The Kansas City Chiefs lost their fifth game of the season yesterday, and now it doesn’t look good for them. Not only is a Super Bowl run slipping away, but they may not even make the playoffs altogether. That’s quite a collapse after a decade of excellence, and some NFL analysts are already beginning to deem the team mediocre and are ready to write them off.
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The Chiefs have made it to five out of the last six Super Bowls. They’ve also won the AFC West in nine straight seasons. But yesterday’s loss to the Denver Broncos essentially put the nail in the coffin on their division title hopes. The Broncos are now 9-2, on an eight-game winning streak, and have a stranglehold on the division.
That’s why analysts like Dan Orlovsky can’t help but acknowledge the new reality for the Chiefs.
“Here’s the reality of where the Chiefs are: they’re a mediocre football team right now,” Orlovsky said on First Take. “They’re a mediocre football team… [There’s] a very real conversation of ‘Are they going to get into the playoffs?’”
At 5-5, the Chiefs’ playoff chances are very much up in the air. And with other underperforming teams in the hunt, like the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens, there simply aren’t enough spots for all of them to get in. Not to mention, other teams would have to fall out of playoff contention as well.
“[The Chiefs] reign in the [AFC] west is over.” @danorlovsky7 on the Chiefs after their loss to the Broncos pic.twitter.com/gRfUzozbhn
— First Take (@FirstTake) November 17, 2025
But Orlovsky isn’t the only one who’s getting off the Chiefs’ hype train. Damien Woody also thinks that the AFC West team is just about cooked this season.
“I think the aura is gone in Kansas City. I really do… This year, they’re 0 for 5 in one-score games. They’re not able to finish these types of games. I don’t think teams are scared of the Kansas City Chiefs anymore,” said the former guard (via Get Up).
Last year, the Chiefs were 12-0 in one-score games. It was a major calling card of how they racked up wins, as they always found a way to finish strong. This season, though, the opposite is happening. They aren’t making key defensive stops when they need to, and because of that, they’re now 0-5 in one-score games.
.@damienwoody says “the aura is gone in Kansas City” pic.twitter.com/hVDHYyzsvm
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) November 17, 2025
On top of this, the Chiefs’ offense has looked somewhat anemic at times this season. They don’t get many big plays, and look for quick-hitters to move the ball down the field. It’s a far cry from what we saw from Patrick Mahomes at the beginning of his career.
“They don’t create explosive plays,” Woody professed. “They’ve got all of their guys. We’ve been talking about getting Rashee Rice back, Hollywood Brown, Xavier Worthy, all of these guys, and they still can’t create explosive plays.”
This has been an issue for Mahomes and the Chiefs ever since Tyreek Hill left the team. His ability to get behind defenses paired perfectly with Mahomes’ deep ball, and they terrorized secondaries for years. But now, without a major deep threat, the QB has been somewhat bottled up in recent seasons when it comes to deep passes.
At the end of the day, though, the Chiefs are still the Chiefs. Nobody is going to say that they’re out of it until they’re mathematically eliminated. Plus, the Pittsburgh Steelers may have just lost Aaron Rodgers to a wrist injury, and the Jacksonville Jaguars will be without Travis Hunter for the rest of the season. So, there could be teams in the playoffs right now that fall out of it, opening the door for KC.
We’ll just have to wait and see what ends up shaking out. But with the Indianapolis Colts on tap for next week, it’s now or never for Mahomes and the Chiefs. They need to get things sorted, forget about the division, and just focus on a playoff push.
