In the fourth installment of our cross-sport doppelgangers series, we wrap up our coverage of the AFC with a look at the AFC West. We pair up every team in the division with an MLB or NBA franchise that boasts an uncanny list of similarities. Check out this week’s comparisons below and come back next week as we roll out our cross-sport doppelgangers for the NFC.

Here is a look at our past cross-sport doppelgangers: AFC East | AFC North | AFC South

Denver Broncos = Miami Heat

These franchises are bonded by multiple titles and iconic players.

The Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998, driven by iconic stars such as John Elway, Terrell Davis and Rod Smith. That is awfully similar to what happened in Miami a couple years ago, when the star trio of LeBron James, Dewayne Wade and Chris Bosh led the Heat to consecutive championships.

Both franchises are currently under the guidance of iconic team presidents. In Denver, Elway returned to lead the Broncos back to greatness. It started with his winning the Peyton Manning sweepstakes back in 2012 (just like the Heat won the LBJ sweepstakes two years earlier) and continued with strong drafting and an aggressive attitude in free agency. In Miami, Pat Riley has been similarly shrewd in recruiting key veterans to keep his team in championship contention year in and year out.

And although Elway is an executive now, his better parallel with the Heat might be D-Wade. Elway is synonymous with the Broncos in the same way Wade is synonymous with the Heat.

Also, both teams lost in the championship round last season in humiliating fashion, with the Broncos getting destroyed by the Seahawks, 43-8, and the Heat falling in five games to the Spurs, getting outscored by a Finals-record 70 points.

Kansas City Chiefs = Cincinnati Reds

Here are the ties that bind these franchises: they are frequent postseason contenders with multiple championships on their resumes (but none recently). Basically, these franchises never stay down for long, but championship memories are fast becoming foggy.

The Chiefs have gone longer without conquering the Big One, winning the Super Bowl after the 1969 season and not getting back to the title game since. But there have been plenty of opportunities: Since 1986, the Chiefs have made the playoffs 12 times. Unfortunately, the last seven trips to the playoffs have been of the one-and-done variety.

The Reds know all about playoff frustration. Cincinnati went one-and-done in its last three trips to the postseason (2010, 2012, 2013). The Reds have claimed a championship more recently, taking the World Series title in 1990, but before that the team had not won a title since 1976. There are more dry patches on Cincinnati’s postseason resume — including 1996-2009, plus all of the 80’s — but we’ll overlook that because it is more challenging to make the playoffs in baseball, where until 1994 only a maximum of four teams could qualify for the tournament.

From 1960 (the inaugural Chiefs season) until now, both teams have won three titles. The Chiefs won AFL titles in 1962 (as the Dallas Texans) and 1966 (before dropping the first-ever Super Bowl), in addition to the Super Bowl win mentioned above. The Reds won World series titles in 1975, 1976 and 1990 (they also won titles in 1919 and 1940).

Both squads can also hang their hats on the fact they have won more than they’ve lost. The Reds have an all-time win percentage of .508, less than a tenth of a percent below the Chiefs (.515).

Oakland Raiders = Houston Astros

It wasn’t that long ago the Astros were good. Houston lost in the NLCS in seven games in 2004, then came back and advanced all the way to the World Series the following season. In all, the Astros have been to the playoffs six times since 1990.

The same can be said of the Raiders. Although the franchise once known by the phrase, “Just win, baby” has done nothing but lose lately, the Raiders were in the Super Bowl as recently as the 2002 season, where they were smacked by the Buccaneers. Like the Astros, the Raiders have six playoff appearances since 1990.  And like the Astros, Oakland has not been back to the postseason since losing on the Grandest Stage of Them All.

Lately, both of these franchises have been nothing short of terrible. The Astros have finished no better than fourth in their division every season since 2009. Things were especially bad between 2011-2013, when Houston won an average of just 54 games per season. The Raiders have been even worse, failing to post a winning record since that Super Bowl appearance and only recently snapping a losing streak that stretched beyond a calendar year.

All the losing caused the Astros to make a coaching change this offseason, replacing Bo Porter with A.J. Hinch. The Raiders are also in the midst of a coaching change, with interim coach Tony Sparano filling in for the fired Dennis Allen until the Raiders can tab a new head coach in the coming offseason.

San Diego Chargers = Denver Nuggets

The connection here is an easy one: both have produced some highly successful eras, especially offensively, but neither team has been able to get over the hump and bring home the hardware.

San Diego’s history shows four contending windows: 1) the Chargers made the playoffs five out of six years between 1960 and 1965 (including an AFL Championship); 2) the Bolts were back in the postseason four years in a row from 1979 to 1982; 3) the team made the tournament three times in a four-year span from 1992 to 1995 (including the franchise’s lone Super Bowl appearance); and 4) the Chargers made the postseason five times in the six-year stretch from 2004 to 2009.

Those four eras can be summed up by four big names: Sid Gillman, Dan Fouts, Junior Seau and LaDainian Tomlinson, respectively.

The Nuggets have been through three eras of contention: 1) Denver made the playoffs nine years in a row from 1981-1982 to 1989-1990; 2) the Nuggets pried open a brief two-year window from 1993-1994 to 1994-1995, which included becoming the first No. 8 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in the NBA’s modern playoff format; and 3) the team enjoyed another long (10 year) window that ran from 2003-2004 to 2012-2013.

As was the case with San Diego, you can easily tie a name to each of Denver’s eras: Alex English, Dikembe Mutumbo and Carmelo Anthony.

Both of these franchises find ways to create and sustain success. Unfortunately, despite the fact both franchises have assembled great teams built around elite players, neither has captured the biggest prize in their respective sports.