NFL predictions: Kansas City Chiefs projected to go 7-9 by USA Today
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs aren’t getting any respect from USA Today, who project the team to go 7-9 after undergoing myriad changes.
As training camps begin for a number of NFL teams (and the Kansas City Chiefs arrive next week), various media outlets will begin to make their predictions for the upcoming season. The latest round of projections are out from USA Today and they’re not at all kind to the Chiefs, even after winning the AFC West two seasons in a row.
Nate Davis has made his predictions that the Chiefs will finish at No. 3 overall in the West behind the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos. He actually has the Chiefs at 7-9 overall, tied for third with the Oakland Raiders, in a close division where the Broncos go 9-7 and the Chargers chalk up a 10-6 record based on how hot they were last season. Davis writes:
"Patrick Mahomes will bring a new layer of excitement. He’ll also surely bring occasional clusters of mistakes borne of inexperience to a team accustomed to Smith’s steady hand. Give Mahomes a year."
The Chargers do look good on paper and Davis is hardly the only one projecting good things for L.A. Phillip Rivers will always keep his team in contention and the offense is high-octane for sure. However the defense is now the fearsome side with shutdown corner Casey Hayward and the pass rush tandem of Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram. The addition of Derwin James alongside Desmond King and Jason Verrett makes that secondary in particular look scary good.
What’s interesting about Davis’s predictions is that he believes the West winner will go all the way this year. The problem is that he has the Chargers as the team that’s Super Bowl bound. That might make more sense if the Chargers could beat the Chiefs at all—which they haven’t done since 2013. In fact, just last season, Andy Reid bested Anthony Lynn’s team by a combined 31 points in two wins, including a winner-takes-the-division showdown near season’s end last year.
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If someone is going to apply a “gotta see them win it to believe it” rule on the Chiefs in terms of the postseason, then you have to apply the same to the Chargers. Until they prove they can beat the Chiefs, there’s simply no reason to pick them, regardless of how good they look on paper. Or maybe the media can keep overlooking the Chiefs and watch them win a third straight division title.