KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. He also provides game-day digital coverage of Chiefs games. Share your story idea with Tod.
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For a lot of Chiefs fans, it feels like the season ended Sunday, especially with Patrick Mahomes’ knee injury punctuating a disappointing 2025 campaign.
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“It’s been very frustrating, and it’s been hard to watch for Pat,” backup quarterback Gardner Minshew said after a 16-13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers ended any playoff hopes for Kansas City. “That dude puts so much into it. I don’t think I’ve ever respected anybody I’ve played with more. I’ve never seen anybody I play with give so much of themselves to the team. To not get the results is hard.”
Normally, Chiefs Kingdom is dissecting playoff seeding scenarios this time of year.
But with three games remaining — road trips to Nashville, Tennessee, and Las Vegas sandwiched around a Christmas night game against Denver — Chiefs fans are left to ponder the 2026 NFL Draft order after a bizarre season culminated in a gut-wrenching home loss Sunday that saw Patrick Mahomes tear the ACL in his left knee as the Los Angeles Chargers eliminated coach Andy Reid’s squad from playoff contention.
“I can’t tell you I’m happy,” Reid said. “It’s a tough deal there.”
Kansas City (6-8) hasn’t been in a position to merely play out the string on an NFL season since 2012, when Romeo Crennel’s team bottomed out at 1-10 and were eliminated from the postseason race in Week 12.
“Obviously, I’m not happy about it and neither is anybody here,” Reid said. “We strive for excellence; we try to do that every year. Things happen, though, in this league. There’s a lot of parity, and sometimes you end up on the short end of it. You’ve got to go back and look at things. That can be healthy, and we’ve got good people to go back and do that with.”
Since Reid arrived in 2013, the Chiefs haven’t endured a losing season and only missed the playoffs one other time (2014), so it’s a painfully unfamiliar place for the team.
“It doesn’t feel good to lose,” cornerback Jaylen Watson said. “... “It sucks losing. It’s new to me.”
Kansas City’s streak of nine straight AFC West titles, which had been the second-longest in NFL history, ended this season along with its 10-year playoff streak, which had been the longest in the league.
The Chiefs’ franchise-best run of 10 straight seasons with double-digit wins also has ended.
“It sucks, but we have three games left,” Chiefs center Creed Humphrey said. “You can take it one of two ways — mope around and cry about it or you can come in ready to work and get ready for these next three weeks.”
Humphrey believes he already knows the mettle of the players in Kansas City’s locker room.
To avoid the first losing season since 2012, the Chiefs would have to win out. The team’s streak of 12 consecutive winning seasons is the longest in club history and the longest current streak in the NFL.
“We’ve got to finish strong still — as competitors,” defensive tackle Chris Jones said. “As employees of this organization, we’ve got to finish strong, play with pride and, most importantly, play for yourself — the name on the back of your jersey, but also the name on the front of your jersey.”
Kansas City had reached the Super Bowl in five of the last six seasons, so few expected the season to crater the way it has.
“It’s rented every year,” Jones said. “Just because last year’s team made it to the Super Bowl doesn’t guarantee success.”
Despite the early end to meaningful football, Reid pushed back on the idea that the Chiefs would pack in for the season.
“Every game you go into — it could be Yahtzee — you want to win,” Reid said.
It’s reasonable to assume Kansas City will take a more cautious approach with injured players, but “if the guys are available, they’re going to play,” Reid said. “... You only have so many numbers in this thing that you can play with in the NFL. It’s not quite like college where you have 90 guys that you can just pick and choose from.”
If there is a silver lining, it’s that the Chiefs are poised to pick higher in the draft than they have since trading up to select Mahomes with the No. 10 overall pick in 2017.
Kansas City jumped from 14th to 11th in the current projected NFL draft order.
All but one of the Chiefs’ six first-round picks — a trade up to No. 21 for cornerback Trent McDuffie, using assets from the Tyreek Hill trade — since drafting Mahomes have been 28th or later, including four picks in the 30s.
Of course, the trade off has been worth it — three Super Bowl titles, two other Super Bowl appearances and only the sixth NFL dynasty of the Super Bowl era, if we count the 1960s Packers along with the 1970s Steelers, the 1980s 49ers, the 1990s Cowboys and Tom Brady’s Patriots.
Perhaps the 2026 draft can be a springboard to another generational run.
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