How Many Games Will The Chiefs Win In 2014?

Thomas J. Russo-USA TODAY Sports

Las Vegas recently weighed in on how it thinks the 2014 Kansas City Chiefs will perform next season and the results may not be something KC fans will like to hear.

Eight wins, eh?

Look folks, the good news here is that we are so far away from the 2014 NFL season that predictions this time of year mean about as much as Punxsutawney Phil seeing his shadow on Groundhog Day.

That said, an eight-win season is certainly a possibility for the Chiefs. Back in 2010, KC went 10-6 under then head coach Todd Haley. The team made improvements the following offseason and though the schedule was harder, most Chiefs fans figured the team would improve enough to at least match the previous year’s record.

A rash of injuries and a slow start to the season brought that thinking to a halt rather quickly. The Chiefs ended up winning only seven games in 2011 and things got even worse in 2012.

The 2013 Chiefs had a lot of things go their way. Looking back over last season, I can see a handful of games that the Chiefs easily could have lost. A few unlucky bounces and 11-5 could have turned into 9-7 or 8-8 pretty easily.

In the NFL, any team can go from rags to riches from one season to the next. We see it happen every year. That parity is one of the reasons why the NFL is so popular.

It is much, much harder to win consistently in the NFL. That is why what the New England Patriots have done over the past decade-plus has been so damn impressive.

The Todd Haleys and Romeo Crennels of the world have been able to take terrible teams and turn them into 10-game winners in the NFL. So while we should be thrilled that Kansas City won 11 games last season, we shouldn’t be impressed just yet. Not even a little bit.

Thankfully, unlike Crennel and Haley, current Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has a track record of leading a consistent winner in the NFL. And while past success is no guarantee of future results, especially in the NFL, Chiefs fans should take solace in the fact that “Big Red” is steering the ship in KC.

Don’t get discouraged by the eight-win projection. Eight wins is actually a pretty dang good place to start. Eight-win teams are just a couple of lucky bounces away from being nine or 10 or even 11 win teams.

Let’s just hope luck stays on KC’s side next season.

What do you think, Addicts? Will the Chiefs win more than eight games in 2014?