The Kansas City Chiefs’ climb up the power rankings over the last month comes to a screeching halt heading into Week 10 and the team’s bye week. The 28-21 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 9 was accounted
for by all power rankings, leading to a drop for the Chiefs in every site’s newest list.
Here’s this week’s sampling:
NFL.com: 6
(Down from 3)
Kansas City’s defense looked slow and reactive in Sunday’s 28-21 defeat at Buffalo, losing the line-of-scrimmage battle and leaving pass catchers running free too often. James Cook became the first running back to rush for more than 100 yards against the Chiefs in 35 games (including the playoffs), and the Bills’ tight ends consistently carved them up for big plays. Patrick Mahomes also had one of his worst games in memory, completing fewer than 50 percent of his passes, taking three sacks and heaving up a late interception. There were big plays from Kansas City, but not nearly enough down-to-down consistency. The Chiefs have the bye to recover before a big showdown at Denver in Week 11, but this loss doesn’t sting any less.
— Eric Edholm
ESPN: 10
(Down from 6)
Following their bye week, the Chiefs will face the current AFC West leader. The easiest way for the Chiefs to regain command in the division is to sweep the Broncos. Kansas City coach Andy Reid, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the rest of the team should have plenty of motivation too. In the 2024 regular-season finale, the Broncos, needing a win to clinch the conference’s final playoff spot, beat Kansas City 38-0. One could argue the Chiefs, who already had clinched the top seed and rested their starters, didn’t enjoy Broncos coach Sean Payton running up the score.
— Nate Taylor
The Athletic: 10
(Down from 4)
Midseason grade: B-
The underlying stats are still great and point to the Chiefs being just fine for the second half. Their offense ranks fifth in EPA per play and fourth in success rate. But your record matters, and a tough schedule leaves them barely above .500 entering their bye.
— Josh Kendall
Sports Illustrated: 5
(Down from 1)
Sean McDermott is always a trend setter versus Mahomes in the regular season and on Sunday his game plan was masterful. The Bills played a lot of DBs, with five corners and two safeties playing at least 50% of the snaps and, as Arrowhead Pride pointed out, simply called Mahomes’s bluff when it came to all of Kansas City’s pre-snap motion. The result was the worst completion percentage of Mahomes’ career.
— Conor Orr
Pro Football Talk: 14
(Down from 8)
As crazy as it sounds, they may have to scratch and claw to earn a playoff spot.
— Mike Florio
CBSSports.com: 10
(Down from 2)
Losing to the Bills on the road isn’t awful, but think about this: If the playoffs started today, they wouldn’t be a part of them. Weird.
— Pete Prisco
Yahoo! Sports: 3
(Down from 1)
Losing at Buffalo isn’t a terrible outcome. But now the Chiefs have two more losses than the Bills and won’t have the head-to-head tiebreaker either. Kansas City has and can win in January at Buffalo, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy assignment.
— Frank Schwab
The Sporting News: 7
(Down from 3)
The Chiefs could have made an important statement to the rest of the AFC by stomping Buffalo, but instead they got stampeded for most of the game until some flashes of Patrick Mahomes’ heroics. It was a rare disappointing outing for the previous red-hot defense.
— Vinnie Iyer
USA Today: 8
(Down from 1)
Travis Kelce joined Jason Witten and Hall of Famers Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates as the only tight ends with at least 500 receiving yards in 12 seasons. He should consider making all of them groomsmen − and could start considering save the dates for January.
— Nate Davis
FOX Sports: 13
(Down from 8)
I still think they’re a top-10 team. Their losses (to the Chargers, Eagles, Jaguars and Bills) are by a combined 19 points. But they’re 5-4 and need to start actually winning those games at some point.
— Ralph Vacchiano
