{"id":40003,"date":"2025-12-18T23:39:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40003"},"modified":"2025-12-18T23:42:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:42:24","slug":"the-chiefs-had-actually-been-teetering-well-before-they-finally-fell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40003","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udea8 This Didn\u2019t Happen Overnight \u2014 The Chiefs Had Been Teetering for Weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In January, walking through the cigar smoke and blaring hip-hop of another victorious locker room inside Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach extolled his franchise\u2019s comfort with the stressful. The Chiefs had just won the AFC championship for the fifth time in seven years, having ridden some combination of magic and poise to their latest palpating victory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe team never gets rattled,\u201d Veach said. \u201cWe kind of know how every game is going to go. It\u2019s going to go down to the end. We\u2019re prepared for that. Our team relishes that and plays their best in those intense situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At the time, the sentiment provided a defining thesis for the mature phase of a modern NFL dynasty. It now reads as the last gasp of a fading power, the rationale behind the end stages of this iteration of the Chiefs. Two weeks later,\u00a0the Chiefs were annihilated in the Super Bowl. The following season has been an exercise in aggravation and shock, up to the moment last week when\u00a0Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL\u00a0and, minutes later, the Chiefs were eliminated from playoff contention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Chiefs\u2019 downfall may be a blip in Mahomes\u2019s dominance or the start of a prolonged struggle. The Chiefs will spend the winter performing an autopsy. They fell victim to a swirl of factors, from the unrelenting pressure Mahomes faced to the aging of their roster to the compounding toll of so much postseason success. In their search for answers, the Chiefs must also confront the fact their Super Bowl run last season was not so much different in quality from their 6-8 slog this season.<\/p>\n

A chasm exists between a Super Bowl appearance and Week 15 playoff elimination. In the NFL, the margins are never as large as they appear. As they went 15-2 last regular season, the Chiefs outscored opponents by 3.5 points per game, 11th in the NFL. This year, the Chiefs have outscored opponents by 4.3 points per game, 11th in the NFL and better than likely playoff teams such as the Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Chargers and Chicago Bears.<\/p>\n

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Advanced metrics back up the Chiefs\u2019 relatively static performance despite an inferior record. On a per game basis, the Chiefs improved over last season in offensive expected points added and essentially stayed level on defense.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Their performance in close games has swung from one extreme to the other. The Chiefs went 11-0 in games decided by eight points or less last season. They\u00a0cast their success in the clutch\u00a0as vital experience after outlasting the Buffalo Bills by three points in the AFC title game. It has proved unsustainable: They are 1-7 this year in one-possession games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That variance only struck because the Chiefs, unable to separate from opponents, left themselves exposed to it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhen you lose close games, you search,\u201d Coach Andy Reid said. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s a penalty here. Sometimes it\u2019s a turnover here. It\u2019s always one little thing that determines close games. We\u2019ve had our share of those, and you can\u2019t have those. It could be, called the wrong play at the wrong time. We\u2019ve all got a piece of this thing. You got to keep striving to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As much as it stings, the Chiefs will welcome one aspect of missing the postseason. They played 21 playoff games in Mahomes\u2019s first seven years as a starter, reaching five Super Bowls and never falling short of the AFC championship game. No other team played more than 13 playoff games over that span. They essentially endured an extra 1\u00bc seasons \u2014 more than seven months of physical toil and exhaustive game-planning other franchises could use on recharging, research and roster management.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhen we talk about Andy not being a dinosaur, the first thought that comes to my mind, they\u2019ve never had a season-ending meeting on the first Monday,\u201d said former Chiefs assistant coach Brad Childress, Reid\u2019s close friend. \u201cWith all the extra time he has right now, he might delve into even more creativity. What else fits us? Breaking the mold a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Chiefs could use an update to an offense that defenses have caught up with. Reid\u2019s spread scheme, which married principles from the West Coast offense he ran for decades and the Air Raid that Mahomes operated in college, forced opposing defenses to adapt to them. He reaped the benefit of\u00a0innovating first\u00a0with a quarterback who could execute anything he imagined.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As defenses evolved to suppress the Chiefs\u2019 style, though, Kansas City\u2019s offense \u2014 whether through schematic decay or talent limitation \u2014 failed to adapt. The Chiefs\u2019 dominance created a defensive environment designed to stifle them, and they didn\u2019t or couldn\u2019t adjust.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou\u2019ve got to stay ahead of the game as a coach,\u201d Reid said. \u201cThat\u2019s every offseason. That\u2019s the challenge. Sometimes, when you\u2019re good for the period of time we\u2019ve been doing well, you\u2019re not picking very high in the draft. You make things work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As offenses mimicked the Chiefs by spreading the field with speed, defenses shifted toward lighter, faster players. The NFL\u2019s best offenses this season have thrived with heavy personnel, using extra tight ends and offensive linemen to batter defenses built for speed. Offenses moved under center with greater frequency, allowing more and better opportunity for play-action passes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mahomes rarely played from under center this season, and when he did, the Chiefs typically faltered. Excluding fourth downs, only the Washington Commanders, Atlanta Falcons and Cincinnati Bengals ran fewer plays under center than Kansas City. When operating from under center on the first three downs, the Chiefs ranked 27th in success rate, better than only the Las Vegas Raiders, Cleveland Browns, Tennessee Titans, Commanders and New Orleans Saints.<\/div>\n
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For years, Childress said, Reid has used a particular benchmark to gauge offensive success: If his team\u2019s rush attempts plus pass completions totaled 53 or more, he could expect to win. This year, the Chiefs went undefeated when they reached 53 \u2014 but hit the mark only four times. They went 2-8 in the 10 games they did not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Chiefs\u2019 inability to control games stemmed from a shaky offensive line, which lost star guard Joe Thuney and suffered injuries this season. Mahomes\u2019s deep passing regressed, and Childress theorized it might have been a by-product of the his constant scrambling and the hits he<\/p>\n

