The Kansas City Chiefs have arguably been in slightly worse spots during the Patrick Mahomes era, but not many.
You can look back to the team sitting at 3-4 after an embarrassing 27-3 loss in Tennessee in 2021. You can go back to 2023, when the team went 3-5 in an eight-game stretch that was capped off by a humiliating Christmas Day loss to the Raiders at home. Outside of that, you’d have to consider the result of Super Bowl 59, accompanied by an 0-2 start following a narrow 20-17 defeat in the rematch of that game on Sunday, as at least approaching rock-bottom levels—from a win/loss standpoint, anyway.
There were positives to take away from Kansas City’s loss to Philadelphia on Sunday. From a 10,000-foot overview, the Chiefs’ defense looked dialed back in after a confusing performance against the Chargers in Brazil—more on that later. Patrick Mahomes, at times, has already unlocked God mode with his play, putting an injury-hampered offense on his back to make these first two games competitive. Josh Simmons appears to be an alien athletically, and Matt Araiza boomed one of the most impressive punts I have ever seen in the second half of yesterday’s contest.
But the bottom line here is that Kansas City sits winless and will be facing an early two-game deficit in the AFC West. Is this the end of the world? Of course not. The Chiefs’ wide receiving corps is ravaged by injuries, and it is far too early in general to make a judgment on exactly what this team will become. There are 15 outcomes remaining in 2025.
While part of me is conditioned to believe that it would be less than shocking to see this team finish 14-3 or 13-4, it’s hard not to wonder if the flaws that weren’t addressed in the offseason with the roster will create a need for the fanbase to adjust expectations.
There is no need to press the panic button on the 2025 season just yet—not even close. But the Chiefs (Brett Veach, in particular) must be aware of its location in the room. Playing the Chargers in Brazil to open the season on a Friday night, followed by the defending Super Bowl champions without their WR1, WR2, and WR4 is a daunting task. The schedule does relent some in the coming weeks, but not much. How can the Chiefs fare before they are at full strength again offensively?
They travel to New York next week to take on a Giants team that could be spunky, are back home against the Ravens, then travel to Jacksonville to take on a competitive Jags team before they have the Lions at home. That’s all before Rashee Rice returns and likely without a full-strength Xavier Worthy for much of that stretch. If Kansas City escapes the first six games at .500 or better, it will be an impressive feat. The fear and floor at this point would be an 0-6 or 1-5 start, in which case you could essentially begin planning for 2026.
We’re not there yet, though. Kansas City has shown some decent glimpses at times offensively, and the defense could continue to flourish even further if their opponents aren’t allowed to false start with 60% of their offensive line in short-yardage situations.
It’s important to keep these types of thoughts and feelings in front of you, be aware of them, and process them effectively over the course of a long NFL season. But it is also okay to overreact to some things you see week to week. Be a prisoner of the moment sometimes—it helps to blow off steam. Here are my Week 2 overreactions.
The clock struck midnight on the Chiefs lucky breaks when Josh Allen was stopped on 4th and 1 in the AFC Championship Game
Josh Allen
AFC Championship Game: Buffalo Bills v Kansas City Chiefs | Todd Rosenberg/GettyImages
The 2024 Chiefs had some sort of voodoo magic working in their favor. You don’t win as many one-score games with weird things like blocked field goals as time expires and botched snaps from an opponent on game-winning drives without a little bit of that. Balls bounced their way, turnovers deflected off opponents’ hands into theirs, and that team benefited massively from a lot of good fortune throughout the course of a 15-2 regular season run and another AFC title. Now, that is all gone.
Forget about any of that being in the team’s favor this season. To start the 2025 season, the calls and balls that bounced in the Chiefs’ favor in years past are just not landing for them so far.
Whether it has been players being just slightly out of position, officials choosing to ignore certain illegal advantages for the Chiefs’ opponents, or simply not ejecting opposing players for punching people in the face, or turnover luck not being on the team’s side, this year looks a lot different from past seasons when it comes to the things the team can’t control. This team will have to win games in spite of bad breaks, not because of good ones.
