The Kansas City Chiefs are not a good football team right now

The Chiefs are not performing at a high level and haven’t done so at any point this season. It is time to think about the Wild Card round of the playoffs.

The Kansas City Chiefs are hanging onto relevance by the skin of their teeth. While the team entered the season with impossible expectations to fulfill, they have come up shorter than anyone could have anticipated. With wins against the Washington Football Team, Philadelphia Eagles, and Cleveland Browns, the Chiefs have yet to prove that they can hang with the top-tier teams in the NFL.

Now, the Chiefs look ahead to their remaining schedule and hope that they can hang on long enough to make the playoffs. The team is staring down the barrel of a 3-4 record with games against the Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Chargers, and Dallas Cowboys on the schedule. This means that the Chiefs have given themselves absolutely no room for error. If the Chiefs are hopeful that they can even make the playoffs, they must beat teams that have inferior rosters to them. So far, that has proven to be a difficult task

No one is entirely sure what to make of what we are seeing. While Andy Reid comes to the podium and says something positive-ish and vows to “turn things around,” there is very little to be pleased about after last week’s shellacking from the Tennessee Titans. The fact of the matter is, the Chiefs have been bad. The team has not been able to roll with the punches and stay composed.

The Chiefs simply aren’t a good football team right now.

Patrick Mahomes did not have a good game on Sunday and frankly has not had a great year by his ridiculous standards. While Chiefs fans on social media want to bench Mahomes for being too focused on endorsement deals instead of the game, I believe that Mahomes is the only bright spot on the team right now. Yes, Mahomes has thrown a bunch of interceptions. Yes, he is pressing. He is not the issue. Mahomes has done his damnedest to keep the Chiefs in games that they, frankly, haven’t deserved to be in. He is still making ridiculous throws despite the horrendous circumstances that he is playing in.

The Chiefs cannot make stops on defense—at least not in the first half. This has caused the biggest share of issues with Mahomes and, honestly, the offense in general. It is not fair to the offense that they feel like every drive is the equivalent last drive of the Super Bowl because the defense is so far beyond putrid.

Frank Clark spent his time laughing with teammates on the sidelines as the game came to a close. Tyrann Mathieu shouted and got upset with the defense again. Steve Spagnuolo had his team unprepared for anyone who wasn’t named Derrick Henry. It has been a jumbled mess. As much as the Chiefs’ defensive leaders, namely Mathieu, want you to believe that it’s a tight group working to fix their mistakes, nothing has come to fruition. Instead, the team has spent time criticizing media members and fans on Twitter.

The Chiefs offense has had to push the ball downfield much earlier than they typically should. Mahomes is still a superstar, but this season has not been kind to him. He has been the victim of bad drops from receivers and lucky interceptions. What was unexpected, however, was how bad the blocking has been from the left side of the line. While the interior of the offensive line has been top-notch, we can no longer ignore how much pressure is coming off the edge for Mahomes. Against Tennessee, Mahomes was assaulted on nearly every drop back. That pressure was the biggest factor contributing to the offense putting up three points on the day.

While this is already disappointing in and of itself, Veach invested heavily in the offensive line this past offseason. In the one before that, he invested in defense. These still appear to be weaknesses, at least in some capacity.

A lot will be riding on how Kansas City responds over the next couple of weeks. Will they be a team looking forward to the Wild Card round? Will they be looking ahead to the draft? What position will catch Veach’s attention to the point that he attempts to over-correct it?

The ugly truth that no one wants to hear or mention is that our beloved Kansas City Chiefs are not going to the Super Bowl. They are not competing for the AFC. They are competing for their playoff lives. They are simply not a good football team at this time.