The 2026 NFL season is officially here. While the Chiefs will round out Week 1 with a Monday Night Football home opener against the rival Denver Broncos, things feel a little, well, off in Chiefs Kingdom. The pomp and circumstance are all still intact: Tailgating will commence in less than a week at the de facto birthplace of its proper practice, and local McDonald's franchises will pass out this year's Red Friday flags on Friday morning. Street signs will be adorned with Chiefs red and gold, and downtown will inevitably have a crimson hue in the coming nights to commemorate a new beginning for one of the NFL's most storied franchises.
But something feels different this September than in years past. The sting of defeat, of categorical failure from a season ago, is still lingering in the air. Some of the remnants of these negative emotions are catalyzed by questions about the extent to which the most important ACL in the Kingdom has healed. Some of the negative emotion is fresh, albeit familiar, with doubts about the commitment of a player who has been viewed as a potential stalwart for years to come.
Emotion and time are forever correlated; they always have been and always will be. Many emotions live strictly in the past: loss and regret, but, more optimistically, fond memories of exhilaration and joy. Others live almost exclusively in the future—hope and anticipation, fear and anxiety. But the most beautiful times in life live, more often than not, in one specific timeframe: the present.
It's with understandable trepidation that Chiefs fans enter 2026 with cautious optimism. Keeping ourselves in check is a healthy practice. You never want to get too high with the good things that happen in life, nor do you want to get too low when there are bumps in the road. If I were your therapist, I would tell you to maintain that cautious optimism and take each week in stride when it comes to Chiefs football, something that, unfortunately, will dictate a good portion of our collective mental health over the course of the next six months. Is that the most responsible approach? Yes. Is it what makes Chiefs Kingdom, well, Chiefs Kingdom? Hell no.
Chiefs Kingdom has every reason to feel uneasy
Kansas City and the Chiefs have been here before, entering a season with what feels like an uncomfortable number of questions that remain to be answered. Three years ago, as the Chiefs prepped for a Week 1 matchup with the Detroit Lions, Chris Jones was holding out for a new contract, and Travis Kelce had just injured his knee in practice. K.C. came into the game without two of its three best players and lost a heartbreaker to the Lions. How did that season end? With Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs hoisting their second consecutive Lombardi Trophy in the desert in Arizona.
Sure, we have roster concerns heading into the season. Have we not gone into seasons with those before? In the season opener I mentioned against the Lions, K.C. trotted out a starting wide receiver corps that included exactly zero current professional football players. This was not the 2019 Chiefs; this was the 2023 Chiefs. Those players were all in their late 20s. To say that Andy Reid, Mahomes, Kelce, and the core of this current roster have done the most with just about the least when it comes to roster talent would be an understatement. Now, can they continue to do so as that core ages? We'll see. But for now, throw the caution in your cautious optimism to the wind and get down to business.
Perspective offers an antidote to preseason pessimism
Perspective is the most important gift that life—and, more specifically, the passing of time—can hand you. We've all been through the beginning of football seasons when past failures (i.e., missing the playoffs) feel like they're destined to be played on repeat. We are not there now, nor are we close, unless, of course, we allow the grip of pessimism to suffocate us. With the moves that have been made this offseason and the pieces returning to this roster—pieces that are forged in a championship-level commitment to excellence—a return to the postseason and to the promised land is not far-fetched at all.
In 2023, when the Chiefs lost to the Lions with several key pieces missing and Mahomes coming off an ankle injury, some could've lost hope early. This wasn't the only failure that occurred early that year. But did the team or the fan base crumble then? Sure, there was some negative discourse, but did you ever really stop believing? We all hate hearing negativity, so why feed into it?
Football is back. Get your red back out. Dust off your go-to Chiefs hat. Fly your Chiefs flags in your driveway, on your front porch, on your car—wherever you show your football-induced patriotism. Get those game-day outfits cleaned, pressed, and ready for action. Prepare yourself for the same routine you've put yourself through for the last seven or eight years—it will still work, even if you have to make some tweaks to it. Plan out your season-opening meal, whether that's on a grill in the parking lot at Arrowhead Stadium on Monday night, on your smoker, or in your oven at home. All is not lost in Chiefs Kingdom. In fact, we're just about to get started.
Don’t miss the moment by worrying about what comes next
Emotions and time will forever be correlated. But don't live in the regret of a season lost in 2025. Don't burden yourself with the anxiety that comes with pondering what happens if this season is a failure. Live in the moment. Appreciate every snap, every game, and every minute of action you get to witness from this iteration of the team. Appreciate those around you who you get to enjoy it with. This is not just a football team; it is a beacon of unity for our community, for an area far broader than your living room, neighborhood, or even suburb. If you look too far back or get too far ahead of yourself, you'll miss the fact that we're still squarely in the middle of the greatest stretch in Chiefs football history.
Three years ago, when the Chiefs entered the 2023 season facing many doubts, they ended the year by winning their third Super Bowl in five seasons. In six months, you could replace "2023" with "2026" and have the exact same sentence intact, with the Chiefs having won—you guessed it—three of the last five Super Bowls. When you look at it like that, it doesn't quite feel like the dynasty is dead just yet.
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