This is not the end of the Chiefs' dynasty
By Andy Davies
Two weeks has passed since the conclusion of Super Bowl LIX and the 2024 season, where the Philadelphia Eagles secured the second Super Bowl in their history.
Lifting the Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans, the Eagles were crowned Super Bowl champions after their 40-22 win over the Chiefs.
In a dominant defensive performance, seen as one of the greatest in Super Bowl history, the Eagles denied the Chiefs the chance to make NFL history and secure a three-peat.
The Chiefs were majorly outplayed against the Chiefs, with most of their points and yards coming in “garbage time”. They failed to put up a single point until the third quarter and at one point had 17 rushing yards compared to over 100 for Philadelphia. In a loss reminiscent of their Super Bowl LV defeat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, quarterback Patrick Mahomes was not given a single minute’s rest, a damming indictment on their offensive line.
Tight end Travis Kelce had just 39 yards from four receptions and their leading rusher was Mahomes with 25 yards. This has led to many believing the Chiefs dynasty is over, but here is why it is not.
Almost creating NFL history
The last time an NFL team to secure three straight championships were the Green Bay Packers, who won the final ever NFL championship before securing the first two Super Bowls.
The San Francisco 49ers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys and Oakland Raiders, four of the greatest 20th century Super Bowl era dynasties, could not achieve the three-peat. This was before the beginning of the salary cap era.
We have seen the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills reach three and four Super Bowls respectively, but the Patriots lost in the second of those three appearances and the Bills lost all four.
For the Chiefs to have achieved the three-peat, they would have cemented themselves into NFL folklore. It took over 20 years for a team to go back-to-back when they beat the 49ers in Las Vegas just over twelve months. For them to secure a piece of NFL history, in the salary cap era, it would have been arguably the greatest achievement by any team over the past 59 years of Super Bowls.
However, it was not meant to be and there’s a good chance we may never see a team be within one game of this achievement again.
Learning from the New England Patriots
“Chiefs dynasty over?”
“The DEATH of the Kansas City Chiefs dynasty”
“The Kansas City Chiefs Dynasty is DEAD! FINISHED!”
These are some of the headlines from YouTube videos as people start to wonder, and probably hope, that this is the end of a truly dominant period in the AFC. With seven straight AFC Championship appearances and five of those won, they have been the team of the 2020’s.
However, we have read this book before.
“First Take Is The New England Patriots Dynasty Over!” (May 2015 -Taken from a September 14th, 2014, broadcast)
“Skip and Shannon disagree on Tom Brady and the Patriots’ dynasty coming to an end” (December 2018)
Sound familiar? What people are saying about the Chiefs at the moment are exactly what we saw with the Patriots in the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era. People are often quick to write teams off and come to conclusions.
Whenever the Patriots were doubted, they came back stronger. They went ten years without a Super Bowl win until they won their fourth in the 2014 season, just months after the aforementioned First Take broadcast where they declared the dynasty to be over after ironically a heavy loss to the Chiefs.
When the Patriots were doubted by Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe in that December 2018 video, what did they do? They won another Super Bowl two months later.
What we should learn from all of this is that the Chiefs dynasty should certainly not be put into question, especially given Mahomes has never been eliminated earlier than the Conference Championship game in seven seasons as a starter.
With Mahomes, anything is possible
One thing we have learnt in the NFL over the past seven seasons is never write off Mahomes and this Chiefs team. The aforementioned statistic that he has never finished a season as a starter earlier than the AFC Championship is a testament not only to the player but also the coaching staff and culture in Kansas City.
Mahomes had wide receiver Tyreek Hill to throw the ball to in his first four years as a starter. This is one of the greatest players of his generation in the position. In nine seasons, he has recorded 11,098 receiving yards and 82 receiving touchdowns. Six of these saw 1,000-yard campaigns, with double digit touchdown totals in three of them.
Despite the success, he was a victim of the brutality of the NFL offseason and was traded to the Miami Dolphins. Everyone thought they would regress now that they had lost their best receiver. Despite never really replacing Hill in the wide receiver room, they have not missed a beat since with three straight Super Bowl appearances.
With a wide receiver including the likes of Kadarius Toney, Mecole Hardman and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, he has still managed to win Super Bowls. Even with the addition of rookie Xavier Worthy this season, a receiver room also featuring Hollywood Brown and an ageing Deandre Hopkins is not exactly one to write home about. This is the genius of Mahomes, who can make guys around him look good and elevate their game.
Should Kelce retire, there has been no evidence from Mahomes’ first seven seasons to suggest that the dynasty will come to an end sany time soon.
ANDY DAVIES
NFL ANALYST
ANDY IS A SPORTS JOURNALISM GRADUATE WITH OVER FOUR YEARS EXPERIENCE OF NFL WRITING AND PODCASTING. ANDY HAS BEEN TO EVERY NFL STADIUM AND IS THE HOST OF THE ACROSS THE POD PODCAST. HE HAS PRESS PASS EXPERIENCE AT THE LONDON GAMES AND MANY OTHER NFL BASED EVENTS SUCH AS THE SUPER BOWL, HAVING INTERVIEWED THE LIKES OF AARON RODGERS, JASON BELL, OSI UMENYIORA, PATRICK MAHOMES, TRAVIS KELCE, DERRICK HENRY, SAQUON BARKLEY AND JALEN HURTS.