This weekend, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Carolina Panthers will have an off-day while the rest of the NFL plays Week 6. It’s the first week the league schedule includes a bye.
Two years ago, the Chiefs were in a similar position: after a Week 5 win over the New Orleans Saints on “Monday Night Football,” Kansas City entered an early bye week undefeated (5-0) with crucial conference wins over the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals as well as a road victory against the Los Angeles Chargers.
In that road win over the Chargers, the Chiefs suffered a crucial injury to the receiving corps: second-year wideout Rashee Rice tore his ACL while trying to make a tackle after an interception.
The start of the 2024 season sounds eerily similar to this year’s. The offense will need to move forward without one of its top receivers, Tyquan Thornton, but it has the benefit of a lead in the standings, with wins over the Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders.
In 2024, the Chiefs continued the hot streak into Week 11: Kansas City won four straight games after the Week 6 bye before falling to the Buffalo Bills on the road. That featured a road trip to face a contending NFC West team (theSan Francisco 49ers) and a division rival (the Raiders).
Can the 2026 Chiefs stay undefeated through this year’s road trip to Buffalo? It would also require surviving a West Coast trip, this time against the Seattle Seahawks and Broncos.
The biggest difference between this season’s team and the squad that was attempting to finish off a three-peat is the offense. In the first five games of 2024, the Chiefs’ highest-scoring output was 27 points. Through Week 5, the season-high rushing total was 149, in a game where starting running back Isiah Pacheco broke a bone in his leg.
This year, the Chiefs have scored 30 or more points in three of their four games, and running back Kenneth Walker has surpassed 148 rushing yards twice on his own.
The offense will need to keep finding ways to score despite the significant injury. In 2024, that meant trading for All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. He scored two touchdowns in his second game in Kansas City, but he didn’t make a big-time impact on the field through the team’s AFC championship run that year.
General manager Brett Veach made that move when the team was 6-0. He doesn’t like wasting opportunities to win Super Bowls when quarterback Patrick Mahomes is at the helm. The receiver position could use a similar boost, but it remains to be seen whether the younger pass catchers will step up in Thornton’s place.
Regardless, this year’s Chiefs need to finish stronger than the 2024 team did. The wheels fell off against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, and a major factor was an injury at left tackle. This year, the team has made it work with rookie Kahlil Benson on the left side, but the health of last year’s first-round pick, Josh Simmons, could be key to avoiding a disappointing end to the season in Kansas City.
