The long wait for Kansas City Chiefs football is about to end when Patrick Mahomes and company face off against the Los Angeles Chargers on September 5 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Kansas City is on the hunt for a 10th straight AFC West division title, its eighth consecutive AFC Championship game appearance, and an unprecedented six out of the last seven Super Bowl trips. Winning another Lombardi is far from a minuscule task and one that requires an ungodly amount of hard work, planning, and determination.
Despite last year's loss in the big game, if the Chiefs were to get back to the Super Bowl this year and win, it would cement them as quite simply the greatest team of all time. Making four straight Super Bowls, winning three of them, two of which were the NFL’s second-ever back-to-back, will leave no doubt. It would eclipse what many thought to be impossible.
But like every championship-caliber team before them, the road isn’t easy, and it comes with its peaks and valleys. Here are the Chiefs' three biggest headwinds, entering the 2025 season.
Offensive Line (Specifically the Left Side)
First, let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith are locked and loaded as blue-chip, elite center and guard players, respectively, and look to prove why they are on such massive contracts.
Jawaan Taylor at right tackle has been a headache at times over the years due to all the penalties and unforced errors. But he largely cleaned that up last season, and when he is not being flagged every three drives for an inscrutable false start, Taylor is actually an above-average player at his position.
The offseason departure of Joe Thuney to Chicago was a big loss for this O-line. He provided all-pro blocking in both the pass and run game, consistency unlike any other guard in this league game-to-game, and veteran presence and leadership among his teammates.
The man taking his position is much maligned tackle prospect Kingsley Suamataia, who, let’s face it, didn’t quite endear himself with Chiefs fans with his play last year at left tackle. The move to the inside was one that the coaching staff felt confident in, and one that Suamataia has embraced with arms wide open.
He’s taken every rep at left guard with the first team offense this preseason, and really shone in Friday’s game versus the Bears. Kingsley put together multiple drives where he was able to showcase his athleticism and strength in the run game, and his quick feet and long arms in pass protection. It was his best showing to date in this newly envisioned role, and I, like many Chiefs fans, hope it continues.
Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve heard of this year’s first-round pick, Josh Simmons. A left tackle prospect from Ohio State who fell to the Chiefs at pick 32, despite being a consensus top 10 overall pick, before tearing his patellar tendon in October of 2024.
The injury scared every team off, other than the Chiefs, who, by in large, trusted their own process in evaluating Simmons' health. The typical recovery time for an injury this bad and a tendon so intrinsically valuable to the movement of not only a regular human being, but for the best athletes in the world is around 6-12 months, ranging on the longer side for a guy like Simmons who has to compete in professional sports.
To his credit, however, Simmons and the Chiefs have talked relentlessly about the level to which Simmons has attacked his rehab. Just eight months since the injury, Simmons participated in every training camp practice in full, and like Suamataia, has taken every first-team offensive rep in the preseason. The talent, movement skills, hand strength, and foot speed have been more than evident from the former Buckeye.
If Simmons can keep that knee in check and if Suamataia can prove to be a worthy player at left guard, Patrick Mahomes will have more time in the pocket than he knows what to do with, which would be a beautiful thing. But that’s two big IFs on the most important spot of the offensive line, protecting the most valuable asset in Kansas City Chiefs history.
Defensive Line Depth
I feel as though this is always a point of concern among Chiefs fans every offseason. The belief has always been that this D-line needs more juice alongside Chris Jones. And while on paper it’s always somewhat true that the Chiefs don’t have four to five guys you can put on the field and feel like they can consistently win their one-on-ones, it’s the same story with 31 other NFL teams. You can never have too many pass-rushers.
Jones is a given; we know he’s world-class above any other defensive tackle in this league. Nothing more needs to be said about him.
There are a couple of guys on this line who have shown year-over-year production and would love to take their game to the next level. George Karlaftis immediately comes to mind. Karlaftis has totaled 32.5 career sacks (postseason included, where he’s generally been his best), and was just awarded a four-year extension with the team keeping him around until at least 2030. All great stuff, of course. But when you watch the tape, a fair number of his sacks come from clean-up work, when a guy like Chris Jones collapses the pocket, forcing the quarterback to shift inside the pocket or even escape on the run, and that’s when George comes in to clean it up. He didn’t necessarily win his rep, but he got tallied for the sack.
