Kick 'Em Out 2025: Kansas City Chiefs

It was a cruel autumn for the Kansas City Chiefs, who were left with a blank space in their playoff win column for the first time since 2017.

Turn out the lights, the party’s over.

With a little help from Willie Nelson, former NFL quarterback and narrator Don Meredith would routinely herald closing time before it was cool on the original editions of Monday Night Football. Alas for all but one of football’s 32 finest, it’s over before the desired Vince Lombardi Trophy hoist, as the season, or at least the championship-contending portion of it, has come to an end.

With that in mind, TeamFB7 goes over the season that was for the fallen, looking at what was, what is, and what could be. Trouble has officially walked in as we turn our focus to the Kansas City Chiefs …

Patrick Mahomes Kansas City Chiefs — David Eulitt/Getty Images

Team: Kansas City Chiefs
Record: 6-11
Date of Playoff Death: Dec. 15
Last Playoff Season: 2024

What Went Wrong

Kansas City’s flair for the dramatics entered a new genre, as their surprising shortcomings served as comedy and catharsis for a football fanbase beleaguered by Chiefs grief.

Granted, there were enough injuries to major talent that would perhaps excuse the Chiefs’ shortcomings as a one-year departure from the norm. Xavier Worthy never found a rhythm after enduring an early shoulder injury and Isiah Pacheco missed the vital stretch run that served as the beginning of the end, as did blocking bookends Josh Simmons and Jawaan Taylor. Other regulars like Leo Chenal and Trent McDuffie ended the year on injured reserve.

The blockers’ backups also endured injuries, creating a porous pocket that led to Patrick Mahomes getting sacked on a career-worst 6.3 percent of his dropbacks. The injury list, of course, was headlined by the December entry of the legendary Mahomes, whose knee ailment essentially ended the Chiefs’ postseason hopes.

More alarmingly, the season was bookended by Rashee Rice’s legal woes: he was suspended for the first six games of the season for his involvement in a 2024 multicar crash in Dallas and the start of the new year saw him at the center of domestic abuse allegations.

Head coach Andy Reid of the Kansas City Chiefs gestures in the fourth quarter of the game against the Indianapolis Colts at Arrowhead Stadium on November 23, 2025 in Kansas City, Missouri. — Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

On the field, a good bit of magic that previously propelled the Chiefs in many a close game ran out. All but one of the eight losses endured when Mahomes was available came by one possession and every such defeat featured a margin no greater than 10. Part of that was a struggle for talents to rise up next to the familiar faces … Travis Kelce remained far and away the team’s leading receiver … but plenty of familiar faces struggled to recapture their former glory as well.

Despite continuing to stand as the Chiefs’ most reliable receiving option, Kelce himself endured some drops at inopportune times. Steve Spagnuolo’s defense retained most of its familiar faces but struggled to live up to its reputation of landing clutch stops (evidenced by surrendering the fifth-longest drive in the league) and generating consistent pressure despite Chris Jones’ continued consistency.

While never exactly one for consistent turnovers, the 28th-place tie with the lowly Tennessee Titans in the department was particularly glaring with the struggling pass rush: Kansas City was one of three teams to blitz on over 30 percent of its snaps this year but it was in the middle-to-latter half of the pack when it came to making the quarterback uncomfortable.

#NFL 20+ Yard Rushes in 2025

1. BAL 25
2. SEA 18
3. BAL, NE & MIA 16
…
31. SF 4
32. KC 3 pic.twitter.com/bZWbhB74oq
— SFdata9ers🏈📊 (@sfdata9ers) January 14, 2026

The Chiefs also dodged one of their most annoying subplots of their dynasty days … albeit in the most painful way possible. Andy Reid’s bunch was charged with the ninth-most penalty yards in the league, a good number of that tally coming through 20 defensive holding calls (one of three teams to hit a double decade).

Long-regaled as one of the most reliable kickers in the league, Harrison Butker missed a combined nine kicks this year between singles and triples, which certainly did them no favors in the close game drop-off. Even the mighty Mahomes wasn’t immune to the post-Super struggle: the chief Chief took a few falls in both conventional (23rd in passer rating) and advanced (23rd in on-target rate) categories alike.

Kansas City has already made a major adjustment in the early stages of this offseason, bidding farewell to offensive overseer Matt Nagy after three seasons in favor of familiar friend Eric Bieniemy, who is back in town after tours of Washington, Los Angeles, and Chicago. In his final stop with the Bears, Bieniemy oversaw the sterling running back duo of D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai en route to the NFC title game.

