The only thing about the west is they do have to play each other which will peg them each back in the way that the steelers and bengals and Ravens always let each other back - chiefs raiders, broncos raiders, chiefs broncos all have to play each other twice and don't forget the chargers may not be an awful team either - either they peg each other back or one of them will fall off
I'm by no means down playing how hard it will be to get in the playoffs - chris Simms has 6 of the best 7 teams in the NFL being in the AFC this year: pats, chiefs, raiders, broncos, steelers, Ravens and unfortunately because of the AFC south one of those teams won't go