Chiefs Urged to Miss Playoffs in Wild Take From NFL Exec

By Matthew Schmidt

Contributing Sports Writer

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The Kansas City Chiefs rallied for a pivotal 23-20 overtime win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, improving to 6-5 on the season and keeping them in the AFC playoff picture.

The Chiefs did not look overly impressive in the victory, however, as Patrick Mahomes failed to throw a touchdown pass and tossed an interception while posting a 77.4 passer rating. And if the season ended today, Kansas City would still be on the outside of the playoffs.

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The Chiefs' 2025 struggles have been puzzling, to say the least, and one NFL executive has offered a wild take on Kansas City: that it would actually benefit from missing the playoffs.

“They can then have a real assessment as to who they want to be and how they want to get there,” the exec said, via Mike Sando of The Athletic.

...

This is definitely one of the strangest takes you will ever see. The Chiefs have won nine straight AFC West division titles and haven't failed to qualify for the postseason since 2014. They've won three Super Bowl championships while appearing in five Super Bowls throughout that span. Missing the playoffs just isn't on their radar.

Now, does Kansas City have some issues that it needs to address? Absolutely, but the Chiefs can still make the playoffs and then fix those problems in the offseason.

It's not like Kansas City needs to tank for a quarterback, and even if that were the case, the Chiefs already can't do any worse than 6-11, so they wouldn't get the No. 1 overall pick, anyway.

So, yeah: it's hard to understand the logic behind actually urging Andy Reid's squad to miss the playoffs, especially considering we all know how dangerous Kansas City will be if it gets into the tournament.

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The Chiefs started the season 0-2 and have gone 6-3 since then, so for the most part, they have been playing decent football over the last nine games.

Kansas City will face the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving.

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