The 2025 season has been a strange one for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. If the season ended today, the Chiefs would be on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoff picture and that's just not something Chiefs fans are used to after making the postseason every year since 2014.
If that result holds, it'd be the first time in his professional career that Mahomes didn't make the playoffs. So, what gives? Why are the Chiefs struggling so badly in 2025?
Surprise, surprise but Colin Cowherd might have an idea as to why. In fact, he might have a couple of reasons why Mahomes and the Chiefs have underwhelmed in a big way this year. The first being that Mahomes himself has not been great.
"Part of Kansas City's problem is Patrick Mahomes. In the last two seasons he has not been in Josh Allen's galaxy."@colincowherd thinks the Chiefs need a full reboot pic.twitter.com/ZoalQfRrL4
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) November 18, 2025
"Part of Kansas City's problem is Patrick Mahomes. In the last two seasons, he has not been in Josh Allen's galaxy. Josh has been more accurate, Josh gets to the end zone more, Josh uses his legs to a greater degree, and he's just a better runner. Right now, Mahomes is not Josh Allen last two years, and Patrick's become kind of a bad road quarterback this year. This year, he's 4-1 at home. On the road, he barely completes 60% of his throws. His passer rating in the low 80s, 81."
The first thing that Chiefs fans will point out here is that Mahomes has proven to be the better quarterback than Allen come postseason time, winning all of their matchups against each other in the playoffs. Mahomes also has five Super Bowl appearances and three Super Bowl wins to Allen's zero appearances. But Cowherd isn't wrong when pointing out that Mahomes has struggled on the road this year and if the Chiefs get into the playoffs, they'll likely be doing so as a wild card team so that is something to be mindful of.
Another reason Cowherd thinks this year has gone poorly for Mahomes and the Chiefs is that the AFC West is finally competitive for the first time in a long time. That's because the head coaches in the division are finally competent.
"Mahomes was crushing in this division. Denver had Nate Hackett and Vic Fangio as a head coach. The Chargers had Brandon Staley and Anthony Lynn. And the Raiders had Josh McDaniels and Antonio Pierce. Yeah, that whole Jim Harbaugh, Sean Payton thing, that feels different. It lands different."
It's hard to deny what Cowherd is saying here. Chiefs fans knew when the Broncos brought in Sean Payton and the Chargers brought in Jim Harbaugh (and even the Raiders hiring Pete Carroll even if Year 1 of that hasn't gone well), that coasting to an AFC West title wasn't going to happen anymore. Teams have finally caught up to the Chiefs in the coaching battle and that was not the case for quite some time.
Say what you want about Cowherd and how annoying he is at times but he's not wrong in anything he said here. Mahomes has struggled on the road this year and the AFC West is a much different division now that there are competent head coaches alongside Andy Reid.
It's an unfortunate reality for Chiefs fans but their time at the top of the AFC West could be over. How long it's over for, however, is up to them and the decisions they make after this season is over will determine if it's over for good or just over for now.