Three Super Bowl victories in five seasons will earn a team a bit more respect than others, so no one should be all that surprised to see the Kansas City Chiefs ranking high on lists with regard to their organizational culture and leadership ceiling these days. However, a new list from The Athletic published on Monday brought some further understanding of that outside perspective.
The Athletic has been publishing lists all throughout this year near the start of every major sports' season. The lists compile the results of surveys given to executives within those sports asking them to rank the acumen of each front office in their respective league. Now at the close of the year, the Athletic has merged those lists together into one sort of "master" list intended to provide perspective on how teams match up against each other.
The Athletic's latest poll puts some things in perspective in terms of how others view K.C.
All of this is an imperfect science, of course, because the Florida Panthers and Oklahoma City Thunder operate in different ways with varied structure, so this is most certainly an apples-to-oranges exercise. That said, comparing the votes at least allows teams to see how they measure up to other favorites and by what degree they are favored compared to others.
The Chiefs already knew they came in second in voting in NFL circles with 13 first-place votes, two behind the first-place Baltimore Ravens in the findings published back in September. When combined with other teams, the Chiefs land at No. 8 overall. Considering the number of teams overall in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB, that's quite the feat.
The one-two punch of Andy Reid and Brett Veach is celebrated for the obvious chemistry between them—the close friendship that yields such tight communication within the organization. GIven that the front office can pursue players with absolute clarity on what will be expected of them, there''s little disconnect between matters on and off the field.
The Chiefs are the only team from the AFC West represented in the rankings, which take readers up through No. 70 overall. Others up after the Ravens and Chiefs were the San Francisco 49ers (No. 10), Philadelphia Eagles (No. 11), Detroit Lions (No. 19), and the Green Bay Packers at No. 20.