The Kansas City Chiefs got flat-out embarrassed by the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, losing 26–9 to a team that entered the week just 2–12 and tied for the worst record in football. You can make excuses for the loss. The Chiefs didn’t have Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs lost backup quarterback Gardner Minshew to an ACL injury early in the game and had to turn to third-string quarterback Chris Oladokun. All valid, but ultimately this game was an embarrassment and a wasted opportunity because of the horrendous approach by KC’s coaching staff.
Normally, I would start a critique of this coaching staff by prefacing my complaints with an acknowledgment of all they have accomplished in the past. “Andy Reid has done more for the Chiefs… blah, blah, blah,” but after what I just watched, I can’t even stomach typing those words. This was a complete failure of the coaching staff from a philosophical, game-plan, and motivational perspective. They gave the Chiefs no possible way to come out of this game with anything meaningful achieved.
The Chiefs coaching staff decided they were going to approach this game as if it were business as usual. Yes, Patrick Mahomes was out and the Chiefs were eliminated from the playoffs, but they thought the best thing to do was just swap in Gardner Minshew, surround him with the veterans who know the system best, and keep doing the same things that got them to a 6–8 record with arguably the best quarterback in the league at the helm.
No increased playing time for young players who weren’t getting snaps while the Chiefs were still clinging to their postseason dreams. No need to evaluate how any young players might step up if given a chance and see if they might be part of the solution next season. Just the same “trust the system” approach that didn’t work all season, even when they had Mahomes. What is the point of that?!
Seriously, what’s the best possible outcome from that approach? They win an ugly game over a 2–12 team and drop their draft slot a little while playing guys who likely aren’t going to be here next year. How can that be the goal? Am I taking crazy pills here? Let’s play out their plan. Gardner Minshew doesn’t get hurt and leads KC to a victory while peppering JuJu Smith-Schuster with targets and handing the ball off to Isiah Pacheco, watching him run into the back of his offensive line over and over. How is that the plan?
Meanwhile, most of KC’s 2025 rookie class just sits on the bench picking their noses all game long. What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here? KC was down a starting linebacker and Jeffrey Bassa didn’t sniff the field, but boy oh boy did Jack Cochrane get some run. Nohl Williams has flashed all season, but let’s bench him in favor of free-agent bust Kristian Fulton. Why give Jalen Royals any reps when you can keep not picking up first downs with JuJu and Hollywood Brown getting all the snaps? They could have at least given Royals some return work on special teams, but then we would have missed the opportunity to see Nikko Remigio take a helmet to the groin.
Then there’s the running back position. First off, in a game that was close for the first three quarters—with KC playing their backup and then third-string quarterback and their third-string tackles—the Chiefs only gave their running backs 11 carries. That’s right: ELEVEN CARRIES. To make matters worse, in this meaningless game they gave all 11 of those carries to two backs who may not even be on the roster next season. Did they at least get Brashard Smith involved in the passing game? Oh no, no, no. Why get your rookie involved in the passing game when you can give Pacheco seven targets?
So the Chiefs gave their rookie running back almost no work outside of running motions back and forth out of the slot and kept Dameon Pierce inactive so they could try to beat a 2–12 team with two veteran backs on expiring contracts when they’d already been eliminated from the playoffs. Again, what is the point? What good can be gained from this?
The Chiefs’ embarrassing loss to the Titans exposed a coaching staff with no plan, no urgency, and no interest in using a lost season to develop its young players.
The only logical thing I can come up with is that they wanted to see if Gardner Minshew could be trusted to run their regular offense if Mahomes has to miss time to start next season. That’s a valuable thing to learn, but you couldn’t learn that while also giving Brashard Smith a couple of carries or a couple of those checkdowns in the passing game? Did Bassa or Nohl Williams not playing help them evaluate Minshew? I don’t think so, and the fact that Minshew didn’t even play most of the game makes that argument pointless anyway.
If the Chiefs want to lose and get a better draft pick, then at least play the young guys and get them some meaningful experience. If you really think winning this game will help the mindset and culture going into the offseason, then how about outcoaching the 2–12 Titans? How about having your team fired up and ready to play? How about cleaning up the nonstop penalty parade? The Chiefs coaches did none of that. They failed on every possible front in this game. They accomplished nothing but making the entire team feel worse about itself.
The Chiefs coaching staff’s approach to this game was stupid. I don’t like saying that, but it’s true. Maybe they were too lazy to want to try a bunch of new things or coach up players who haven’t seen the field much this season. Maybe it was a combination of stubbornness and ego—thinking that their system is so good that the best plan is always to just trust the system and the players who know it—but it was clearly a flawed and bad plan.
I have never been on the fire Andy Reid or Steve Spagnuolo bandwagon. I still think they’re good coaches, but they don’t deserve anything but criticism for how they’ve handled this team being eliminated from the playoffs. Their performance on Sunday against the Titans was an embarrassment. It wasn’t because they were on their third-string quarterback and offensive tackles; it was because their approach had no upside and wasted an opportunity to coach up some young players and see if they have potential.
Do the Chiefs really expect people to give up their family time on Christmas Day to watch them just go through the motions against the Denver Broncos on Thursday night? Does anyone want to spend their Christmas watching an offense centered on Isiah Pacheco and JuJu Smith-Schuster? Anyone hoping Santa Claus brings them more Jack Cochrane and Kristian Fulton snaps? Chiefs fans may appreciate all this coaching staff has done in the past, but they don’t have to tolerate a pointless and impotent approach to the end of this season. I don’t know that I even want to turn on my television and watch that on Christmas, let alone go out to Arrowhead and watch it live.
The Chiefs coaching staff needs to look in the mirror and think about what is best for this team over the next two games. It can’t be more of what we saw on Sunday against the Titans. I’ll end this rant by quoting the immortal words of Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation. When I think about this cursed season finally coming to an end so that I don’t have to be let down by this coaching staff anymore, all I can say is, “Hallelujah! Holy $#!&! Where’s the Tylenol?”
