The Chiefs can shrug off a lot in August, but one preseason trend is hard to wave away.
Kansas City went winless through three preseason games last month, falling to the Los Angeles Rams and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before tying the Seattle Seahawks. On the surface, that’s just summer football. Dig a little deeper, though, and it lands the Chiefs on the wrong side of a pretty ugly historical note.
The numbers are blunt: the Chiefs have never won a Super Bowl in a season when they failed to win at least one preseason game. That has held true across the seasons listed here - 6-0 in the 1969 preseason, 3-1 in 2019, 2-1 in 2022 and 2-1 in 2023.
And if you want to zoom in on the recent stretch, Kansas City is 0-8-1 in its last nine preseason games. The last time the Chiefs did win a preseason game, they beat the Cleveland Browns 33-32 in August 2023 and then went on to win their second championship in a row.
That’s not just a Kansas City quirk, either. The source points to a broader league pattern, and it’s a stark one: “In the entire 60-year history of the Super Bowl, only two teams have won the Lombardi Trophy after a winless preseason-the 1982 Washington Redskins and the 2021 Los Angeles Rams.
That’s it. That’s the list.”
So if you’re counting, that means a team that didn’t win a preseason game has gone on to win the Super Bowl less than four percent of the time.
There’s a simple football explanation for why that kind of stat even exists. Good teams tend to win, even when the games don’t count.
And if a club is good enough to lift the Lombardi Trophy, the thinking goes, it probably ought to be able to handle a preseason game somewhere along the way. The Rams, who are listed here as this year’s Super Bowl favorites, backed that up by going 3-0 in the preseason.
Still, a winless August doesn’t automatically mean a team is doomed. It just raises an eyebrow.
The Chiefs at least have one thing nudging in their direction: that 9-9 tie with Seattle last weekend. The Seahawks also tied a preseason game last year and still ended up winning the Super Bowl.
Maybe Kansas City can follow the same script.
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For Nwankpa, the path to surviving roster cuts wasnt just about defensive reps. He pointed to special teams as a major part of how he secured his spot, which tracks with how Kansas City often builds the back end of its roster. In a room where every role can be fragile, that kind of versatility can be the difference between a temporary look and a real place on the team, and Nwankpa clearly did enough to force the Chiefs to treat him like more than a camp body. [Read more 🡒]
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The more relevant storyline, though, is still the one hanging over Kansas Citys opener. Travis Kelce said on the New Heights podcast that Mahomes determination to fight back from injury helped shape his own decision to keep playing, a reminder of how much Mahomes presence drives the entire operation. It is expected that Mahomes will take the field against the Denver Broncos to open the season, but for now that remains one of the few Chiefs questions still waiting on a final answer. [Read more 🡒]
Chiefs Rookie Is Suddenly At Center Of A Big WR Debate
The Chiefs spent the offseason taking a measured approach at wide receiver, with general manager Brett Veach making only a couple of notable additions by re-signing Tyquan Thornton and using a fifth-round pick on Cyrus Allen. That restrained plan has left plenty of attention on the young receiver room as training camp unfolds, especially with Kansas City still looking for answers behind its established pieces.
ESPNs Nate Taylor helped stir the conversation by pointing to Allens potential growth and route running, going so far as to suggest the rookie could eventually emerge as the teams best receiver. It is an optimistic read based on camp observations rather than regular-season proof, but it underscores why Allen has already become such an intriguing name for a Chiefs offense that could use another difference-maker at the position. [Read more 🡒]