Well, that was something. The Kansas City Chiefs are 3-0 after a 24-10 victory over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, leaving them as one of the NFL's five remaining unbeaten teams. That number has no choice but to shrink to four after Sunday, as the Chiefs travel to Las Vegas to take on the AFC West's other undefeated squad, the Las Vegas Raiders. Despite the team already reaching half of last year's win total, one would think the sky was falling based on the reaction from some of the fanbase and pundits after a game that was much too close for a majority of the afternoon against a consensus terrible roster in Miami.
The Chiefs' offense looked fine, all things considered. When you take into account the fact that two drives ended in anomalies and zero points in the red area (consecutive unsuccessful 1-yard conversion attempts and an interception that careened off Rashee Rice's hands), this game could have had a much different final score. We'd also be talking about an offense that hadn't dipped below the 30-point mark yet, instead of one that only put up 24 and covered the spread on the road. Take out a temporary lapse in judgment from an offensive coaching staff that lives on misdirection, just running two straight midline zone plays, and add in a "Catching the Ball With Your Hands" seminar for the Chiefs' wideouts, and those things are cleared up moving forward. Easy peasy.
Defensively, though, the Chiefs showed cause for concern against the Dolphins. Miami's roster is young and hungry, but quarterback Malik Willis—a career backup—made driving the ball on Kansas City's defense look easy on multiple drives on Sunday. Coming off the heels of Daniel Jones doing something similar, the question becomes, "Is Bo Nix that bad?" The Chiefs' defense we saw in Week 1 against Denver has not shown up in Weeks 2 and 3, but we will get to more of that later.
The Chiefs have a lot to clean up, but it is only Week 4, and the rest of the NFL can say the same. Based on media coverage, you would think the Bills are perfect and have made zero errors, but when you peel back the onion, you will find that they got to 3-0 on Sunday despite five turnovers, largely due to the fact that Mike McDaniel and Jim Harbaugh were busy debating handoff mechanics on the sideline. San Francisco is 3-0 in part because Sean McVay's sleep scientist travel gurus fleeced him, and they were able to play the Dolphins and Cardinals in back-to-back weeks. Brock Purdy for MVP, though. Totally.
Everyone has their storylines, and the Chiefs are no different. This week will be the team's next test, not their first or last. The NFL is a gauntlet, and those who can find different ways to win typically end up in the mix at the end of the year. Not every week is going to be a 30-point/300 Mahomes passing/150 Walker rushing outburst. Winning ugly is still winning, and the Chiefs have done just that in multiple ways thus far. Which leads me to my first overreaction.
The NFL is a hard league to win in
There's an element of tongue-holding that went into the first five paragraphs of this blog, but that flies out the door when the subheaders come into play. After a 6-11 season, we spent much of this offseason wading through a cautiously optimistic, at times somewhat pessimistic, outlook for this team in 2026. Good on the Chiefs for kicking the fanbase in the ass with a stellar Week 1 drubbing of the baby brother Broncos, but bad on us for not giving them any breathing room when the first "tight" game of the season rolls around.
Have we forgotten what real disappointment looks like already? A year ago, we watched Mahomes put a bad running game AND a bad receiving corps on his back on the way to shredding his knee and Chris Oladokun masquerading as an NFL starter on the way to a 6-11 finish. Before Andy Reid got here, things were somehow worse than that. Some of you may not recall this, but I do clearly. After the Chiefs won Super Bowl 54 and the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the U.S., I genuinely believed for a short amount of time that Clark Hunt made a deal with the devil for a Super Bowl win in exchange for the end of civilization as we know it.
So winning a game by two scores on the road in Miami in September doesn't exactly smash the panic button for me. This league is just hard to win in, period. Even if the Dolphins' roster doesn't impress many, and their prospects for 2026 are bleak, they still employ 53 professional football players. Football is a game of pride and passion, and those two virtues are not absent in Miami. This is not college football, where Georgia Southern visits Athens to take a 70-point ass-whipping for a $1 million check. There are no 2-star offensive linemen trying to block Jalen Carter.
This is a grown man's game, and every team has dogs. Miami appeared to want that game badly, and Hard Rock was rocking harder than it likely will all year long on Sunday. The Chiefs won, covered the spread, and are undefeated. Be grateful for all of those things.
