Three biggest questions facing the K.C. Chiefs at the bye week

How much will early-season losses affect them in the end?

Right now the Chiefs are on a roll with a four-game winning streak perfectly timed to head into the bye and come out rested for an important run through the conference. They’ve climbed their way out of the divisional basement in the AFC West and now control their own destiny to at least make the postseason by peaking at the right moment that every team wants to look good—down the stretch entering the holidays.

But there’s also a cloud hanging overhead from the early stretch of the regular season. The question is no longer about “playoffs or not?” in Kansas City. While it seems safe to conclude they’ll be playing into January, we’re wondering whether that elusive first-round bye is still a possibility at this point or if the Chiefs early-season miscues sunk that ship already.

The NFL decided in recent years that the top seed in each conference would be the only recipient of any first-round bye (a horrible rule, by the way), which means everyone is chasing the Titans at the moment. Tennessee just so happens to hold the tiebreaker with the Chiefs since they beat them back in Week 7. The same can be said of the Baltimore Ravens (Week 2), the Buffalo Bills (Week 5) and even the L.A. Chargers hold the edge on them head-to-head with one game left to play. The first third of the regular season wasn’t all that kind to the Chiefs.

But on the other side, everyone is looking very mortal these days. The Titans are only a single game ahead of the Chiefs with several to play and they just lost to the Houston Texans. The Bills are now behind the surging New England Patriots in the AFC East and are now hoping just to make the postseason. The Ravens keep squeaking by poor teams (the Bears were this week’s lucky turn) and must run through a very tough AFC North in December.

While all those teams hold the edge on the Chiefs in a tie-breaker, it’s also possible they could each lose a couple more games and help the Chiefs come out with a better record entirely on top. If they tie, K.C. is sunk with no one to blame but themselves for playing so poorly in the first few games of the year. Will they come out with the top seed? That first-round bye is a considerable edge in the playoffs and the Chiefs should chase it with everything they have.