If you haven't heard the news by now, the Kansas City Chiefs are out of playoff contention meaning for the first time since 2014, there will be an NFL postseason without the Chiefs. It's going to be strange not having our squad in the playoffs but it became crystal clear on multiple occasions that this was never going to be Kansas City's year.
What ultimately led to the Chiefs missing the postseason aside from the obvious losing too many games? If you asked 10 different Chiefs fans, you'd probably get 10 different answers but Chiefs fan and First Things First co-host Nick Wright broke it down in a way that makes perfect sense.
Wright appeared on The Dan Patrick Show on Monday to talk about his beloved Chiefs and Patrick gave him a sentence that he had to finish. The sentence was "The Chiefs missed the playoffs because ___".
"They deserved to," Wright said. "Playing in three straight Super Bowls and playing in five of the last six and seven straight conference championship games, the more than extra season of football that they have played caught up to them to a degree. They were not great. In fact, they were awful... Those winning moments, those little things that determine so many pro football games. Patrick [Mahomes], for some reason this year, was incredibly shaky on deep passes, which allowed the defense to constrict, and the progression of the young receivers did not happen the way I thought it would. They had no running game other than Patrick whatsoever, and they couldn't get a pass rush. And by the way, the special teams weren't that good. So, like, you add all that up, that's a bad team."
Nick Wright explains why the Chiefs collapse was inevitable this year
All solid points here by Wright. As he alluded to, the Chiefs have made the Super Bowl in five of the last six years and played in seven straight AFC Championship games so they've been playing deep into January and oftentimes into February. That's eventually going to take a toll on the players and we saw that finally hit this Chiefs roster.
Wright also was spot on about how Mahomes didn't look like his normal self and maybe a big reason why is that the receivers never really gelled for this team. We all thought once Hollywood Brown, Rashee Rice, and Xavier Worthy got on the field together at the same time that they'd be unstoppable but that has not happened at all. The run game and pass rush were also non-existent most of the time as well. And yeah, the special teams mostly stunk it up this year.
All in all, Wright saying the Chiefs missed the playoffs because "they deserved to" makes sense. Injuries paired with the roster not getting the upgrades it needed has brought us to this moment. While it sucks, the hope is that it forces Brett Veach to make decisions in the offseason that can help the Chiefs become a better team in 2026 and beyond.