Kansas City Chiefs: Ten Worst Seasons in Team History

Worst seasons in Kansas City Chiefs history: No. 8, 1988 (4-11-1)

The 1988 season was not a great one in Kansas City and a lot of the issues were because of the quarterback carousel taking place between Bill Kenney and Steve DeBerg.

Despite both of these guys actually putting up decent numbers during their Chiefs tenures, neither had much luck with leading the team to success in 1988. Kansas City started the year off 1-8-1 and only ended up winning three more games to finish off the year.

Something that made me put this game near the bottom of “Worst Seasons” is because while the Chiefs were obviously not a very good team in 1988, they were only blown out by opponents twice. The rest of the games were pretty fair fights, but the Chiefs just couldn’t finish games off.

Another reason this was lower on the list was that the 1987 season went almost exactly the same way (4-11 record). There weren’t many expectations heading into the 1988 season, as the Chiefs were in rebuilding mode.

While the Chiefs were obviously not a very good team in 1988, they were only blown out by opponents twice.

The Chiefs had three Pro Bowl players in 1988: Dino Hackett, Albert Lewis, and Deron Cherry, all defensive players. This wasn’t enough to keep Jim Schaaf as general manager of the team or Frank Gransz as the head coach.

A benefit to this losing season was that the Chiefs ended up with a lot of gems for the 1989 season. For one, they landed the fourth overall pick in the 1989 NFL Draft and selected Derrick Thomas, a Hall of Fame linebacker.

The Chiefs also hired Marty Schottenheimer on as their head coach, a position that he kept for nearly a decade.

So, yes, the 1988 season was brutal for the Kansas City Chiefs, but some good definitely came out of it.

Next: Number 7