouch himself during the playoffs, notching 15 tackles and 2.5 sacks in three games.
Defensive Tackle
Dontari Poe returned from a one-game injury absence and resumed his form as one of the best run-stuffers in the league. He's not much of a pass-rusher, but his presence in the middle of the Kansas City defense helped fuel their rise from a bottom-third ranked defense over the first six games of the year to the NFL's second-best unit during their 10-0 stretch run. And he can still be on the field for third downs because his ability to push blockers into the backfield.
Corey Liuget is probably overpaid and he didn't have his best year in 2015, but even in that down season he was strong against the run, which is his biggest responsibility. With Joey Bosa now sharing his defensive line, Liuget should receive less attention from the offensive line and thus be able to make more plays.
Linebacker
If Mack isn't the best edge player in football, then Von Miller might be. The Super Bowl MVP has 60 sacks in five seasons, sixth-most in NFL history, despite the fact that he's also missed eight games during that time. His new contract is totally justified, considering he's coming off a playoff run in which he had seven sacks and 30 pressures, and oh yeah, single-handedly altered the Super Bowl.
Faced with a choice between keeping one of their two starting inside linebackers, the Broncos kept the slightly-more-expensive Brandon Marshall over Danny Trevathan, who left for the Bears. Marshall plays with superstars all around him on the field, but he's a good player in his own right. Marshall was one of the best run-defenders in the NFL among inside linebackers, expertly working through the trash to find the ball-carrier.
Justin Houston is coming off a serious injury and may not be on the field for the full season, but when he's out there, he's damn tough to handle. His 56 sacks in 70 games put him pretty close to Miller in terms of production through five seasons.
Derrick Johnson came back from a torn Achilles that robbed him of all but one game in 2014 to make the Pro Bowl once again during the 2015 season. He was as big a part of Kansas City's defensive turnaround as anybody else. As long as these guys are on the field, they're good bets to produce.
Cornerback
Chris Harris is the best slot corner in football. He's also shown himself over the last few years to be a heck of an outside corner as well. He has as good an argument as anybody in the league for the title of Best Active Cornerback. Per PFF, he gave up less than 1 yard allowed per snap in coverage for the fourth straight year. He's the only cornerback to do that.
Aqib Talib isn't quite as consistent or as solid as his teammate due to the chances he takes when making plays on the ball, but he makes enough plays that he's a top-flight corner himself. The combination of this duo and Denver's pass rush make the Broncos the NFL's best defense.
Marcus Peters led the NFL with eight interceptions during his rookie season and also returned a league-high two of them for touchdowns. His 26 pass breakups also tied for the NFL lead. Those numbers are all impacted by the fact that he was the most-targeted corner in the league, which is why his seven touchdowns allowed were also nearly the most for any corner. He benefited from having Eric Berry next to him in the secondary but, well, that'll still be the case in 2016.
Safety
Eric Berry returned from his battle with leukemia to make the Pro Bowl and be named a first-team All-Pro. In other words, he was still Eric Berry. We expect that to continue, assuming he eventually reports despite the fact that he didn't get a long-term deal.
T.J. Ward isn't quite as heralded as Harris and Talib or Miller and DeMarcus Ware, but his presence on the back end of the Denver defense is vital to what they do. They couldn't send as much pressure or use their corners the way they do without Ward roaming all over the field and helping out at all levels. Wade Phillips knows what he has in Ward and will continue finding creative ways to move him around.
