“They Stopped Saquon Barkley, but…”: Analyst Breaks Down the Missing Piece in Chiefs’ 2025 Super Bowl Loss to the Eagles

Were it not for a pair of garbage time touchdowns in the waning moments of Super Bowl LIX, the Philadelphia Eagles victory over the Kansas City Chiefs would have been remembered as one of the largest championship blowouts in NFL history. The 40-22 loss shattered a golden opportunity at a historic three-peat for Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, permanently altering the history of the franchise for the worse.

While they did manage to corral the Eagles’ bell cow back in Saquon Barkley, the Chiefs’ lack of help in the secondary proved to be fatal to their championship aspirations. During a recent discussion on NFL on NBC, the founder of ProFootballTalk, Mike Florio, sat down with three-time Super Bowl champion, Devin McCourty, to discuss what the missing piece could be.

In highlighting the Chiefs’ inability to limit Jalen Hurts through the air, McCourty fears that this pressing need for Kansas City may be ignored in favor of addressing their faltering offensive line.

“They stopped Saquon Barkley, but they showed to be susceptible. They really couldn’t slow down Philadelphia’s offense. They couldn’t just go out there and play man-to-man defense.

“They also lose Justin Reid, one of their veteran top safeties, so I do think that… corner is kind of a need that I don’t know if it’ll be talked about as much because of the offensive line and where they stand there,” McCourty said.

Hurts’ passer rating of 119.7 and completion percentage of 77.3% at Super Bowl LIX both marked the highest of his postseason career, suggesting that the Chiefs did in fact have little to offer him in terms of resistance. Kansas City ranked 15th overall in passing yards allowed for the 2024 season, further showcasing that the secondary is indeed a weak point for them.

The Chiefs’ front office will likely be looking to use their draft capital to improve either or both of their offensive and defensive fronts. Should they opt to look for a DB in the draft, however, there could be a few favorable options.

A solid recommendation was made by A-to-Z Sports’ Charles Goldman, who pointed to Nevada’s Kitan Crawford as being a potential hybrid option for a shallow Kansas City secondary. Nevertheless, if one doesn’t fall to them in the draft, it’ll be imperative for the Chiefs to go and fetch a secondary defender on the open market prior to the start of the 2025 regular season.

Mike Florio claims that the Chiefs need to find their Travis Kelce

After a horrid outing at Super Bowl LIX that routinely saw him be the last one to get out of his stance, Florio believes that the time has come for the Kansas City Chiefs to move on from their aging star TE, Travis Kelce.

“They need their next Travis Kelce. From the standpoint of building a team and allocating dollars, if you can get a tight end, who plays like a high-end receiver but gets paid like a high-end tight end, that’s a bargain for a team.

“And that’s one of the reasons why the Chiefs have been able to stay so competitive even though they are not blowing out the financial curve the way that other teams are… They desperately need to replace Travis Kelce,” Florio said.

In suggesting that a Kelce-less offense would prove to be more detrimental to the franchise than the loss of Tyreek Hill, Florio implored the Chiefs to finally start searching for the next cost-efficient, volume receiver. While that may be easier said than done, Florio believes that the writing is on the wall for this current iteration of Kansas City’s offense.

Whether or not the Chiefs will make the necessary changes to remain in title contention, remains to be seen. What is guaranteed, however, is that fans can expect another fiery regular season performance from Mahomes, who is currently being fueled by one of the most embarrassing Super Bowl performances in recent history.