I’m not blaming him for doing his job, of course, and I certainly hope that he keeps that ferocious play up, but the “next step” for Karlaftis would be to start winning his one-on-ones more consistently and being the one who forces the quarterback to feel pressured.
Charles Omenihu and Mike Danna have had an eerily similar last couple of years with the Chiefs. When they play, both veterans are certainly difference makers and truly above-average third and fourth pass-rush options. Each of them has had trouble staying healthy (Omenihu more so, but Danna still missed some time last year), and when they have played, neither of them has just felt right from a health standpoint.
A full offseason to get healthy and have a full ramp-up for a season in which both guys are looking to sign their next multi-year contract, hopefully does wonders.
Tershawn Wharton leaving this offseason shouldn’t be overlooked either. Wharton wasn’t highly touted coming out of college, but he slowly transformed himself into a useful cog in this defensive system, which was justified when the Carolina Panthers paid him $15M per year this offseason.
The Chiefs are hoping that rookies Ashton Gillotte and Omarr Norman-Lot can be as productive, if not more so, than Wharton, and seemingly right away. Norman-Lott, a second-round pick, and Gillotte, a late third-rounder, are going to get a lot of reps throughout the season, especially with the recent loss of Felix Anudike-Uzomah, who was put on IR earlier this month with a hamstring injury, ending his season.
Putting this much trust and reliability onto two rookies who have lots of developing to do is not usually a predictor of success in this league.
Safety Position
Steve Spagnuolo’s defenses have always been unpredictable and incredibly calculated. Dating back to his time with the Giants, he’s always relied on a great player at safety to steer the ship, set the tone, and make the big plays when it matters most.
James Butler was Spag’s best safety during the Giants' 2007 Super Bowl run, and three-time Pro-Bowler Landon Collins had his best years playing under Spags, leading New York’s defense to second in points allowed and fifth in total yards allowed in 2016.
The second Spagnuolo arrived in KC, his first priority was to acquire All-Pro safety Tyrann Mathieu via free agency. That sure worked out, as aside from Spags himself, Mathieu is perhaps the biggest reason why the Chiefs were able to change that defensive culture in 2019, boosting them to the franchise's first Super Bowl win in 50 years.
And now here we are, present day, saying goodbye to the latest safety to win over Spags’ heart, Justin Reid. In Reid’s three years here in KC, he compiled over 80 tackles a season, 4 sacks, 3 interceptions, and numerous big plays in the most pivotal of games.
The heir apparent to Reid is second-year man Jaden Hicks out of Washington State, who flashed in limited time last season, and is looking to have perhaps the biggest role jump of anybody on this 2025 team. Hicks is a hard-hitting, ball-hawking safety who leads with aggression and explosiveness. Where the question mark lies with him is the mental part; the lead safety must have to lead this defense from the backend. It’s going to take some getting used to for Hicks.
Bryan Cook is a multi-year starter and a quality second safety. Chiefs fans know him; Cook’s been around for four years now as he enters the last year of his rookie deal. I trust him more than I have in the past to begin taking on a more carved-out role.
Now things start to get a little dicey as do-it-all 2023 fourth-round pick Chamarri Conner looks to be the entrenched third safety. He’s more than capable of playing the position to an adequate level, and tackling has never been an issue with him. But when he gets into coverage against a receiver, running back, or even a tight end, it tends to spell trouble for the Chiefs.
And with a team like the Chiefs, who are one cornerback injury away from plugging Conner into the slot DB role, that safety room becomes thin very quickly.
Mike Edwards is a familiar name for Chiefs fans as he was a prominent player alongside Justin Reid in the Chiefs' 2023 Super Bowl run. A couple of years older and a few teams later, Edwards finds his feet back in Arrowhead in a lesser role, but an important one nonetheless.
He’s not the player he was in 2023 when he had 51 tackles and was flying all over the field. He’s a savvy veteran who has the ability to fill in, in a pinch, but by no means can you feel confident if you’re Spags rolling him out there 40-50 plays a game if a player like Bryan Cook gets injured (which has been an issue in Cook’s career up to this point). Big plays are what flip games on their head, and with a safety room this inexperienced, let’s hope the Chiefs aren’t constantly susceptible to safeties blowing their assignments.