Arrowhead Pride
“If anything this year, we’ve been inconsistent. I mean, [the] last game was a clean game; we had no penalties [against Dallas] — and that was a positive — but we’ve had no penalties before and then we came back with three penalties. So we need to compile some games here [that are] clean, clean, clean — and most importantly, Ws. I mean, if everybody does that, we’ll be where we need to be.”
— Special teams coordinator Dave Toub
A New No. 1 Emerges in Our 2025 NFL QB Rankings | SI
3. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs
Last ranking: 1
Mahomes has been brilliant this season, but he hasn’t been able to buoy the 6–6 Chiefs, who may need to win out for a playoff berth. With 22 passing touchdowns (26 total) and seven interceptions, Mahomes is spreading the ball around, having four receivers with at least 400 yards. He’s also second to Maye in EPA at +94.4, putting him well on track for his sixth season of +100 EPA and his first since winning the MVP award in 2022.
AFC wild card rankings: How Chiefs, Bills and other contenders stack up | CBS Sports
3. Kansas City Chiefs
Yes, we are still going with the Chiefs here. And, cards on the table, we originally had them at No. 2 before remembering that the Bills are really good at running the ball and the Chiefs are, well, not. The Chiefs have better underlying numbers pretty much across the board than they did last season. They just cannot seem to win the close games this year that they have consistently won otherwise during the Patrick Mahomes/Andy Reid era. Even when it looks like the offense is operating in a small box, they still find a way to be efficient and put points on the board, and the defense is basically a league-average unit. This is a good team that’s gotten some bad luck.
NFL Week 14 picks: Upset and score predictions, matchup breakdowns for every game | NFL.com
Why Gennaro picked the Texans: “Defense wins championships” is a simplistic saying that, quite frankly, typically doesn’t have much purchase in today’s offense-driven NFL. Every so often, though, a D comes along that flips the modern game on its head. Think: Seattle’s “Legion of Boom” and Denver’s “No Fly Zone” — two top-ranked units that spearheaded Super Bowl triumphs. Is this Houston group, which leads the league in points and yards allowed, that kind of defense? OK, admittedly, it’s more than a little presumptuous to start talking about the Lombardi Trophy with a team that doesn’t currently hold a playoff spot, ranking third in its own division. But with the Texans riding a four-game win streak, having stifled the Colts and Bills over the past two weeks, it seems fair to discuss DeMeco Ryans’ defense-led squad as a potential knuckleball in...
