As the Kansas City Chiefs solidified themselves as the NFL’s newest dynasty, they’ve left a wake of destruction across a league that has struggled to keep pace. Three Super Bowl victories have helped quarterback Patrick Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid secure their legacies among the all-time greats.
But their reign has come at a cost. Not to them, of course, but to their rivals. Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens, Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles and Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers all have Super Bowl-sized holes on their resumes. And those are just the ones who have come the closest.
Consider the carnage around the NFL since Mahomes and Reid began their reign of terror in 2018. Fifty head coaches (not including interims) have lost their jobs while 24 general managers have either been fired or forced to cede power. In the AFC West alone, the Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders have fired seven head coaches (plus one resignation) and dumped six executives since 2018.
The Chiefs are a modern-day version of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots or Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson’s Chicago Bulls, teams that reached extraordinary levels of greatness while changing the way their rivals were remembered. As rivals chase the Chiefs, they’ve made bold roster decisions that have failed, hired coaches and general managers only to see them flame out, or simply gotten caught overthinking in-game decisions to beat themselves.
The Chiefs, again the No. 1 seed in the AFC, open their quest this weekend to become the first three-peat Super Bowl champion in NFL history. As they work to enhance their legacy, will they continue to dismantle others’ along the way?
How differently would we think of coach Kyle Shanahan if his 49ers had managed to beat the Chiefs in either of their two Super Bowl matchups? (Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)
Star-crossed
The Chiefs have ushered Allen out of the playoffs three times, including three of the past four years. Jackson entered the 2024 season with as many MVP awards (two) as he had playoff victories, and he lost his only postseason meeting with the Chiefs. Hurts and Brock Purdy each suffered heartbreaking Super Bowl losses at the hands of a Mahomes game-winning drive.
Mahomes, who is 15-3 in playoff starts, quickly inserted himself into the conversation among the greatest players of all time. Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers are the only other active full-time starting quarterbacks with Super Bowl victories, but Mahomes has as many rings as the three of them combined.
The discourse around quarterbacks has always been heavily impacted by their successes or failures in the Super Bowl. It’s the reason Joe Montana was viewed as the gold standard while Dan Marino was a great passer. It’s why, during the first half of Peyton Manning’s career, pundits wondered if he could ever win on the biggest stage. It’s maybe the biggest reason why San Diego Chargers legend Philip Rivers may not make the Hall of Fame and why former league MVP Steve McNair still hasn’t been enshrined.
Mahomes took care of those concerns in the first half of his career. He’s already left his peers in the dust in terms of being considered the best of his generation and has inserted himself into the discussion for the greatest of all time.
Mahomes and the Chiefs have barely given their competition a chance. Joe Burrow is the only quarterback not named Brady who has gotten through Mahomes’ Chiefs in the playoffs, but the Cincinnati Bengals’ QB couldn’t finish the job. Allen and Jackson have heard similar critiques as Manning.
“It is all about rings for the QBs,” said a Super Bowl-winning executive, who, like the other sources in this story, was granted anonymity so he could speak openly. “To be considered one of the greats, you need at least one (Super Bowl victory) on your resume to be in that elite group. Allen, Lamar and Burrow are outstanding, but without a ring — or two or three — they’ll never approach the level of Brady and Mahomes.”
Purdy seems like a safe candidate to secure a new contract this offseason, but there’s been some debate over whether he’s replaceable in Shanahan’s offense. Would that be a conversation if the 49ers had made a single defensive stop over their last four series in last year’s Super Bowl? Purdy walked off the field in the fourth quarter and overtime with the lead, but Mahomes’ magic has stifled Purdy’s legacy — perhaps even his bank account.
And then there’s Shanahan, who is universally viewed among the greatest offensive minds of his generation. If either of his two Super Bowl losses to the Chiefs had swung differently, Shanahan would be a lock for the Hall of Fame, and there would have been no debate over his job security after one lousy season. Reid can relate after some early-career shortcomings as the Philadelphia Eagles head coach, but his recent success has vaulted him into the mix among the greatest to ever command a sideline.
Instead, there’s been a loud curiosity over Shanahan’s ability to close out a game on the greatest stage. He was the Atlanta Falcons’ offensive coordinator when they infamously blew a 28-3 lead to the Patriots in Super Bowl LI, and the two dramatic losses to the Chiefs have furthered that debate.
