A lot has changed for the Kansas City Chiefs in a year

A year ago, the Kansas City Chiefs were in trouble.

As summer approached in 2022, Chiefs Kingdom was still reeling from the team trading away the best homegrown wide receiver the team had ever produced. Tyreek Hill was gone, and the team was left with a bunch of relative no names. It seemed obvious: this offense wasn't going to be dominant if teams could just cover Travis Kelce.

On the other side of the ball, the defense was once again suspect. The Chiefs had let Tyrann Mathieu walk, and exchanged him for another former Houston Texans safety in Justin Reid. Oh yeah, and the Chiefs almost entirely drafted defense, too. Sure, the defense had been given a makeover...of rookies? Yikes.

And then there was the division. The Raiders hired former Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels. The Chargers were for sure going to win the division for a record tenth offseason in a row. And perhaps the crown jewel: the Denver Broncos traded for Russell Wilson, and hired the hottest new offensive mind in the league.

A year ago, the Kansas City Chiefs were in trouble

At least, that's what everyone in the media said. Bleacher Report predicted the Chiefs would go 10-7 and at least get a wild card. Adam Rank at NFL.com also predicted a 10-7 record but added, "For the first time in years, the Kansas City Chiefs will not make the playoffs."

Take a scroll to the replies on this tweet, and you'll notice that the Chiefs are noticeably absent from most of them. Experts and fans alike really thought that the 2022 was the year that the bottom would fall out for Kansas City.

By the time week three had rolled around - ironically coming off a ridiculous loss to the Indianapolis Colts - the cracks in all these predictions began to show. The AFC West turned out to not be nearly as good as everyone thought it would be. And the Chiefs offense seemed to be just fine without Tyreek Hill.

Not only did the Chiefs win more than 10 games. They won their seventh straight division title, hosted their fifth straight AFC Championship game, and went to their third Super Bowl in five years. The cherry on top was them winning the whole thing.

A year ago, the Kansas City Chiefs were in trouble.

But this year? They are unquestionably the top dogs. And I would argue that their offseason hasn't been nearly as good as last year was. Pundits aren't asking if the Chiefs will make playoffs. They are asking if anyone can stop the Super Bowl Champions.

The Chiefs winning an eighth straight division title isn't being questioned now, it just feels like a given. It's no longer four really good quarterbacks, it's Patrick Mahomes and everybody else.

I'm not quite sure what changed this year. Maybe questions would persist if the team hadn't won the Super Bowl. But it is shocking to me just how much the language around the team has changed from just a year ago. Because a year ago the Kansas City Chiefs were in trouble.

Now? The rest of the league is in trouble.