The Kansas City Chiefs ended their home portion of the 2025 season with their fifth straight loss. It could have been the last game at Arrowhead for Travis Kelce, and the loss was poignant because this franchise has no clear direction in the future.
Christmas in Kansas City was supposed to be a celebration crowning the Kansas City Chiefs as AFC West Champions and the preparation for the chance to appear in four straight Super Bowls. However, the wheels fell off the season back in week one, a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil that shot a warning sign across the Chiefs Kingdom of things to come.
The Chiefs’ 20-13 loss to the Denver Broncos continued a trend: this team is unable to win close games. Regardless of the talent on the field, the coaching on the sidelines, mistakes, injuries, and poor game plans, the 2025 season was littered with them; its potential greatness ended with a thud.
Denver didn’t look like world beaters, and they nearly lost this game to a third-string quarterback making his first start in the NFL. Chris Oladokun did his best Thursday night, but in the end, he didn’t have the big play in him with the clock expiring.
After the game, the conversation was about Travis Kelce. Will he ride out into the sunset with Taylor Swift? If I were him, that would be a big yes, or grind his body for one more season at the age of 37.
Though he said the decision won’t come without talking to his family and the Chiefs, you could see the sentimentality in his eyes that this is the last game he sees himself playing at Arrowhead in a Chiefs uniform.
Sadly, Kelce was the best player on offense, and late in the game, he almost made a big catch deep in Broncos territory, but the ball was out of reach, and that might be a defining moment to hang up his cleats.
Right now, the Chiefs are pushing the edge of a Top Ten pick, and with salary cap manipulation that has to be both shrewd and aggressive, the organization needs fresh voices, new coaches, and some gut-wrenching roster decisions to bounce back in 2026.
The Chiefs’ fall from their championship form didn’t happen this season; instead, it showed cracks most of 2024. Their Super Bowl loss to the Eagles should have sounded the alarm; the team settled for tinkering with roster adjustments and no coaching changes.
That can’t be the case this off-season.
It didn’t work in 2025, and that approach will push the Chiefs back into another high draft pick. If Mahomes returns to start the season, even the perfect off-season doesn’t mean he’ll return to form before October or November next season.
I don’t like the word crossroads because it’s an empty fork in the road that depends solely on luck. Which route do the Chiefs travel? Will Brett Veach take control of the franchise, or will he follow his head coach’s orders?
Now that the stadium issues are settled, with the Chiefs going to Kansas in 2031 or sooner, Clark Hunt has to decide what he wants to spend on the field to soften the blow of many fans who view the move as a betrayal.
Yet, all that could hinge on number 87 and what’s in his heart after the season ends one week from Sunday in Las Vegas.
The reality is that both the Chiefs and Raiders are fighting for a top-ten pick, and if that’s enough to wake up the organization to make better decisions in 2026, then we could witness the final year of Andy Reid’s coaching career.
If that happens, this franchise will never look the same, and a new philosophy will be born from repeated failure, with even more uncertainty about the next chapter of the Mahoems era.
