The most accomplished quarterback of the present day is making his way down a tunnel to the locker room, his game over, his season done and one of the most remarkable streaks in NFL history finished.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes walked with a towel over his head as he hung his arms over the shoulders of two people he needed for support to walk. If part of that image sounds vaguely similar to a week earlier, a towel hiding his face in the postgame locker room, you should take note of the startling difference.
The finality is now official. And far more painful than imagined. The Chiefs lost a football game, the last of their dwindling playoff hopes and their quarterback, all in the matter of minutes Sunday during a 16-13 defeat against the Chargers at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
In its aftermath, a Chiefs offseason already jam-packed full of questions just added its most consequential: When will we see Patrick Mahomes throw a pass again?
The Chiefs confirmed late Sunday that Mahomes has a torn ACL in his left knee, an injury that will require surgery and several months of rehab. Is the start of 2026 in doubt? Longer?
Oh, and one more question in the aftermath of it all, if I may: How in the you-know-what did the Chiefs just miss the playoffs when that guy was on the field for 14 games?
The Mahomes injury is an abrupt and jarring conclusion to a once-promising season that had him leading the league’s MVP race with the schedule more than half exhausted.
The Chiefs? This season was a slow demise.
That they’ll be without a playoff spot is a reminder of how hard it is to accomplish all they’ve achieved over the past seven seasons — the three Super Bowls, the five AFC titles, the seven straight appearances in the AFC Championship Game. This will be the first Patrick Mahomes season as a starting quarterback that ends shy of an AFC Championship Game’s overtime period. It’s incredible, really.
But even if this team wasn’t going to extend that streak, it shouldn’t either be the group causing us to reminisce about the old days as though they are things of the past.
This team provided the evidence of different sort: just how hard it is to miss the playoffs with Patrick Mahomes at quarterback.
It took a lot. It is not demanding perfection to suggest the Chiefs shouldn’t be afforded an off-year with Mahomes. It is accepting reality. When you have the best in the business playing the most important position in the business, the bare minimum is to at least get the rest of it right enough that Kansas City remembers January not for its bitter cold, but for the homefield advantage it provides.
A quiet January occurs in nine of the 16 AFC cities. The city that employs 30-year-old Patrick Mahomes shouldn’t be one of them. No, not even once.
Because saying the Chiefs just once missed the playoffs oversimplifies that this is already an eight-part series, every episode borrowing from the same plot. The franchise that had played in more high-pressure football games than any other over the last seven seasons spent an entire year overwhelmed by big moments.
The Chiefs are 6-8, and in each of their losses — every last one of them — they either led in the fourth quarter or possessed the football with a chance to take or take the lead in the fourth quarter. They have trailed in the second half in nine games. They are 1-8 in those games. They are 1-7 in one-score games.
A year ago, the Chiefs inflated their record with complimentary football — offense, defense or even special teams would show up at just the right time. It only took one.
And this year? It was closer to complimentary collapses — offense, defense or the special teams failures would show up at just the wrong time. It only took one.
Three days ago, Chiefs safety Bryan Cook commented that the true measurement of a team is how it responds when it gets knocked down. He’s not wrong. And that’s why this season will be short.
Well, there are a lot of reasons, really. And that’s the point: So much had to go wrong for this season to go very wrong.
There was an effort problem in Brazil, a pick-6 problem in Jacksonville, a three-and-out problem in Denver, a penalty problem in Dallas, a drops problem in Kansas City and an interception problem on the extended stay in KC.