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\u201cEverybody talks about defending the second play from K.C.,\u201d Childress said, but too often instant pass rush scuttled the Chiefs\u2019 actual play call. \u201cIt starts up front. They haven\u2019t been up to the task, whether it\u2019s because of injury, talent, whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As they amassed close victories last season, they benefited from good fortune but also excelled on the margins. The details they aced in 2024 turned into malfunctions this year. A prime example: Their minus-25.4 expected points added on special teams ranks 28th, ahead of only the Browns, Falcons, Arizona Cardinals and Saints.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Chiefs\u2019 pillars also aged out of excellence. At 36, tight end Travis Kelce provided spasms of production but lacked explosiveness as both a pass catcher and blocker. Defensive tackle Chris Jones dominated in spurts but not consistently.<\/p>\n

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The Chiefs will be a different team when they reassemble next season. Might that include their coach? Reid, 67, is the second-oldest coach in the NFL behind Pete Carroll, four years older than John Harbaugh, the third-oldest. Reid faced questions about retirement in the lead-up to the Super Bowl last season. On the day after Mahomes tore his ACL, though, Reid referenced his offseason work multiple times, sounding like a coach who intends to return.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI can\u2019t see him ending on an out,\u201d Childress said. \u201cI can\u2019t see him ending that way. He truly enjoys it. He needs very little sleep. He\u2019s got a great system. He\u2019s got great assistant coaches. Could I see him going five more? Yeah. One more? Yeah. But I don\u2019t know that he\u2019s out after this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For the first time in nearly a decade, Reid will spend January regrouping. He won\u2019t know the availability of his quarterback until summer \u2014 on Wednesday, Chiefs vice president of sports medicine and performance Rick Burkholder said the average return from Mahomes\u2019s surgery would take nine months, give or take two months. Regardless of Mahomes\u2019s status, Reid will face the new challenge of resetting his franchise rather than building on runaway success.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not happy about it. Neither is anybody here,\u201d Reid said. \u201cWe strive for excellence. We try to do that every year. Things happen, though, in this league. There\u2019s a ton of parity and sometimes you end up on the short end of it. You\u2019ve got to go back and look at things. That can be healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kansas City has all winter to try to find out what went wrong this season, though the problems emerged even while the franchise was winning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kansas-city-chiefs"],"yoast_head":"\n\ud83d\udea8 This Didn\u2019t Happen Overnight \u2014 The Chiefs Had Been Teetering for Weeks - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40003\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\ud83d\udea8 This Didn\u2019t Happen Overnight \u2014 The Chiefs Had Been Teetering for Weeks - 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