For Chiefs, 2020 was great, but now it’s all about, ‘What have they done lately?’
Any way you crunch the data, trace the forensics or turn the prism, 2020 marked the best calendar year in Chiefs history.
And that’s no less true after their skeleton crew’s dud 38-21 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in their first game of 2021 on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. Bummer, sure. But with the Chiefs resting their key players ahead of the playoffs, it was no more pertinent or revealing than a preseason game.
What was telling came before the calendar flipped: a team setting the tone and stage to return to the pinnacle.
Among their particularly timely deeds amid the largely miserable broader circumstances of the year, the Chiefs generated a captivating encore to their first Super Bowl triumph in 50 years by winning more regular-season games (14) than ever.
In the wake of the franchise’s three previous league or conference titles (1962, 1966, 1967), they failed to make the playoffs the next season.
Now, you might be fretful that the varsity ensemble had won its last seven games by a total of 27 points and needed some friendly indulgences of fate to keep winning.
And you might wonder whether some combination of offensive line injuries, relentless opposition research and Patrick Mahomes demonstrating actual human vulnerabilities at times makes them susceptible to an abrupt ending ahead.
But for all that, there is this:
The Chiefs this season beat five teams with 10 wins or more, including four on the road, and those narrow wins reflect a mindset. They won about every which way you can imagine to earn the luxury of both a bye next week and resting starters on Sunday.
And offensive hiccups notwithstanding, the presence of Mahomes (particularly with Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill) still eclipses all the other dynamics in play going forward.
Think about this: In leading the Chief to three rallies from double-digit deficits to win the Super Bowl, Mahomes is 4-1 at the helm in the postseason. For context, consider that the Chiefs had been 4-16 in the postseason from the time they won their previous Super Bowl in 1970 to the ascension of Mahomes to QB1 in the 2018 season.
All of which reflects the essence of a team well-equipped to become the first in the NFL to repeat as champions in 15 years. And the prologue is important and relevant.
At their best, assuming no devastating injuries ahead, the Chiefs absolutely are sufficient to stand atop it all again no matter who awaits.
Then again, the Chiefs certainly are free to fall if they’re anything less than the best version of themselves no matter who they’re up against.
So as much as we can appreciate all the Chiefs achieved in 2020, the season itself will be most truly defined by what’s ahead.
Because all of a sudden, well, that was then, this is now. All the rest will be rendered hollow without the ultimate payoff to the buildup.
Meanwhile, there’s a reason that in 54 years of the Super Bowl era only eight teams have repeated as champions. Winning it all is all the more a grueling task when you bear the brunt of wearing the belt.
Be that as it may, that’s the bar. The only thing, really. Anything less will feel like a waste.
Maybe it’s an absurd standard, especially only a year after this town was gaga about just getting back to the Super Bowl for the first time in forever. Heck, it was only eight years ago that the franchise was at the lowest of low points in so many ways, when merely returning to the playoffs seemed a distant and faint hope.
But the entire calculus has changed since, and that’s the point.
Under Andy Reid, now the fifth-winningest coach in NFL history, the Chiefs were revived into a perennial playoff team. Then they won their first postseason game in more than 20 years and landed on the precipice of a Super Bowl return in Mahomes’ first season as a starter.
Everything that’s happened since that 37-31 overtime loss to the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game two years ago put the Chiefs on trajectory not merely to win the Super Bowl last year but toward enduring impact.
Between the overhaul of the defense under Steve Spagnuolo and momentous free-agent signings like Tyrann Mathieu and Frank Clark, unusual front-office harmony, unique collaborative chemistry between Reid and Mahomes, the thriving relationship between Reid and general manager Brett Veach, with a young nucleus under contract for years, with three men who should be NFL head coaches serving as coordinators, the Chiefs stand at a unique moment in time.
Emphasis on “moment.” To be seized.
Because built to last with all the premier features as it might be, it’s also all fleeting.
Since their ancestors as Super Bowl champions were a much older team, many within two or three years of retirement, the parallel is imperfect. But the example still serves as a cautionary reminder that every opportunity like this is rare and precious and not to be squandered.
Even with so much seemingly set for the next few years, we never know what unforeseeable circumstances might be ahead.
Heck, if the timing of the pandemic’s arrival had been different last year, the Chiefs may not have had a chance to win that first Super Bowl. And if the NFL hadn’t been determined to find a way to play through it, warts and all, we might simply have lost a chapter in Mahomes Chronicles.
Instead, we have this:
A revelation at quarterback, still in his early prime, with a supporting cast around him ample to maximize the possibilities.
Yes, they’ll need better offensive line play. And it would be a big deal to get the injured Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Mitchell Schwartz back. And the defense has to come through. And they could use some breaks.
But this is the team to beat, and anything less will feel like a bust.
That’s a lot to ask. But it’s also the standard they’ve set, the expectation they’ve created and their legacy to claim.
This story was originally published January 3, 2021 at 7:00 PM.