The 2025 season has not gone the way Kansas City Chiefs fans were expecting. Considering that this team has been in five of the last six Super Bowls, seeing them sit at 6-6 after 12 games and in jeopardy of missing the playoffs for the first time in 11 years is a strange sight to say the least.

So what exactly has been the problem for Kansas City this year? Former Patriots defensive back and current NFL analyst Devin McCourty said it’s simply a case of the rest of the league finally catching up to them.

“I think for the Chiefs, the truth of the matter is everyone else around them just got better,” McCourty said on The Dan Patrick Show. “I think this Chiefs team is actually better than the team last year that made it to the Super Bowl, but the Broncos are better. The Chargers are better… Like you look at all of these other teams that got better.”

Devin McCourty says Chiefs aren’t worse than a year ago, but that other teams got better

This is a fair take from McCourty. The Chiefs have played these teams tough but the difference from the past few years where they’d find a way to win is that those games typically came against inexperienced or poorly coached teams. That’s not the case anymore now that Sean Payton is in Denver, Jim Harbaugh is coaching the Chargers, and so on and so forth.

McCourty saying this year’s team is better than last year’s Chiefs team is also a fair assessment. The Chiefs have better talent offensively, their offensive line is better (at least when everyone is healthy), and the defense still has Steve Spagnuolo leading the charge. But, as McCourty pointed out, teams have caught up to the Chiefs and it’s showing big time this year.

It was only a matter of time before the rest of the teams in the AFC and AFC West were able to catch K.C. and eventually pass them. Hopefully this pushes Brett Veach not to simply sit back and be content with the guys he has on the roster but to make serious moves that can help the Chiefs get back to where they belong, which is in the Super Bowl. Otherwise, it’s only going to get worse from here.