Photo via Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Just under one month ago, ESPN’s Mike Clay released his predictions for the 2017 NFL season where he surprisingly selected the Los Angeles Chargers to win the AFC West.

Clay has the Bolts finishing with 8.7 wins, which is 0.2 more than the Oakland Raiders.

Updated 2017 NFL standings/playoff seed and 2018 Draft Order projections: pic.twitter.com/Or1pY9CO1t

— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) June 14, 2017

To the casual fan, this may seem preposterous. However, Clay is not wrong about just how dramatically improved the Chargers will be in 2017.

Read more on Chargers Wire!