The Kansas City Chiefs won so consistently for so long that when the losing finally came in 2025, the players experiencing the collapse in real time couldn't fully acknowledge the reality.
Trent McDuffie, who was traded to the Los Angeles Rams in a March blockbuster trade, spent four years in the Chiefs' locker room before the deal. On a recent episode of the podcast Bussin' With The Boys, hosted by former NFL players Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, the veteran cornerback described what it was like to watch a team so unaccustomed to losing didn't know how to handle it.
The Chiefs opened the year with a 5-3 record before dropping eight of their final nine to finish 6-11, missing the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade. McDuffie described a group that kept waiting on the version of itself that always turned up in years past.
"And then we're losing, and we're losing. And we're like, 'Nah, we're good, bro. We gonna make it back'," McDuffie said. "We do this, we're used to this. And you lose, and you lose. And everybody's sitting back like, kind of like, 'Whoa, what's going on? This isn't us. What do we have to do?'"
McDuffie kept returning to the denial, describing it almost like a defense mechanism for a team that had played in five of the previous six Super Bowls and an iron grip on the AFC.
The former Chiefs cornerback recently spoke about the shock of the team's collapse in 2025 in a recent interview.
"The biggest thing for me was seeing, there was just no quit. It was almost like guys almost tricked themselves. This wasn't real," McDuffie said. "We're losing, but the scoreboard, that didn't matter. Nah, we're not losing. Our record's really not like that."
That mindset held even as the math turned hopeless, and McDuffie pointed to defensive tackle Chris Jones stepping to a postgame podium after one of the losses as the moment it crystallized.
"The funniest thing was Chris Jones. I think one of the games where we lost and we got finally kicked out of the playoffs. And he's up at the podium. He's like, 'We still got it?" McDuffie said. "And they're like, 'Chris, no…' And he was just like, 'Oh, I don't even know what to say. Like, I don't know how to be here.'"
By March, the front office had broken up the band, and McDuffie was one of the first out the door. Now with the Rams, he's hoping to get back to his contending ways, just as his former employers are hoping they've learned some valuable lessons from a shocking season.
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