The holiday season can be both beautifully rewarding and wholly draining—sometimes both at the same time. The same can be said for watching one’s favorite football team progress throughout a season, particularly this year’s Kansas City Chiefs. While most of this particular season would land squarely in the “wholly draining” category, we have to admit that some of the characters from this year’s team have contributed to many of the beautifully rewarding moments that we, as fans, have experienced over the course of the last decade or so.
Now that Christmas has come and gone, we zero in on the New Year right around the corner, which is subsequently easier this year because, in football terms, it felt like Christmas never came in the first place. The 2025 Chiefs gave us a Christmas that was akin to what would have happened had the Grinch’s heart never actually swelled to medically concerning proportions. What if his heart stayed small and he left all of the presents and decorations he swiped at the top of Mt. Crumpit? Well, you would have gotten the holiday equivalent of the Chiefs losing every one-score game imaginable and Patrick Mahomes tearing his ACL.
But Christmas is over. We’re firmly in the week between Christmas and New Year’s, where no one really knows what day it is, even fewer people are motivated to actually work, and consuming sugary foods and drinking alcohol are permissible at seemingly any point in the day—or so we tell ourselves. But the light at the end of this week-long tunnel that feels like months is the turning over of the calendar. A New Year where a presumably new you will emerge better than ever. Right?
That’s what we all tell ourselves this time of year, anyway. I may have pledged to get 3,000 miles in on my Peloton last year, but did I? I’ll leave that up to speculation. Some of the more unrealistic New Year’s resolutions that people set for themselves can become a focal point that drowns you in disappointment this time of year. That is why it is important to be realistic, to be prudent. You must set yourself up for success with actions that are attainable on a daily basis. If I sat here and told myself I was going to be Mr. Universe in 2026, I’d be entering 2027 with quite the complex.
The same can be said for professional football teams—i.e., the Kansas City Chiefs—as they take their first steps forward in correcting the ailments that derailed their previous seasons. This is new terrain for the Chiefs: the first time since early 2022 that their season has ended before the Super Bowl. Hell, it’s the first time since 2015 that it’s ended before the playoffs. This offseason is paramount in the Chiefs regaining the traction they have maintained atop the NFL over the course of the last decade, and it is much more manageable than the team’s current 6–10 record may allude to.
These are the New Year’s resolutions that the Chiefs must set their sights on and adhere to in 2026 if they want to reassert themselves as a force in the AFC and the NFL. These are not big swings. It’s important to aim small and miss small, particularly in an organization that has hit so many home runs in recent history. They just need to change the way they’re looking at pitches.
1. Address obvious personnel issues
Going into last season, there was a nearly unanimous sentiment that the Chiefs needed to bolster their defensive line as well as their running back room. After all, the team likely couldn’t maintain the same level of success they had experienced with aging role players like Derrick Nnadi, Mike Pennel, and Kareem Hunt playing big roles at crucial positions on either side of the ball.
The team’s answer to this? Well, nothing. They stood pat for the most part. Sure, they drafted Omarr Norman-Lott and Ashton Gillotte along the defensive front and Brashard Smith in the backfield, but all of those felt much more like depth or project pieces than immediate solutions. At defensive tackle, the Chiefs zigged when everyone thought they’d zag—rather than retaining Nnadi and Pennel, they let both leave and then brought them back, likely for more capital than they would have utilized to keep them in the first place.
This offseason has to be different. The Chiefs still have the same needs at the same positions, the only difference this year being along the edge of the defensive line. Sure, they could use some help in the middle of the defense, but Kansas City was incapable of creating pressure without blitzing in 2025, and in today’s NFL, you can’t survive that way. The team also now needs a difference-maker in the backfield more than ever, with Patrick Mahomes presumably out of contention to be the team’s leading rusher next season.
There are other positions of need—specifically tight end—but the backfield and the defensive front are the pieces they need to bolster if they want to get back in the ring with the NFL’s best punchers.
