Kansas City Chiefs: Ranking every season from 2010-2019

Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs raises the Vince Lombardi Trophy (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs raises the Vince Lombardi Trophy (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /
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Thomas Jones #20 of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates after a big run against the Packers in 2011. The Chiefs defeated the Packers 19-14. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
Thomas Jones #20 of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates after a big run against the Packers in 2011. The Chiefs defeated the Packers 19-14. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /

RANKING EVERY SEASON FROM 2010-2019

NUMBER 9: 2011

  • Regular Season Record: 7-9
  • Playoff Result: None
  • Biggest Win: Week 15 vs Packers (19-14)
  • Worst Loss: Week 2 vs Lions (48-3)
  • Team MVP: Derrick Johnson
  • Rookie of the Year: Justin Houston
  • Notable Achievements: Beating the previously undefeated Packers in week 15

If there’s one thing the 2011 season will be remembered for, it’s how inconsistent the team was that year. They had a losing streak of three games followed by a winning streak of four games, followed by a losing streak of four games, and then rotated wins and losses to close out the season and finish at 7-9.

It was an odd year with the team looking great for a stretch and then sinking back to irrelevancy again. Jamaal Charles got hurt in week two, which made fans think the worst was coming after he went down so early in the season. It was even worse when you consider the Chiefs were blown out 59-10 in their first two games.

Despite playing poorly for large chunks of the season, the Chiefs were still in the running to win the AFC West due to the other three teams in the division hovering around the same record. Denver ended up winning the division at 8-8 and the Chiefs finished in last that year at 7-9 if that’s any indication to how bad the division was.

Some of the most notable moments from 2011 included the firing of head coach Todd Haley, who was relieved from his duties after a 37-10 blowout loss to the Jets. The Chiefs front office had seen enough by that point and chose to part ways with Haley after not even three years at the helm.

Romeo Crennel was named interim head coach and went 2-1 to close out the season. We all know how his head coaching tenure went as I discussed on the previous page, however, and it wasn’t good, but he did have his moments in 2011 for sure.

The biggest highlight of the season came in week 15 when the Chiefs hosted the then 13-0 Green Bay Packers, who were defending Super Bowl champions at the time and looked to be on their way to a second championship. Instead, the Chiefs shocked the Packers, winning it 19-14 and handing Green Bay their only loss of the regular season. No one gave Kansas City a chance to win that game, but they did it and it was epic.

This season was also when the Chiefs scooped up Kyle Orton off waivers due to Matt Cassel’s injury and Tyler Palko being Tyler Palko. Orton did well during his time as the Chiefs starter, but opted not to return to Kansas City for the 2012 season (and we all saw why the very next year).

Another highlight was more of a comical one, as the Chiefs hosted the Broncos in the final game of the season. In that game, Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow went just 6 of 22 for 60 yards and the Chiefs won it 7-3. It’s one of the funniest games in Chiefs history to this day.

The 2011 season was a bizarre one with the Chiefs missing the playoffs due to allowing a last second field goal. They lost to the Raiders in overtime, who kicked the game winning score (back then you could kick the field goal first and win in overtime), and that was what ultimately kept them out of the playoffs, and put them in the basement of the division.

To go from being able to win the division and make the playoffs to missing the playoffs and being in last place in the division showed how weird the 2011 season was for the AFC West.

While this season was a weird one, it wasn’t necessarily THAT bad. The Chiefs won exciting games and had a chance to make the playoffs at the end of the year.

The 2011 season is this low on the rankings due to having a losing record and the rest of the decade being pretty dominant for the Kansas City Chiefs. They also had some terrible losses and their head coach was fired midway through the year, so yeah… That’s pretty rough for most teams. It sits as the second worst season of the 2010s.