The Chiefs entered last season riding streaks of nine consecutive AFC West titles and three straight trips to the Super Bowl. There was no reason to expect the long-dominant franchise to fall off a cliff in 2025, but that’s exactly what happened during a 6-11 campaign. It was the primary time Kansas City finished below .500 in head coach Andy Reid‘s sensible 13-year tenure. It was also the primary time the team won fewer than 10 games in a season since 2014, quarterback Patrick Mahomes‘ freshman yr at Texas Tech.
The Chiefs dropped to 6-8 and officially fell out of playoff contention in a Week 15 loss to the division-rival Chargers. Adding injury to insult, Mahomes tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee late in the sport. It ended the all-time great’s season early, but the larger concern was whether it will sideline Mahomes for any portion of 2026. Fortunately for the Chiefs, it appears they dodged that bullet. There’s optimism the durable Tenth-year signal-caller will likely be able to take part in team drills when training camp starts later this month.
Assuming Mahomes – not recent backup Justin Fields – is on the helm when the Chiefs’ season opens against the reigning division champion Broncos on Sept. 14, he’ll lead the same solid of offensive characters. Longtime wingman Travis Kelce is back for a thirteenth yr. Nearing his thirty seventh birthday in October, Kelce isn’t any longer at the peak of his powers on the sphere. But the longer term Hall of Fame tight end remained among the many game’s best players at his position last yr. Kelce placed fourth amongst TEs in yards (851), sixth in catches (76) and thirteenth in touchdowns (five).
Age isn’t on his side, yet Kelce should be essentially the most reliable pass catcher on a team that didn’t make any obvious upgrades at receiver within the offseason. Complementary wideouts Marquise Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster signed elsewhere, though the Chiefs did retain Tyquan Thornton on a two-year, $11MM accord. Thornton, rookie fifth-rounder Cyrus Allen and second-year man Jalen Royals will work behind Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy, who will aim for healthier seasons. That assumes Rice will avoid a suspension for violating his probation, an offense that forced him to spend 30 days in jail late within the spring.
After missing three games with a concussion in 2025, Rice underwent cleanup surgery on his right knee in May. Owing to multiple injuries and a suspension, Rice missed 22 of the Chiefs’ 34 games from 2024-25. Meanwhile, Worthy never really got on the right track last season after tearing the labrum in his right shoulder in a Week 1 loss to the Chargers. The 5-foot-11, 165-pounder finished his second yr with a disappointing 42 catches, 532 yards and a touchdown in 14 games.
Two years after the Chiefs traded as much as snag him in the primary round of the 2024 draft, Worthy goes right into a pivotal season. With no noticeable hike in production, the Chiefs could have a tough time exercising his fifth-year option next spring. The financial stakes are also enormous for Rice, who will play out the ultimate yr of his rookie deal. Should he avoid further off-field incidents and put up starting-caliber numbers, which he has done when healthy, Rice will likely be a candidate for a large raise in 2027.
While the Chiefs did little to deal with their receiving corps within the offseason, they made a seismic change within the backfield. A couple of weeks after he earned Super Bowl LX MVP honors, running back Kenneth Walker left the Seahawks to affix the Chiefs on a three-year, $43.05MM deal. The four-year veteran and two-time 1,000-yard rusher should boost a ground game that ranked a lackluster twenty fifth in yards last season.
The Chiefs didn’t re-sign Kareem Hunt or Isiah Pacheco after each players averaged fewer than 4.0 yards per carry on a combined 281 attempts in 2025. Walker notched an efficient 4.6 per try on 221 carries. He owns a profession mark of 4.3 on 821 carries.
Walker will run behind an offensive line that Pro Football Focus ranked because the Tenth-best within the league last yr. Starters Josh Simmons (left tackle), Kingsley Suamataia (left guard), Creed Humphrey (center) and Trey Smith (right guard) are all back. The important query is at right tackle. Having released their previous starter, the penalty-prone Jawaan Taylor, the Chiefs will stage a three-way battle amongst Jaylon Moore, Esa Pole and undrafted rookie Kahlil Benson this summer.
We can be remiss not to say the return of offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, who replaced the departed Matt Nagy. While Reid will proceed to call the offensive plays, he and Bieniemy worked great together through the latter’s first non-playcalling OC stint in Kansas City from 2018-22. The Chiefs boasted an elite attack every year and led the league in scoring twice during that span. They were nowhere near that level in 2025, a yr by which they checked at No. 21 in points (21.3 per game) and a similarly underwhelming twentieth in yards.
On the opposite side of the ball, venerable defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo stays on the controls. He’ll head into his eighth yr on the job having lost some vital cogs within the offseason. The Chiefs traded No. 1 cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Rams in a blockbuster after which saw fellow starting corner Jaylen Watson follow him to Los Angeles in free agency. Safety Bryan Cook, linebacker Leo Chenal, and defensive linemen Charles Omenihu and Mike Danna also exited.
The Chiefs responded by spending the sixth overall pick on top-rated corner prospect Mansoor Delane, reuniting with fellow CB L’Jarius Sneed in free agency, signing safety Alohi Gilman, and drafting edge defender R Mason Thomas within the second round. In addition they used the twenty ninth pick (acquired within the McDuffie package) on defensive tackle Peter Woods, who will work behind future Hall of Famer Chris Jones as a rookie.
Jones and free agent pickup Khyiris Tonga will start next to one another in the course of the Chiefs’ line, which should get 2025 second-rounder Omarr Norman-Lott back from the torn ACL he suffered last October. Defensive end George Karlaftis, linebackers Nick Bolton and Drue Tranquill, CB Nohl Williams and DB Chamarri Conner join Jones and Karlaftis as other notable holdovers from last yr’s solid defense. The Chiefs tied for twenty sixth in sacks (35) and twenty ninth in turnovers (14), but they overcame those issues to yield the sixth-fewest points within the league and rank Tenth in yards allowed.
Though their defense limited scoring they usually registered an above-average plus-34 point differential last season, the Chiefs stumbled to an abysmal 1-8 record in one-score games. It was a crippling 180 for a team that went a jaw-dropping 11-0 in games decided by eight or fewer points during a 15-win showing in 2024. Just as there was negative regression in one-score games last yr, it will be reasonable to expect positive regression in those situations this season. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be enough for the Chiefs to return to the highest of a frightening division that features two other contenders within the Broncos and Chargers.
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