The Kansas City Chiefs are running out of believers.
Currently sitting at 6-6 and facing a must-win stretch for the rest of the regular season in order to claim any wild card spot in the AFC playoff picture, the Chiefs deserve to sit where they are in the latest round of NFL power rankings. There's just no other way to classify a team that continues to shoot itself in the foot in so many of its contests.
The Chiefs tried to go 2-for-2 in a short week by beating the Indianapolis Colts on a Sunday in Week 12 followed by a showdown against the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day, just a few days later. Despite Patrick Mahomes throwing four touchdown passes and putting up 28 on the Cowboys defense, the Chiefs gave away 31 points to Dallas with a pitiful defensive effort that kept making the same mistakes again and again.
Coming into Week 14, a survey of the latest NFL power rankings shows that the Chiefs have very few believers left at all.
Penalties have killed the Chiefs all season. Injuries are lowering the ceiling. The lack of adjustments by coaches on both sides of the ball has likely cost them more than one victory, which would make all the difference in this year's playoff picture. Glaring roster concerns that went unaddressed in the offseason have haunted them as predicted.
That leaves the Chiefs at 6-6, and sitting in rather uninspired places in a survey of the Week 14 NFL power rankings, no matter the outlet.
At ESPN, the Chiefs are still ahead of a few teams with winning records—including the Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, at No. 16 overall. They fell four spots, from No. 12 overall, after losing to Dallas on Thanksgiving.
Chad Graff and Josh Kendall have the Chiefs placed at one spot lower, at No. 17, in The Athletic's latest ranking of NFL teams. The Chiefs fell a whopping 10 spots, an admission on the part of writers that the Chiefs just weren't who they thought they were after two-thirds of a season holding onto the idea that K.C. was still a true contender.
CBS Sports has the Chiefs at No. 16 as well, but the team is somehow sitting above several teams higher than them in the AFC's pecking order—including the 8-4 Los Angeles Chargers. Kudos to Conor Orr of Sports Illustrated for sticking to his beliefs. The Chiefs were dropped five slots in his latest power rankings, but he still has K.C. at No. 13 overall after placing them at No. 8 a week ago.
Fans and analysts alike aren't putting any real faith in K.C. to finish what they started—or to even have a chance to play meaningful football. A strong win over the Houston Texans might restart a few engines of belief, but it's going to take a late-season surge to push change the perceptions of most. And it feels a bit too late for that.