The Chiefs Are Who We Thought They Were
In fact, maybe they're even better, after stripping away the luck from their close-game success last year.
By their standards, the sky appeared to be falling for the Kansas City Chiefs early this season. Opening the schedule 0-2 with a pair of losses to the Chargers and Eagles, K.C. followed wins over the Giants and Ravens with a loss at Jacksonville to bring their record to 2-3. That 0-2 mark was the very first time they had ever been 2 games below .500 in the entire Patrick Mahomes era (since 2018), and the 2-3 start was only the second time they’d been below .500 through 5 games in that span (joining the 2021 season):
The slow start dipped their playoff odds (per Elo ratings) as low as 48 percent at one point. It also prompted a lot of stories about how K.C.’s 2025 squad has been uncharacteristically sloppy, with a laundry list of things to clean up if they want to dispel the notion that they might be a dynasty in decline — particularly on the heels of last year’s embarrassing Super Bowl rout at the hands of the Eagles.
But what if I told you that, after Sunday’s impressive win over the Lions at Arrowhead, the 2025 Chiefs are exactly where they should be? Or at least, that every other team is further from where they should be at this point?
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