Recent CBS Sports rankings have the Kansas City Chiefs predicted to finish last in the AFC West in 2017. Here’s why that’s crazy.

Every season, football outlets push out different rankings during the offseason to keep people entertained while they’re awaiting the regular season. These rankings come in many forms; power rankings, fantasy rankings, and division rankings. These rankings are sometimes well received, and other times… Not so much. Recently, CBS Sports asked their seven analysts to rank how the divisions would play out this season. Somehow Jason La Canfora and Pete Prisco put the Kansas City Chiefs, last year’s division winners in a division that they swept, dead last. To put the Chiefs at the bottom of the AFC West is crazy, and here are a few reasons why.

Something coveted in the NFL is having a stable organization. Teams that are the epitome of this are the Steelers and Patriots. This stability has led them to multiple Super Bowls. The Chiefs have started to gain that stability, though it has yet to result in a Super Bowl. The Chiefs have 43 out of 53 players returning to the roster this season. Of those 43, 20 of them are returning starters. That little turnover is rare and not found on many other teams in the NFL. On top of this, the Chiefs’ average age is right around 26 years old. So this roster battle tested, combining for a record of 43-21 over the last four seasons. The team should continue to compete for the AFC West crown for many more years with no dip in production.

The Chiefs swept the AFC West last season. The Chiefs have not lost to a divisional opponent since Jamaal Charles fumbled against the Broncos on September 17, 2015. That is 1,095 days. They did this while being a part of the hardest division in the NFL. Everyone seems to think that the Raiders are the best team in the division and have a good shot to topple the juggernaut that is the Patriots. The issue with this is that the Raiders are not the best team in their division. The Raiders have only beat the Chiefs once since Derek Carr came to town, back on November 20, 2014. Derek Carr just cannot seem to shake the Chiefs; until Bob Sutton does not have Carr’s number, I don’t know how an analyst can continue to pick the Raiders over the Chiefs.

The adage seems to be that “defense wins championships.” Well, the Chiefs will be getting back one of the best defenses in the league. The defense will be returning fully healthy, a luxury the Chiefs haven’t had since 2015. When Justin Houston went down against the Bills and didn’t return, it changed the dynamic of the defense. No longer did we have a pass rush duo that terrorized quarterbacks from each side. Instead, the Chiefs’ pass rush dwindled to the point where they did not even eclipse 30 sacks. With Justin Houston returning healthy for the first time in almost two seasons, we should see an improvement in the Chiefs’ ability to get to the quarterback. In turn, we should see an already opportunistic secondary get even more interceptions

There are even more reasons than the ones above, but at the end of the day, to say the Chiefs are the absolute worst in their division is crazy. There is no doubt that the AFC West will be competitive this season since it is still the hardest division in football. The Chiefs have the talent and the ability to be able to go out and take the crown for the second year in a row. All we need for them to do now is to go out and do it.