Silver Linings

—Chiefs fans probably never envisioned frequenting Tankathon at the start of the season but there’s at least a little more confidence in those trips considering the way this year’s rookies turned out. Despite some growing pains from later selections (i.e. 2025 second-round choice Omarr Norman-Lott, joining the injury-riddled campaign of fellow front seven man and the year prior’s first-rounder Felix Anudike-Uzomah), general manager Brett Veach’s primary rookie acquisition at least got off to a solid start in a lost season: with the final pick of last spring’s first round, they took the collegiate national champion Simmons to fortify a rare area of red turnover, namely Mahomes’ blind side. Simmons dealt with injury concerns at Ohio State and had two separate absences in his debut Kansas City tour (one for personal reasons, the other a season-ending wrist fracture) but flourished in pass blocking and was generally considered the top freshman outside blocker other than Kelvin Banks Jr. out in New Orleans. With Creed Humphrey handling business on the inside, the Chiefs have at least two areas secure for when Mahomes returns, a concept that will face larger scrutiny as he comes back from major surgery.

Josh Simmons vs the Eagles:

🔴 87.8 pass-blocking grade
🟡 36 pass-blocking snaps
🔴 0 pressures allowed pic.twitter.com/gQtSrjaaKz
— PFF (@PFF) September 15, 2025

—There’s at something of a decent chance this was indeed rock bottom for the Chiefs. If injuries were truly the major cause of their fall from grace, there should be plenty of opportunities to prove it: little more needs to be said about Mahomes’ lasting contract while fellow champions like Humphrey, Jones, Nick Bolton, George Karlaftis, and Trey Smith are all signed on for multiple years. That’s not to say that the Chiefs are able to fully able to rely on them as they press forward, but it speaks volumes to Veach’s preparation amidst parades. Adding Bieniemy back to the fold presents a prime opportunity to atone for the season’s sins, and one that again implies that the Chiefs’ shortcomings are only temporary.

Looking Ahead

Notable Free Agents: P Matt Araiza, WR Marquise Brown, LB Leo Chenal S Bryan Cook, RB Kareem Hunt, TE Travis Kelce, LB Charles Omenihu, RB Isiah Pacheco, WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR Tyquan Thornton, CB Jaylen Watson

Potential Cap Cuts: OT Jawaan Taylor ($20 million), EDGE Mike Danna ($8.9 million), OT Jaylon Moore ($7.9 million), LB Drue Tranquill ($6 million), CB Kristian Fulton ($5 million), TE Noah Gray ($3.9 million), S Chamarri Conner ($3.6 million)

While the Chiefs are well-stocked for the future with familiar faces, this offseason presents an uncomfortable truth that some of the recent Vince Lombardi Trophy hoisters may have to move on. Currently cursed in the red at $62.3 million over the cap, Veach should be able to restructure some deals (those of Jones and Mahomes seem ripe for such a conversation). But considering Taylor’s recent injury woes and some defensive projects in store for succession in the event of Danna and Tranquill’s departures, they could all be searching for new homes come spring.

From The Insiders on @NFLNetwork: Among the challenges the #Chiefs face this offseason, being more than $50M over the cap is a big one. pic.twitter.com/cySF7VPyqE
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 14, 2026

Of course, at the forefront of it all is what the Chiefs do about Kelce, a 37-year-old-to-be set to enter the free agency front. Will there be room in the budget for a retirement tour or does Kelce make the decision easier for them by announcing his retirement? One of the few reasons to tune into the Chiefs’ doomed final hours was the idea that Kelce was playing his final snaps. The relative crunch could prevent Kansas City from going after a big-play target they could use for post-surgery Mahomes. Thornton and Worthy have had their highlight moments but there’s nothing to suggest they’re ready to replace the weekly reliability of the future Hall-of-Famer.

In a rather dramatic change of pace, Chiefs fans won’t have to stay up late on draft night, as they’ll be picking ninth come spring in Pittsburgh. That’s the earliest selection they’ve possessed since famously trading up to 10th to select Mahomes in 2017 and their earliest regularly-scheduled choice since getting top choice Eric Fisher four years prior. One of the biggest questions could center around one of their young building blocks still under contract: cornerback and 2022 first-round pick Trent McDuffie is due for an extension but keeping veterans around for another championship go at it could force the Chiefs’ hand in a trade.

Is There Hope?

As long as Mahomes and Reid around, undoubtedly.

His rehab (his case often features a 9-12 month recovery period) will no doubt be viewed with great scrutiny but plenty of teams would no doubt give their left arms for even a hobbled Mahomes. It was perhaps quite telling that Mahomes immediately opted for surgery when it usually takes a few weeks for some fallen stars to get under the knife, only increasing the likelihood that he’ll be ready for Week 1. As long as Mahomes is capable of getting it downfield, there’s no tangible way to see the Chiefs actively engaging in a rebuild, no matter how speedy.

But next season might be the first one where Mahomes has to do it without some of the foundational pieces that helped get this dynasty rolling. Kelce, by far his closest confidant, is but one of the names whose red future is in doubt and plenty could join him in Kansas City absentia. For better and worse, it could soon officially be the team of Mahomes and only Mahomes … but as long as he doesn’t lose a step after surgery, that’s hardly a horrifying prospect.