Why NFL teams should be terrified of the Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Houston Texans in their opener last Thursday and the results of the game should have the entire NFL shaking in their boots.

On Thursday night, the Kansas City Chiefs began their home opener by unveiling the Super Bowl championship banner from last season. The bigger unveiling, however, may have been that of their 2020 team—one that should have the rest of the NFL worried about being able to keep pace this season.

The Chiefs dominated the Houston Texans for pretty much the entire game in primetime. Two late fourth quarter, garbage time touchdowns by the Texans would make it look presentable, but anyone that watched the game came away with the same conclusion: the Chiefs were the vastly superior football team.

The Chiefs did enter the game as heavy favorites, given the Texans were a playoff team last season. They are also one of the few teams in the AFC with an elite talent at quarterback, one who even comes close to allowing them to go toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. Plus, the Texans had the motivation of trying to avenge their epic collapse from the playoffs last season. Houston had every reason to be motivated to send a message to the rest of the NFL that their early lead on the Chiefs in that game was no fluke, that this time they would finish the job.

Not only would that not happen for the Texans in this game, it was never even close. While that alone might have the rest of the NFL feeling a little nervous, here’s the real kicker, the Chiefs weren’t even close to firing on all cylinders. If you asked me to rate K.C.’s performance on a scale of one to ten, I’d give Thursday night a seven. They were solid and had a few individuals stand out, but there was still plenty of room for improvement.

I came away from that game with four major takeaways that should have the rest of the NFL really worried about how they are going to prevent the Chiefs from hanging up another banner next season. Yes, it was only one game. I’m sure some of you reading this will say, “Let’s now get carried away after one game” or, “Maybe the Texans just aren’t that good.” Even if both of those statements are true, I don’t think it discredits these four takeaways.

Let’s start with the one that had most people talking after the game.