Well, it’s happening again. For all the talk of the NFL’s grand parity, a vacillating cycle of good and bad, and theoretically a season where “anyone can win,” the Chiefs are once more turning into an elite team at the perfect time. The Chiefs dominated Monday Night Football after a slow start, running away to a 28-7 win against the Commanders which only had fleeting moments of being close.
Kansas City is positioned to be a force at the end of the season. The Chiefs have won five of their last six games as we round the stretch into the second half of 2025, while Patrick Mahomes is down by his standards — but still putting up monster numbers. We just have to accept reality: The Chiefs are going to be in the mix for the Super Bowl once more, and Mahomes is going to win the MVP.
Many will bristle at that last statement, but it’s going to happen. Just accept it. It’s cute to suggest Baker Mayfield could be MVP, but that’s not happening. Daniel Jones? They’re going to give him Comeback Player of the Year as a consolation prize. As it stands Mahomes is on pace to finish the season with 4,460 passing yards, 36 TDs and 9 INTs — in a year where passing is down around the league.
There’s no doubt guys like Baker, Jones, even Drake Maye or Justin Herbert have resumes that could deserve MVP votes — but when it comes down to the wire people will look at what Mahomes has done with a flawed offense and cast their ballot for him once more. Is it fair? No, but football isn’t fair.
The reason the Chiefs are so inevitable is because nobody is a master of weathering storms like Kansas City. They don’t have the best roster in the NFC, heck — they might not have the best roster in the AFC West, but what Andy Reid is capable of as a coach is always finding ways to mitigate injuries and down play. It’s not just Reid, it’s everyone inside that organization. When one guy is playing down, everyone else lifts their game — when someone is hurt, they find ways to scheme around the injury.
There was going to be an obvious dip to start the season with the offense beginning its campaign without Rashee Rice, and that only got worse when Xavier Worthy went down with an injury in Game 1. It put the Chiefs in an unnatural hole, making the team look much worse that it really was. These were still the Chiefs. Celebrating their demise early is a fool’s errand.
It’s bizarre to say Kansas City is “sneaky good,” because they are such an oversaturated team — but it’s almost as if people forgot them in the conversation while trying to determine the elite of the NFL this year. Outside of the hype around Mahomes, and Kelce, and every other moving part is the reality that the Chiefs are just really, really good at almost every facet of the game.
- 26.8 points per game (7th)
- 16.4 points against per game (2nd)
- No. 5 ranked passing offense
- No. 9 ranked rushing offense
- 3rd lowest in turnovers
- No. 3 ranked passing defense
- No. 11 ranked rushing defense
- 16th in turnovers generated
There just isn’t a weakness with this team, not a glaring one. That’s also what’s made them fly under the radar a little, because there’s also nothing they do so well that it stands out — other than their secondary, which tends to get overlooked a lot by everyone.
The lingering question is “Who can stop the Chiefs?” Fundamentally this Chiefs team might be better than past iterations from the last few years, while all their challengers in the NFL have gotten worse. The Bills are in dire need of a receiver, and their secondary is suspect. The Ravens are dead in the water without Lamar Jackson, and even then they’re middling. The Bengals are functionally eliminated because of Joe Burrow’s injury. We could say the Colts — but does anyone really want to trust Danny Dimes like that?
It’s time to accept the reality that the Chiefs are probably going to run the table once more. We’re going to have to grin, bear it, and pray we don’t get another Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl. Life is too short to see that again — but it’s probably going to happen.
