Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce are seeking to lead the Kansas City Chiefs to their sixth Super Bowl appearance in seven seasons in 2025.
The Chiefs will kick off their 2025 preseason with a trip to State Farm Stadium on Saturday night where they will take on the Arizona Cardinals.
Although many teams around the league usually opt to restrict their starters’ reps in preseason, Kansas City is one of a few teams who tend to give their stars some solid action before the regular season rolls around.
Therefore, expect the likes of Mahomes, Kelce and a few others such as Chris Jones to take to the field, with head coach Andy Reid expected to play his starters in the first quarter before the backups take over, per NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk.
Under Reid – whose training camp regimes are infamous for being extremely taxing – the Chiefs have become a dominant force in the NFL for almost a decade.
However, media personality Colin Cowherd, believes that their championship window is narrowing every year due to the rest of the AFC West strengthening their respective teams.
“I think Kansas City, the dynasty part, is over,” Cowherd predicted on his show. “They may win a Super Bowl but I think their division’s too good to be a dynasty.
“I’ll give you an example…Tom Brady. Brady’s great, but one of the things that was never spoken about was that the Colts used to be in the Patriots’ division then they left. He got home field advantage almost every year.
“Anytime he would have to go to Denver [Broncos], he would lose… but because the [New York] Jets, [Miami] Dolphins and [Buffalo] Bills were, for most, inept, Brady would go 5-1 in the division or 6-0. So he got home field in cold weather, a huge advantage, with the best defensive coach of all time. All he had to do was win a couple of playoff games because they got a bye…
“They took advantage of the ineptitude of their division to get home field advantage and Kansas City deserves all the credit in the world. They’ve taken advantage of Justin Herbert with bad coaches, Denver in a rebuild and the [Las Vegas] Raiders in a perpetual rebuild.
The often controversial broadcaster also believes that the Chiefs’ disparity in personnel between their team and their division rivals has narrowed, with the Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, and Denver Broncos all expected to be vastly improved outfits.
“They [the Chiefs] deserve all of it, but there’s never been a division with four head coaches that have been to a Super Bowl,” Cowherd added. “The Raiders now have Tom Brady overseeing it, Pete Carroll, Chip Kelly and the very competent Geno Smith. Would you be shocked if the Raiders split every series in the division? I would not.
“Bo Nix in year two with Sean Payton – he made the playoffs as a rookie and they’ve got money now. Kansas City doesn’t have the money to go buy [Talanoa] Hufanga and [Dre] Greenlaw. Denver does.
“Last year, five of their wins in the division, all of them one possession games. Denver is going to be noticeably better, the Raiders are going to be significantly better, and Jim Harbaugh’s career year two.
“Everywhere he’s ever been, year one he changes the culture, year two he changes the personnel… they’ll be noticeably better than last year where they just had too many weak spots on the o-line, at wide receiver, at tight end. But they’ve solved a lot of those riddles.”
With superstar quarterback and two-time league MVP Mahomes under center, the Chiefs have never lost more than six games in a season, with his worst record being 11-6 in 2023, though he would still lead the Chiefs on an emphatic playoff run to win their second consecutive Super Bowl.
Although some are quick to jump off the Chiefs’ bandwagon after their shock dismantling by the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, broadcaster and life-long Kansas City fan Nick Wright cannot fathom why.
“I find the casual, flippant disrespect moving past the Chiefs’ dynasty inexplicable,” Wright said on First Things First. “A lot of people have them as a Wild Card team this year. We are in the midst of literal unprecedented greatness.
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“We are in the midst tied for the greatest three-year stretch in the history of football. And people are just convinced saying, ‘Yeah, but have you seen Bo Nix?’ I find it embarrassing for a lot of sports media.”
Mahomes is now entering his eighth year as a starter, but his long-time favorite target Kelce is an aging star, who even considered retirement after a career-low year in 2024.
Nonetheless, with a strong receiving corps, including Rashee Rice, Marquise ‘Hollywood Brown, Xavier Worthy who is tipped to go ‘ballistic’ next season, and the arrival of rookie Jalen Royals, who has, so far, been a training camp standout, Mahomes is not short of offensive weapons in his arsenal.
Add to that the multi-year extensions for Trey Smith and George Karlaftis, and there is strength in depth across mostly all positions on the field.
With Mahomes never having exited the playoffs earlier than the AFC Conference Championships, the Chiefs look poised to run the AFC ragged once again, and possess the winning pedigree that other teams and their star players have not experienced as a result of Kansas City’s utter dominance over the last seven years.
Although many of the teams around them have strengthened their personnel, it would be simply a mistake if Mahomes and co were to be written off this early, or at all.
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