4 questions the Chiefs must answer in 2025

There is plenty of skepticisim about the 2025 Kansas City Chiefs.

From a national perspective, the inevitability of the team has grown tiresome — so the conversation skews negative. The loudest voices are rewarded and the wildest takes are encouraged.

We’ve all heard the noise. If you’ve spent any amount of time watching the endless coverage counting down to the start of the NFL season, it’s impossible to escape.

Is this the year someone unseats the Chiefs? Are we sure Kansas City will win the AFC West?

In some ways, these are reasonable questions. After all… nothing is guaranteed. The consistency with which the Chiefs have dominated the AFC is almost unprecedented.

But that doesn’t mean the team enters 2025 without significant questions.

In 2024, the Chiefs won 12 one-score games — a point that has been reiterated over and over during the offseason. That’s abnormal — and difficult to replicate.

I think there are two ways to explain it.

1. The 2024 Chiefs were a fraudulent 15-win team built on smoke and mirrors. It simply took until the Super Bowl for the team to finally be exposed for what it was.
2. The 2024 Chiefs leaned on their championship mettle to come up with big plays in the biggest moments. In the Super Bowl, they just ran out of gas against an extremely talented opponent.

Which one reflects the truth? This season should give us the answer.

Personally, I reject the idea that the Chiefs are broken — or that they will lose the AFC West for the first time in a decade. I also find the conversations surrounding Patrick Mahomes’ place among the league’s top quarterbacks to be silly.

Still, there are some legitimate questions about the team.

1. Will a clean bill of health get the offense back on track?

While there have been changes to offense, the season’s first six weeks will largely feature the same skill players it featured in the 2024 playoffs. The biggest difference is health. In particular, wide receiver Hollywood Brown and running back Isiah Pacheco should look quite different than they did a year ago.

Will that be enough for the team to get its offense back on track? That’s what the front office is betting — and I would take that bet, too. I’m a believer in Pacheco, so this offseason’s conversation about the Chiefs’ lack of investment at running back drove me bonkers. Pacheco is more than capable as a starting running back.

And besides… as my dear late friend Terez Paylor would say, “The contract year is undefeated.”

2. Can Josh Simmons be the offensive line’s cure-all?

In 2024, the offense’s biggest problem was its offensive line. It started in Week 2 — when second-round rookie left tackle Kinglsey Suamataia was benched against the Cincinnati Bengals — and continued all the way through Super Bowl LIX, when Kansas City’s makeshift offensive line was exposed in front of nearly 200 million viewers worldwide.

Will another rookie left...