Let's rewind back to early June. The Kansas City Chiefs were three months removed from a blowout loss in Super Bowl 59 but the vast majority of people figured they'd bounce back and be vying for another Super Bowl title in the 2025 season.
Seton O'Connor of The Dan Patrick Show was not one of those people. While the show was discussing which playoff team from the 2024 season would miss the postseason in 2025, O'Connor boldly predicted that the Chiefs would miss the playoffs for the first time in 11 years.
"I think the Chiefs could miss the playoffs this year. I think they had a lot of one-score wins last year and usually when you squeak by opponents, I feel like that usually drops off rather than gets better, especially when your key players have aged even more. Travis Kelce kind of limped to the finish last season. Patrick Mahomes [is] certainly getting older. I wouldn't be surprised if the Chiefs fell off this year," O'Connor said in June on The Dan Patrick Show.
Well, as you can imagine, O'Connor was more than happy to take his victory lap on the show on Monday after the Chiefs were officially eliminated from playoff contention the day before. And, to be fair, he deserves credit here for making a prediction that not many other people would have and for nailing said prediction, even if it's painful for Chiefs fans to admit.
Dan Patrick Show prediction about Chiefs collapse aged shockingly well
O'Connor knew that the one-score games would eventually go the opposite way for Kansas City and that's ultimately what's doomed them this year. Dan Patrick said the Chiefs were 12-0 in one-score games last year. This year, they've gone a mere 1-7. O'Connor said that, paired with the Chiefs' lackluster offseason, is why he felt confident in his bold prediction.
"Those numbers that [Dan Patrick] just listed off is exactly how I got to [the Chiefs] not making the playoffs this year. Because last year they barely squeaked by all these teams and then in the offseason did absolutely nothing to upgrade the team... Chances are they're not gonna start blowing people out with the same group... and chances are they're not gonna be able to squeak by all those teams again."
As much as Chiefs fans hate to admit, he was absolutely right. The Chiefs' good fortunes in all of those one-score games did eventually come back to bite them and Brett Veach not seriously upgrading key spots on the roster was a big reason why.
Not many people would have been calling for things to go this poorly after Kansas City had made the playoffs every year since 2014 but it happened and O'Connor was ahead of the curve on this one for sure. It's unfortunate but sometimes things don't go your team's way and despite it seemingly always going Kansas City's way the past few years, that was not the case this year. Hopefully the Chiefs bounce back in 2026 and get back to being a Super Bowl contender.