That’s not to say this won’t change. When a room full of guys has as much experience at winning—and winning ugly—as the Chiefs do, you would have to expect the law of averages to bring some good fortune back onto their plates. But for now, this is not something that can be expected and certainly not relied upon. Just assume all calls will not go the way of the Chiefs, and that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. More on both of these things later.
The way the "Tush Push" is officiated has to change, immediately
Jalen Hurts
Philadelphia Eagles v Kansas City Chiefs | Jamie Squire/GettyImages
You know something is very off when a national broadcast team that includes Tom Brady is clamoring for change to something that is going against the Kansas City Chiefs. That’s exactly what we all saw and heard on Sunday in regard to the Eagles’ now-infamous Tush Push short-yardage play.
Multiple times on Sunday it was apparent to everyone watching at home and everyone at Arrowhead that the Eagles’ offensive line was getting a noticeable early jump on the snap in short-yardage situations. Everyone but the officials calling the game, that is. Even Dean Blandino stated on the broadcast, “I’m done with the tush push, it’s too tough to officiate.”
My question is—how? The quarterback sneak and its elements are not new concepts to the game of football. Nor is a false start penalty. How are we allowing a team to edit a precedent that has been set for decades just because they have a slightly different formation for the play?
The NFL has got to step up and make this an emphasis before more teams get screwed by the blatant early start that the Eagles are getting on these types of downs and distances. We’ve seen NFL officials nitpick the Chiefs’ Jawaan Taylor after similar broadcast callouts; why would this be any different?
Will it completely shut down the effectiveness of the play for Philadelphia? Absolutely not. They still have a juggernaut offensive line and one of the strongest quarterbacks in the NFL—except for when he’s getting body-bagged by Omarr Norman-Lott. But you would think that a play that was presented to be banned this offseason would be something that the officials at least have their ears perked up about.
Apparently not, thus far. I would love to see what the “refs love Chiefs” tin-foil-hat community has to say about the events of yesterday’s game.
Two of the Chiefs best players were directly responsible for the turning point in this game
Travis Kelce
Philadelphia Eagles v Kansas City Chiefs - NFL 2025 | Kevin Sabitus/GettyImages
Travis Kelce will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame promptly five years after he decides to retire from football. He’ll be in the Chiefs’ Ring of Honor before that happens. Trent McDuffie is one of, if not the best, young corners in the NFL today. Both of these players have been and will again be directly responsible for Chiefs' wins, some big ones over the years. Sunday, they were arguably directly responsible for the Chiefs’ loss to the Eagles.
In a 10-minute real-time span, the Chiefs went from knocking on the door of a 17-13 lead in the fourth quarter, and having all of the momentum in the world, to being down 20-10 to Philadelphia. A sure-fire touchdown pass from Mahomes to Kelce bounced off the Hall of Famer’s hands and into the hands of Eagles defensive back Andrew Makuba, who promptly returned the ball beyond midfield.
Even then, the Chiefs’ defense once again staggered the Eagles’ offense in their attempt to take advantage of the turnover. Philadelphia was forced into 3rd-and-10 from the Kansas City 31. Steve Spagnuolo dialed up pressure, bringing eight men on a blitz and daring Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts to do something he hadn’t done all day—connect on a deep pass downfield with pressure in his face.
Hurts was pressured, he threw a complete 50/50 jump ball down the field, and Trent McDuffie just lost it. DeVonta Smith came down with the ball at the Chiefs’ 3-yard line, and the rest was history. Illegal false-start tush pushes took over and Kansas City was essentially cooked. Can you place all of the blame on McDuffie and Kelce for the results of the game? Of course not. But you can certainly look to those two individual plays when you pinpoint exactly when the tide turned in this game.
I am not in the “Does Travis Kelce want to be a celebrity or a football player?” camp, nor am I criticizing McDuffie for one bad play or Spagnuolo for bringing eight in an obvious passing situation, leaving him on an island. Kelce and McDuffie will find the other side of this coin during the course of the 2025 season and make plays that win multiple games for the Chiefs. This outcome on this day seemed nearly inevitable at a certain point, and these two were just in the middle of that shift.