How Jim Harbaugh Impressed the AFC West in Year 1

Here's what the Chargers division foes said about Harbaugh and his team heading into the 2025 offseason

Feb 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM

Eric Smith

Editorial Director

The AFC West is full of star power at head coach.

While Jim Harbaugh obviously leads the Bolts, the rest of the division features coaches with some championship hardware.

Here's what the AFC West said about Harbaugh and the Chargers in Indianapolis:

Denver Broncos

General Manager George Paton

On the value of the Combine

"I always talk about how it is a race for information. You're just gathering more information on these players. You can get all the testing and that's great for the analytics guys. The scouts are always (saying), 'Does this validate my report or not?' But Sean [Payton] said it, it's just getting to know these players face to face, even though it's only 20 minutes. Then, you can go to the informals. It's another step in the process to get to know these players and we're making big decisions on these players. We want to really get to know them."

Head Coach Sean Payton

On the other AFC West coaches

"I'm the youngest. Thanks, Pete. Listen, we've had so many good games and battles when he was at Seattle. Sometimes it's coincidence. Without a doubt you know that your division opponent is going to be extremely well coached. And that's just proof I the pudding with all three of those guys."

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Kansas City Chiefs

General Manager Brett Veach

On the head coaches in the AFC West

"It's outstanding... Between [Carroll], Coach Payton, Coach Harbaugh and Coach Reid, it's an all-star lineup. We had a really successful regular season, went 15-1, but if you look at the games we played against the Chargers, against the Broncos, they were probably our toughest games and our most physical games. That's not going to change, and those teams are only going to add to what they have talentwise and get better. It will certainly be a challenge just to win the division next year, that's the mindset we have going into the offseason."

Head Coach Andy Reid

On lessons from Super Bowl loss

"Yeah, it was a bad day to have a bad day, for sure. Like all games, you can learn some things from it. It hurts for a few days, and then you move on quickly. So you get about three days into it, you mope around a little bit, and then all of a sudden you're on to free agency and you're doing your thing. Players have left the building and taking a little time off, so they curve it back to the next year, and we're fortunate to have enough nucleus of good players that will be joining us and giving us an opportunity to have a 2025 productive season and still compete."

On Travis Kelce possibly retiring

"That's up to Travis. At this point, you get out of town and relax, you know, that's kind of my motto for these guys. They played a lot of games, and a lot for a consistent amount of seasons here. And so you get to the end of the thing, you've exhausted yourself mentally and physically, step back and take care of that, then we'll talk. But for right now, I think that's what he's doing."