2. Eliminate the concept of "job security"...for now
This isn’t aimed at creating a “walking on eggshells” culture in Kansas City. No one needs that; tension breeds nothing but more tension. If there is stress in the front office and in the coaching offices, the players will feel that, and nothing will flow correctly. But the sense of job security because you’re “someone’s guy” needs to end, and it needs to start the first full week of January.
I am on record as saying that the Chiefs need to move on from offensive coordinator Matt Nagy. Forget the chicken-and-egg debate over whether the Chiefs’ offensive failures fall on Nagy’s shoulders or Andy Reid’s. Andy Reid isn’t going anywhere, and no one should want him to. The offense needs more flavor, more thought, more innovation. Nagy is not a guy who is going to bring any of that to the table. But it doesn’t stop with him.
There is not an assistant coach on the Chiefs’ staff (aside from Steve Spagnuolo or Dave Merritt) who should feel comfortable heading into exit interviews (presumably) next week. Even those guys shouldn’t feel great, but they should feel confident they’ll walk out of the meeting with their jobs. There are others—Brendan Daly, Joe Cullen, Joe Bleymaier, David Girardi—who should be safe but should also be aware that change is not optional; it’s necessary for the long-term success of the organization.
This shouldn’t be a complete house cleaning, but there are changes that need to be made—and will be. Those who remain are going to be aware that the standard that has been set in the building has not been met but is within reach. It will just take a slight change in mindset, starting with a few fresh faces.
3. Embrace new ideas
The Chiefs have achieved almost everything that anyone at any level of the organization could hope to achieve: three Super Bowl titles, seven AFC Championship appearances, winning at every level while producing legendary Hall of Fame résumés for the head coach, defensive coordinator, and multiple players. What they’ve “always done” has worked—until now.
It’s time for the Chiefs, from the top down, to embrace new ideas. Maybe the best extension to offer isn’t to a guy who’s just been there. Maybe the best draft pick isn’t the best available. Maybe the veteran who knows the system isn’t a better choice than the young guy who may make mistakes but brings energy and a higher ceiling to the team on the field.
Improvement is always rooted in challenging yourself—physically, mentally, and emotionally. There are going to be some tough personnel decisions that need to be made this offseason, but the guys in the front office cannot just rest on the “way they’ve always done things.” That mindset has dug a bit of a hole from a roster standpoint.
Instead, try something new. Go get a playmaker in the draft who isn’t just a carbon copy of a player who’s worn a Chiefs jersey before. Bring in new concepts and players on both offense and defense to not only enhance the product on the field but also challenge the guys who will be here to become new, better versions of themselves.
4. Stop chasing ghosts and chase new history
This might not have been evident at the beginning of the season. You could attribute the Chiefs’ early struggles to a myriad of issues. The team was without Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy for a couple of games (Rice for six). Patrick Mahomes took some time to get comfortable behind a new cast of characters along the offensive line and was without many of them for much of the year. The defense took a few weeks to find dominant form. But as the season wore on, it became clear that the team was emotionally hung over from the all-out pursuit of a three-peat that they fell short of.
From the front office to the players on the field, everyone went all-in on the chase for NFL immortality, and rightfully so. But that is gone. Long gone at this point. And it is time for the organization to set its sights on version 3.0 of the Chiefs dynasty. If the initial concept was an offensive juggernaut with Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Tyreek Hill simply outscoring everyone, and the second act was a more defense-forward, ball-control offense that wore teams down until the final possession, what does version 3.0 look like?
Only time will tell, but everyone in the organization has to stop trying to be what they were and be willing to become what they inevitably will be. That could be more of the same, or it could be something completely different. The odds of it being too far removed from previous Andy Reid teams seem a little far-fetched, but as stated above, change is certainly needed. One thing is certain: whatever—or whoever—this team becomes, they have an entire city behind them that will be very, very ready for the next Super Bowl parade, whenever that may come.