And just like that, it finally happened. No, the Kansas City Chiefs are not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, but after suffering heartbreak in the 20-10 loss to the Houston Texans on “Sunday
Night Football,” the Chiefs’ dynastic reign over the AFC feels very much at its end.
And while I’m sure there are NFL fans around the globe cheering for the fall of an empire, there are those who have been closely watching Rome burn all year. It’s a bittersweet end to what has been one of the greatest runs in sports history.
Here are five things we learned from the mark of the end of an era:
1. The cat in the box was dead
In 1935, German physicist Erwin Schrodinger described, in a letter to Albert Einstein, a thought experiment designed to mock the absurdity of quantum mechanics when scaled up to everyday objects. The thought experiment describes a situation where you put a cat in a box with a radioactive device designed to have a 50% chance of killing it within an hour. According to quantum mechanics, until you open the box to determine the fate of the cat, it exists in both a living and dead state simultaneously.
It’s kind of how the Chiefs’ 2025 season has felt: both alive and dead at the same time, a strange zombie that has stumbled from week to week, unsure of whether it could find a heartbeat again.
But now that the box is open and we can see clearly that the cat (this season) is dead. It’s time to mourn its passing and remember all of the good times.
We have been privileged to watch one of the greatest seven-year runs in sports history.
So, in the misattributed words of Dr. Seuss Ludwig Jacobowski, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
2. The Chiefs need to rebuild
This team has heart. Heart is not enough to win games, but it is enough for me to love them still.
The Chiefs are not a couple of pieces away from making it back to the Super Bowl. Kansas City has issues at multiple positions on the field; its current amalgamation of players is not working. Some positions have plenty of talent but a lack of diversity in play style, while others are just flat out thin.
The Chiefs need a true X-receiver who can beat man coverage and win on the outside, or you know, just catch the passes that hit them in the hands.
They also need to invest heavily in the pass rush, then keep investing. You can never have too many pass rushers.
I don’t share the sentiment that tight end Travis Kelce is washed whatsoever; he has actually been pretty awesome this season (excluding this game and Week 5 against the Jacksonville Jaguars). They need another pass catcher who can fulfill his role, because the other options on this roster aren’t cutting it.
It would also help to draft a running back before the seventh round.
3. The Chiefs need to think about trading Trent McDuffie
This scenario is not because McDuffie is suddenly worse; he is a stud. However, the Chiefs have to decide what they want the second era of franchise quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ career to look like and start building that roster this offseason.
It’s difficult and unwise to build primarily through free agency; the Chiefs will need as many draft picks as possible. Plus, the team needs cap space for the many roles needing to be filled, which means they can’t afford to pay McDuffie top-of-market money as he deserves.
McDuffie could be part of the solution, but he’s the most valuable asset the Chiefs have to make a significant move at the moment.
4. Andy Reid can’t get out of his own way
This felt like a game where the Chiefs said to themselves: “If we’re going down, then we’re going down swinging.” In Chiefs’ head coach Andy Reid’s mind, it meant taking deep shots on offense.
But what it actually meant was leaning on your defense that was beating Houston like a snare drum in a Christmas parade. With the game tied in the fourth quarter — and the defense playing as well as it was — it was unexcusable for the Chiefs to go for it on fourth down from their own 31-yard line.
I won’t get into the terrible play call that saw the Chiefs trot out an empty backfield. The real issue is that the Chiefs’ defense was put in a terrible position after dominating throughout the evening, and it killed all the momentum seized during the game.
The same could be said for offensive coordinator Matt Nagy and special teams coordinator Dave Toub, but at least I will give Andy the benefit of the doubt for being one of the greatest coaches of all time.
5. Esa Pole, thank you
In the toughest possible situation, the undrafted rookie free agent offensive tackle stepped in for left tackle Wanya Morris after suffering a knee injury on the first play; Pole played his tail off. It wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t have to be. Pole played well enough to give Mahomes and the Chiefs a chance to win, and that’s all you can ask for.
