The division was formed in 1960 as the
American Football League's Western Division. In 1970, as part of the new NFL's two-conference, six-division alignment, the AFL West entered the merged league more or less intact as the AFC West. The original AFL West had four members – the Dallas Texans (who moved to Kansas City in 1963 as the
Chiefs),
Denver Broncos,
Los Angeles Chargers (who moved to San Diego in 1961, then back to Los Angeles in 2017) and
Oakland Raiders (who moved to Los Angeles in 1982, back to Oakland in 1995, and Las Vegas in 2020). These four teams have remained in the AFL/AFC West since its inception, and are currently the only teams in the division. Given the fact that all four teams have played each other in the same division since 1960, the AFC West could be considered the oldest division (in its present form) in the NFL. Additionally, since the four teams have played each other at least twice a year for over 60 years, the entire division is considered one very large and very heated rivalry. The
Cincinnati Bengals played the last two AFL seasons in the AFL West despite being further east than
Houston, where the
Houston Oilers played at the time and were members of the
AFL Eastern Division. The Bengals (along with the Oilers) moved to the AFC Central (formerly the
NFL Century Division, now the
AFC North) in 1970, forming rivalries with the
Cleveland Browns and the
Pittsburgh Steelers. In 1977, the
Seattle Seahawks were added to the AFC West after spending their
expansion season in the
NFC West; they would move back to the NFC West in 2002. The
first-year Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976 played as a member of the AFC West before being aligned into the
NFC Central in 1977. Each of the four AFC West teams won a division title in the first four years of the realignment –
Oakland in 2002,
Kansas City in 2003,
San Diego in 2004 and
Denver in 2005. It is the only one of the eight NFL divisions to have all of its teams win titles in the first four seasons of the North-East-West-South format. In the early and mid-2000s, the division was often cited as one of the NFL's "Toughest Divisions" due partially to the home-field advantages of
Empower Field at Mile High,
Arrowhead Stadium,
Qualcomm Stadium and the
Oakland Coliseum, although
in 2008 the division was the NFL's weakest since the
AFC Central in 1985 by sending the
San Diego Chargers to the playoffs as division winners with an 8–8 record while the
New England Patriots missed out at 11–5 after losing out on conference record tiebreakers for both the
AFC East and the
wild-card. In
2010, the Raiders swept the entire division, going 6–0, but failed to qualify for the playoffs as they only won two non-divisional games. The division was very weak in
2011 as well, when a loss by the Raiders in the last game of the season gave the Broncos the division title with only an 8–8 record. Only the
NFC West in 2010, the
NFC South in 2014 and 2022, and the
NFC East in 2020 have historically sent a worse division winner to the playoffs, when the
Seahawks (themselves a former AFC West member) won that division with a 7–9 record, the
Panthers won the
NFC South division with a 7–8–1 record, the
Washington Football Team won the
NFC East division with a 7–9 record, and the
Buccaneers won the
NFC South with an 8–9 record. Along with the AFC (formerly AFL) East, the AFC West is the oldest NFL division in terms of creation date (1960). ==Division lineups==