AFC West News: Chiefs Fear Early Playoff Exit For the First Time Since 2014 as Broncos, Chargers Win in Week 13

Week 13 brought more clarity for two AFC West teams, and chaos for another. We are talking about the Los Angeles Chargers, the Denver Broncos, and of course, the struggling Kansas City Chiefs.

The Chargers kept themselves firmly in the playoff mix with a crucial win against the Raiders that pushed them to 8-4. The Denver Broncos also continued their remarkable surge, beating the Commanders by a point to strengthen their grip on the AFC’s top seed. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs’ situation grew increasingly dire after their loss against the Cowboys.

Together, the Chargers’ and Broncos’ victories only tightened the noose around a Chiefs team rapidly running out of time. For Kansas City, developments elsewhere in the division deepened the frustration.

The Chiefs sit third in the AFC West, staring up at the red-hot Broncos and the playoff-positioned Chargers, while their own season teeters on the edge. Their Thanksgiving loss to Dallas didn’t just drop them to 6-6; it also ripped away most of their margin for error.

Patrick Mahomes and Co. now trail multiple teams in both overall record and head-to-head tiebreakers. Their playoff chances are almost impossible unless they run the table.

After Week 13, Kansas City sits behind Houston and Pittsburgh in the wild-card race and finds itself effectively two games behind the Bills, Jaguars, and Chargers. These are all teams that have already beaten the Chiefs this season.

That means Kansas City can’t simply catch up; they need those teams to collapse. ESPN’s Nate Taylor put it bluntly: The Chiefs likely need to win all five remaining games, each one against an AFC opponent, just to sneak in as the seventh seed.

Mahomes acknowledged the reality that has begun to affect the locker room: “At the end of the day, you’ve just got to win every game now — and hope that’s enough,” he said.

All of this creates a surreal AFC landscape. Instead of the Mahomes-led Chiefs cruising atop the conference, they’re stuck outside the playoff picture while the Patriots and Broncos surge, and the Chargers and Bills occupy key wild-card spots. The AFC hasn’t looked like this in years.

If Kansas City does stumble again, the consequences will be historic. The last time the Chiefs missed the postseason was in 2014, a year before Mahomes even arrived and helped the franchise transform into a perennial Super Bowl contender.

Since Mahomes became the starter, they’ve never failed to qualify. Now, entering the final stretch of 2025, they are closer to elimination than at any point in the Andy Reid era.