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The Kansas City Chiefs are in a dark place approaching the NFL playoffs. Kansas City has been eliminated from postseason contention and QB Patrick Mahomes suffered an ACL injury in Week 15. Now the Chiefs can turn their eyes towards the future after a doomed 2025 season.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler mused about the silver lining of Mahomes’ injury for the Chiefs.
“A few people suggested to me that missing the playoffs won’t be such a bad thing for the Chiefs, as it will force them to rethink their roster-building strategy around Mahomes,” Graziano wrote on Wednesday. “There’s a perception that the Chiefs have been kind of perpetually retooling and counting on Mahomes’ greatness to cover up their flaws and bail them out when things get dicey. Now, they basically have two extra months to focus on their offseason plans, and they hope to put them to good use.”
Kansas City will be forced to imagine what their offense looks like without Mahomes. Just going through that process could cause them to upgrade their roster in different ways.
“The Chiefs were already forced to look in the mirror well before the Mahomes injury,” Fowler added. “If anything, his absence will remind Kansas City how much it will miss him — and how much it needs to strengthen the roster around him.”
Mahomes is still one of the NFL’s most dangerous quarterbacks, even according to coordinators on other teams.
“The fear factor with him is still thick,” one NFL coordinator who recently prepared for him said, per Fowler. “He’s still the best at winning differently each week. I still fear that player more than most. It just didn’t go their way this year.”
It will be fascinating to see how Kansas City approaches the upcoming offseason. Travis Kelce could be on the way out, which could force the Chiefs to find a new identity on offense.
But for now, Kansas City has to finish out the regular season while it figures out what to do during the offseason.
Next up for the Chiefs is a Week 16 matchup against the Titans.
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