The Kansas City Chiefs are feeling the heat after a tough Thanksgiving loss to the Dallas Cowboys, 31-28 - a game that dropped them to 6-6 and outside the AFC playoff picture. Right now, they’re sitting in the 10th seed, and with only a handful of games left, the margin for error is razor-thin.
To have any shot at punching their postseason ticket, Kansas City needs to leapfrog three teams: the Steelers (9th), Texans (8th), and Bills (7th). Conveniently - or maybe ominously - the Texans are up next on the schedule.
That matchup isn’t just a big game; it’s a potential season-definer. Lose, and the road to the playoffs gets a whole lot steeper.
Win, and the Chiefs are right back in the thick of the hunt.
But here's where things get tricky: this isn’t the Chiefs team we’ve gotten used to over the past few years. They’ve been uncharacteristically shaky in close games, going just 1-6 in one-possession contests.
That’s a stat that jumps off the page - especially for a team that built its dynasty on late-game heroics and clutch execution. So what’s going wrong?
Start with the run game. Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt haven’t been the chain-movers Kansas City needs them to be.
The ground attack has been, at best, inconsistent - and that’s putting it kindly. Part of that falls on the backs themselves, but a bigger piece of the puzzle is up front.
The offensive line hasn’t been the same unit we’ve seen in years past. And now, it might be getting worse.
Trey Smith, a key cog in the Chiefs’ run-blocking scheme, is expected to miss this week’s game. That’s a big blow - Smith’s physicality and ability to move defenders in the run game have been crucial. Without him, the already sputtering ground game could stall even further.
Then there’s the situation with right tackle Jawaan Taylor. He’s dealing with triceps and knee issues, and his status for this week is in question.
Taylor’s absence would hurt, but even when he’s on the field, it hasn’t been smooth sailing. He’s been flagged more than any other player in the NFL over the past three seasons - 49 penalties in 45 games, 41 of which were accepted.
That’s a staggering number, and it’s had a real impact on the Chiefs’ ability to sustain drives.
Drive-killing penalties have haunted Kansas City all year, and Taylor’s been at the center of that storm. It’s reached the point where his future with the team is in doubt.
Despite signing a four-year, $80 million deal before the 2023 season, he could be a candidate for a post-season cut or trade. If the Chiefs do move on, they’d carry about $7.4 million in dead cap next year, but they’d also clear significant salary space - and possibly hand the right tackle job to Jaylon Moore, a free-agent addition from the 2025 offseason.
That’s a lot of change for a team that’s been built on continuity and execution. But with the playoffs slipping further out of reach each week, the Chiefs are running out of time to get things right. The Texans game looms large - not just for playoff seeding, but as a gut check for a franchise that’s used to being the hunter, not the hunted.
If Kansas City wants to keep its postseason hopes alive, it starts with cleaning up the little things: penalties, run-game consistency, and execution in crunch time. Because right now, those little things are adding up to something big - and not in a good way.