AsKansas City Chiefsdefensive lineman Chris Jones processed Sunday's16-13 home loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, a reporter's question about being eliminated from postseason contention seemed to suddenly register in mid-thought.
"I think the score was 13-13 or 13-10, so still had a fighting chance. Um…"
Jones paused and looked at reporters.
"Are we out of the playoffs?" he asked. "We are? OK."
He pursed his lips for a moment and went silent.
Those few seconds felt like reality hitting home for the Chiefs defensive star. A totality on Sunday for Kansas City — from the top of the franchise to the bottom of the fan base — that carried the wallop of a sledgehammer. There would be no astounding turnaround and run to a Super Bowl. Instead, the team's streak of seven consecutive AFC title game appearances ended, falling one short of the New England Patriots' record of eight. The Chiefs played an astounding 21 playoff games in that expanse of those seven playoff runs, which began when Patrick Mahomes took over as the starting quarterback in 2018. That's the equivalent of an entire 17-game NFL season plus a four game run to a Super Bowl ...in nothing but extra time.
For Kansas City, it was a long, great party. But it ended with the cruelest halt of momentum for the Chiefs — with Mahomes' left knee folding in a manner that makes you instinctively divert your eyes. Leaving him to be carried into the tunnel, with nothing returningbut the news that his left ACL had been torn. Before it happened, many presumed the Chiefs were nearing a crossroads in their dynasty under Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid. After it happened, some will wonder if Sunday might be an end to it.
At this point, it would be a mountain of speculative reach to just suddenly calculate that the Chiefs dynasty is over. As the Patriots showed us in their two decades of being led by Tom Brady, a dynasty can have a long intermission and then pick back up again. After winning three rings in four years, New England went an entire decade without winning a Super Bowl — from 2005 to 2014. And in the middle of that, a 31-year old Brady tore his ACL in the first game of the 2008 season and New England was ultimately edged out of the playoff field in the final week. Brady would come back in 2009 and the Patriots would establish the second half of their 20-year dynasty, winning three more Super Bowls and ultimately appearing in nine from the start of the Brady and Bill Belichick era to the end.
Without going into the full history of how the Patriots did it, here's a thumbnail: Coaches were swapped out, players came and went, Brady and Belichick got better, scandals rose and fell, and owner Robert Kraft mediated the peace between his quarterback and head coach as long as he possibly could. The point is, looking back, the fabric of the culture endured because the two most important individuals inside it stayed together. And as long as that's what happens in Kansas City over the next 10 years — with Mahomes and Reid locked at the hip while retooling and reeducating new faces in the organization, Sunday wasn't the end of anything.
But there will be work required. A lot.
Start with Mahomes, who suffered his torn ACL late enough into this season that he'll likely miss the entire offseason program and potentially some of training camp — depending on his rehabilitation plays out and how conservative the franchise wants to be with his ramp-up process. But the retooling won't just be physical. Mahomes made enough questionable decisions this season to give himself a hard evaluation moving forward. Especially when the running component that was such a big part of his game this season will no longer be a viable asset. The last thing the Chiefs are going to need in 2026 is their most prized player running through defenses on a surgically repaired ACL.
There will be a cost associated with the injury that will challenge both Mahomes and Reid, who will need to contemplate what he wants the offense to look like moving forward. This is how the league works. Every scheme must grow and change, either out necessity or the sheer depreciation and rebuilding of rosters. Some signs point to tight endTravis Kelceretiring when this season ends. That means Mahomes will have lost one of his most trusted players on offense in his first season back from the worst injury of his football career. That's no small thing.
Added on top of it is Reid now being tasked to find a dynamic partner to consistently be the backbone of the running game. A young, talented running back who isn't a comfortable retread or just another good player who can step into a platoon. When Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman wanted to stop Jalen Hurts from getting hammered repeatedly running RPOs, he pounced on Saquon Barkley and paid him at a time running backs weren't getting paid. And the result was aSuper Bowl win that should resonate in the mind of Chiefs fansmore than anyone else.
Getting Mahomes more help — through a running game, through a healthier and more consistent offensive line, through a more reliable cast of pass-catchers — is one part of it. Something dynamic has been missing from the offense this season. There is nothing unstoppable, having long left behind the impossible-to-duplicate prime era trifecta of Mahomes, Kelce and Tyreek Hill. Of course, it's hard to add supremely dynamic pieces when you're drafting late for seven straight years. But there have been personnel mistakes made, too.
The defense isn't excluded from retooling, either. The unit has had its moments, but it feels like a Xerox of the sometimes-dominant unit of past years. This unit can't carry Kansas City through a long spate of sputtering offensive performances. The defensive line and the gold star ability to scheme up pressure when necessary feels distant and fading. When you marry this offense and this defense — both flawed — it becomes harder to clamp down and grit out wins when things are close and every mistake matters. That's how you lose seven one-score games this season.
This is what a crossroads in a dynasty feels like. You look left, there's some problems. You look right, some more problems. The Patriots experienced it during their decade-long Super Bowl drought. And it was brought upon in some of the same ways this Chiefs team came up short. But the key for the Patriots was that in their drought, Brady and Belichick hung in and eventually the right levers were pulled and the correct buttons were reset. They certainly had the titanic-sized egos that could have sunk it all. Go ask the early 1990s Dallas Cowboys about that.
Maybe that's the first real task in Kansas City. To absorb the (for now) one lost season and turn the microscope within. Some dynasties end in sports. A spare few others just pause. Distinguishing what makes the difference between the two is the next great chapter that Mahomes and Reid have to write together.
