Chiefs Wildly Disrespected by USA Today 2023 Record Projections
Despite having two Super Bowl wins and the most dominant duo in the NFL, the Chiefs are still being wildly disrespected.
USA Today released its record projections for the 2023-24 season. While the projections have Kansas City atop the AFC West for an eighth consecutive year, the predicted record itself should raise eyebrows all around Chiefs Kingdom.
What do you guys disagree with?
— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) July 24, 2023
(📷: USA Today) pic.twitter.com/RIq3d0MWxj
10-7!? Tied with the Broncos of all teams!? What are we doing here, USA Today?
Barring catastrophic injury or a bizarro-world sequence in which Patrick Mahomes plays all of the games blindfolded, it’s nearly impossible to imagine this Chiefs team ending the season with only 10 wins.
Chiefs Disrespected by Record Projection
I’ve got several problems with these projections, but it’s blasphemy to have the Chiefs at 10-7.
Since Mahomes became the starting quarterback in 2018, Kansas City has at least 12 wins every single year. In fact, the Chiefs have only lost seven games once in the 10 years Andy Reid has coached the team and that was 2014 with Alex Smith under center.
Reid brought consistent dominance to Kansas City and the team has only improved behind Mahomes. FanDuel Sportsbook has the Chiefs’ win total set at 11.5 juiced to the over, meaning it’s more likely than not that Kansas City finishes with at least 12 wins once again.
I think the Chiefs will win 14 or 15 games, so to project the team at only 10 wins is a joke.
Patrick Mahomes needs 12 wins this season to set the #NFL record for the most QB wins through 7 seasons.
— Jeff Kerr (@JeffKerrCBS) July 23, 2023
Russell Wilson has the record at 75 (Mahomes has 64).
Mahomes also needs 29 pass TD to set NFL record for the most pass TD through 7 seasons.#Chiefs #ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/PsHUDq9aNH
Given that Mahomes needs 12 wins to set the record for the most through seven seasons, Kansas City has ample incentive to keep the collective foot on the gas.
Mahomes is 27-3 against the AFC West in his career. There are reasons to expect improvement too, as many around the organization expect the defense to finish top-10 in the league, giving Mahomes the best defensive unit he’s played with.
The offensive line should be dominant once again and Travis Kelce is still humming as perhaps the NFL’s most consistent receiving threat. Put all of these factors together and you can see why this projection irks me so much.
At some point, the world will embrace the Chiefs’ dominance and stop the needless disrespect. Until then, we can just keep profiting from others’ foolishness and take the OVER in the Chiefs’ win total.
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