Despite Chiefs’ stumbles, Patrick Mahomes heartened by what he sees in the standings
It’s possible the Chiefs will go into their game against the Raiders on Sunday night knowing a victory will give them a chance to move into a first-place tie in the AFC West.
And they could move within one game of being tied for having the best record in the AFC.
The Chiefs, 5-4, haven’t had the start they hoped for, but quarterback Patrick Mahomes said Monday on his weekly radio show on KCSP (610 AM) that he and his teammates realize the playoff races are wide open. The Titans lead the AFC with seven wins and 10 teams have either five or six victories.
“Even in our division in general, everybody has five wins,” Mahomes said. “The whole entire AFC is in that four-, five-, six-(win) area. And so for us to not play the way we wanted to play obviously at the beginning of this year, to kind of have everything out in front of us that we can go out there and get this thing rolling and just play football week by week and hopefully have a chance to be where we wanted to be anyway at the end of the year. It is definitely something that kind of keeps you optimistic.”
What do the pundits say about the Chiefs’ chances? Twenty-eight NFL Network analysts this week made their predictions for the 2021 playoff field, and 10 had the Chiefs winning the AFC West. That was fewer than the Chargers (13), but more than the Raiders (five).
The Chiefs also received 10 votes to be one of the three AFC wild-card teams.
The computer models show the Chiefs have a good shot at the postseason as well.
FiveThirtyEight.com gives the Chiefs a 55% chance of making the playoffs, which is the fifth-highest of any AFC team. The Chiefs’ postseason chances are 7 percentage points higher than a week earlier. Kansas City has a 22% shot of being AFC West champions in FiveThirtyEight.com’s computations.
The Chiefs, 4-4, have a 27.8% of being a wild-card team, according to Football Outsiders, and a 26.6% shot of winning the AFC West. That’s the second-best chances of being division champs, behind the Chargers.
PlayoffStatus.com increased the Chiefs’ odds of being in the playoff field by 12 percentage points from a week ago to 41%, which is the eighth-best in the AFC. The Chiefs have a 15% chance of winning the AFC West.
The Chiefs have a 48% chance of being in the playoffs, according to the New York Times’ playoff computations, which is up 6 percentage points from a week earlier. They have a 20% shot of being division champions.
If the Chiefs beat Las Vegas, their postseason chances would increase to 67%, the New York Times said. FiveThirtyEight.com sees the Chiefs playoff odds increase to 72% with a victory, FiveThirtyEight says.
Mahomes knows the importance of the game, too.
“We understand we have a huge week this week going up against the Raiders and at their place,” Mahomes said. “And so we’re focusing on this week of just going in making ourselves better and trying to find a way to win a football game against a really good football team.”