What the hell happened to the Chiefs Week 1 defense?
After the Chiefs embarrassed the Broncos in front of God, Troy Aikman, and everyone in Week 1, I thought we were dealing with some sick hybrid of the 1985 Bears and 2000 Baltimore Ravens defenses. They got to the QB, forced turnovers at every level, and held last year's AFC Championship Game host to 10 points. They mollywhopped the Broncos' offense in every way.
Then Daniel Jones and Malik Willis waltz in on back-to-back weeks and prove me so, so wrong. L'Jarius Sneed might have turned back into a pumpkin, the Chiefs' defensive line seems to have forgotten how to generate pressure, and the linebackers at times appear to be running in quicksand. Outside of that, things have been going great.
Last week, I theorized that Spags is simply playing a game of chess that only AI (or SI?) could understand at this point in time. Now I'm not so sure we're not looking at personnel limitations. Can we not get more snaps for guys like Jeffrey Bassa and R. Mason Thomas? What is the harm in making a defense more athletic? Some of these personnel moves feel eerily similar to the complex level of confusion my brain faced when Daniel Sorensen and Ben Niemann were stealing snaps in the early Spags days.
The Chiefs' defense has some much stiffer competition lying in wait on the schedule. We can only hope that either from a schematic or personnel standpoint, they figure some things out. It would also be nice to see a little bit of a motivated number 95 on the field, but it is early. We have seen this for the last four years—once we get into late-season, meaningful football, the CEO of Sack Nation tends to pound the table once he gets back from his lavish sabbatical that oftentimes leaks into the beginning of the regular season.
The “we don’t need Josh Simmons” crowd is suddenly gone
Listen, I appreciate the way Kahlil Benson performed in the first two games of his NFL career as much as anyone. For an undrafted college right tackle to come in and stonewall a Broncos defense that led the league in sacks a year ago and play extremely well against the Colts is something that shouldn't go unnoticed. He is going to be a good-to-great player in this league at the right time and right position. But there were some real exposures of weakness occurring on Sunday that can't be ignored.
Benson looked like he got "Monstarred" on Sunday. For those who are unfamiliar with Space Jam, this means a little alien stole all of his football ability and turned him into a regular, albeit still massive, person. From a technical standpoint, his shoulders were way, WAY too far out in front, and he achieved next to no depth on his kick sets on passing downs.
This led to memorable moments like everyone collectively holding their breath as Mahomes took his first low hit of the season and Chop Robinson belly-flopped onto Mahomes in the end zone, causing what had to be a miserable turf burn for our sweet prince. Benson was consistently and convincingly beaten at the snap on an alarming number of the Chiefs' offensive plays on Sunday. With Maxx Crosby on the horizon and more elite edge rushers to come, that's disconcerting, to say the least.
Josh Simmons may be an enigma. That may be the nicest way possible to describe him, too. But he is an athletic freak and a top-10 talent at left tackle. When he was on the field a year ago, it was evident that he was a future stalwart left tackle. The Chiefs robbed him from the rest of the NFL with a late first-round pick a year ago. But we can't even put a finger on what's actually going on with the guy. You could call him flaky, you could question his dedication, you could simply say, "What the hell is up with this guy?" and not many people could argue with you.
But the Chiefs need him, and they need him to figure out whatever it is that's keeping him off the field. Whether that's a back injury or something else, it doesn't matter. Benson is a solid swing tackle option, but if this team wants to hit its ceiling in 2026 and beyond, Josh Simmons is a big part of that equation.
The George Karlaftis appreciation section
This isn't really an overreaction, just an observation and expression of gratitude.
There is not a more lovable dope on the Chiefs' roster than George Karlaftis, nor is there a more compelling origin story. The Greek God has done nothing but show up every Sunday since he was drafted with an unparalleled motor and insane work ethic. Is he the biggest, strongest, or fastest guy on the field? No. Is he the smartest? Definitely probably not. Just being nice. But Karlaftis has been a constant since Day 1, and I just need to give him some love here.
It's not every day you get to root for a guy with a high-and-tight, non-military flat top in 2026, who wears a T-shirt under his jersey, and who runs like Mose Schrute. Let's cherish this Kingdom treasure as long as we can, even if his ceiling is moderately medium. Since George has come along, times have gotten better. We're all better with a little Karlaftis in our lives.
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