Chiefs Dynasty Ends with A Sad Whimper After Patrick Mahomes Injury
The Kansas City Chiefs' dynasty is pretty much over, and Patrick Mahomes' injury is just the final straw in what has been a dreadful year.
For weeks, the Chiefs have been facing an uphill battle to even make the playoffs. Despite underlying metrics suggesting they're a pretty good team overall, the one-score-game luck has run out, and it's why they're 6-8 now. They've lost seven games by one score, and they've only won one such game.
But now that they're eliminated and Mahomes is hurt, the future's not looking much better.
Patrick Mahomes' injury comes as Chiefs' dynasty ends
The Kansas City Chiefs had made three straight Super Bowls, seven straight AFC Championship Games, and had made the playoffs every year of Patrick Mahomes' career. All of that's over now, and it's only been 15 weeks. The Chiefs were officially eliminated thanks to their loss and several wins by other AFC hopefuls on Sunday. T
They have basically needed to win out for a couple of weeks now, and they've staved off official elimination no longer. The Chiefs will be out of the playoffs, and with Mahomes getting hurt, next year's not guaranteed to be better.
The Chiefs are over the cap by $44 million. It will be difficult to overcome that. GM Brett Veach is pretty good, but he can only do so much. They have a ton of holes, namely at wide receiver, tight end (Travis Kelce isn't getting any younger), and running back. The defense has some things to be patched up as well.
Usually, as has been the case this year, Mahomes is able to mask some of that. They've had zero running game all year long, but they've still had a pretty successful offense.
And while Mahomes' overall numbers aren't out of this world, he's quietly been pretty good in most advanced metrics. He was an MVP candidate for a while.
Two possible roads to recovery
Unfortunately, there are two outcomes for Mahomes in 2026.
Either he's not ready to play until midway through the year, which means the Chiefs will probably lose a ton of games before he comes back, or he'll return by Week 1 and be both rusty and slowed by the ACL recovery. There's a chance he isn't the same after this, as he's getting older and ACL injuries can be really devastating.
There is talk of Mahomes returning at the very beginning of the season, but that feels like blind optimism. Even if he does recover on the shorter end of the timeline, he's still going to miss all of the preseason and be totally out of synch.
We can assume the Chiefs will have new pass-catchers in there, and there won't be an ounce of chemistry. So even when Mahomes returns, it's going to be a slow start.
One silver lining
The only silver lining is that the Chiefs probably won't do much winning from here on out. Who knows whether or not Mahomes could've led a game-winning or tying drive after getting hurt, but Gardner Minshew couldn't, and he won't be able to do much the rest of the way. Whoever is under center in 2026 will be much the same.
So with that in mind, perhaps this leads to a top-10 pick. They're currently picking 11th, so it's not impossible for them to move up. There are a lot of teams in that range, but the Chiefs could slide there and get a really impactful player.
Then, with Patrick Mahomes sidelined for much of next year, they could once again end up with a high pick. They would essentially be taking a brief hiatus from their dominance to retool and come back better than ever. That's a difficult thing to pull off, especially as Mahomes ages. However, it's the only silver lining in what has been a shockingly dreadful season.
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