“Within the coaches in the league, no one thinks any less of Kyle Shanahan,” a former Super Bowl-winning Patriots assistant said. “It’s ludicrous to think they should get rid of him. Reid had these same criticisms early in his career, and now he’s clearly in the conversation for best coach ever. Kyle Shanahan’s criticisms are that he’s lost a couple of Super Bowls? OK, do you know how hard it is to get to the Super Bowl?
“If you throw rocks at Kyle Shanahan and want him fired, he’s going to have a job in 30 seconds. Reid, it was that he couldn’t win the big one, and now he’s on the verge of winning three in a row. Kyle is going to be coaching for a long time. He’s going to have another chapter in his career where he’s going for three (Super Bowls) in a row.”
Shanahan isn’t the only coach whose legacy has suffered at the hands of the Chiefs. Some of the best coaches in the NFL have come up short against Kansas City when it matters most. Shanahan (0-2), Sean McDermott (0-3), Jim Harbaugh (0-1) and Mike Tomlin (0-1) are a combined 0-7 against the Chiefs in the playoffs.
There’s nothing new about how champions are remembered. But given the Chiefs’ postseason dominance, some of the NFL’s greatest characters have yet to graduate from footnotes in the history books.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have been the boogeyman for Josh Allen and the Bills, as they’ve sent Buffalo packing in the playoffs three times in the past four seasons. (David Eulitt / Getty Images)
Shell-shocked
Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars were once viewed as the next big thing with their red-hot finish to the 2022 season, including a 27-point comeback victory against the Chargers in the playoffs. But the Jags couldn’t get through a gimpy Mahomes in the divisional round and never recovered, collapsing in 2023 and further regressing this season, which led to head coach Doug Pederson’s firing.
Burrow and the Bengals didn’t blink during a coldblooded 2021 playoff victory at Arrowhead, leading many to believe he could eventually unseat Mahomes as the league’s premier quarterback. But Mahomes got his revenge in the 2022 postseason and the Bengals haven’t returned to the playoffs. They attempted to get younger and faster on defense to compete with the Chiefs, but the experiment has failed so far. The defensive coordinator who supposedly had Mahomes’ number, Lou Anarumo, has been fired.
The Chiefs haven’t just beaten teams but forced them to rethink their approaches. As the results have shown, it hasn’t worked.
“Your fears dictate your actions,” the former Patriots coach said. “If you can’t swim, you’re not going to get in the pool. But we saw teams in the draft using their best assets on corners and pass rushers just to stop Tom. And maybe that wasn’t always their best way of building the best team, (as opposed to) stacking up offensive and defensive linemen and taking a couple years and methodically building from there.”
The Bills — this generation’s Rivers-era Chargers, who were eliminated from the playoffs three times by Brady’s Patriots — have a chance to adjust that narrative. They moved on from a handful of prominent veterans, including trading receiver Stefon Diggs, because they also recognized the importance of getting younger and faster. They’re the only team to beat the Chiefs in a meaningful game this season and have set themselves up for a possible fourth crack at the Chiefs in the playoffs.
“The Bills haven’t won the Super Bowl, but that doesn’t mean they’re not a good team,” the former Patriots coach said. “It’s just that they haven’t beaten the best team.”
The Patriots used to have a similar effect on their playoff opponents. New England sent many teams into yearslong tailspins.
The 2001 Rams were on the verge of becoming one of the greatest teams in history but lost to the Patriots in the Super Bowl and managed to win only one more playoff game from 2002-17. The Colts were on the rise with quarterback Andrew Luck but got blown out by the Patriots in the 2013 and 2014 postseasons, urged the NFL to initiate the Deflategate investigation, hung a banner for being AFC finalists and have won just one playoff game since. Rather than etching their place in history as back-to-back champions, the Seahawks have won only three playoff games since their Super Bowl loss to New England. The Falcons have made just one playoff appearance since the 28-3 game. The 2017 Jaguars blew a 10-point, fourth-quarter lead to the Patriots in the AFC title game and went 15-50 over the next four seasons.
Now look at the Chiefs’ victims. The Colts fell to them in the 2018 playoffs and have played in only one postseason game since. In the 2019 playoffs, Kansas City took down two AFC South franchises: the Houston Texans fired three coaches in their next three seasons, and the Tennessee Titans went one-and-done in the next two postseasons and ultimately blew up the front office, coaching staff and roster. Fourteen months after losing Super Bowl LIV to the Chiefs, the Niners wasted three first-round picks on quarterback Trey Lance, thinking he had the physical tools to replicate Mahomes’ success.
The Cleveland Browns missed the playoffs in 2021, a season after falling to the Chiefs, so they gave up on quarterback Baker Mayfield and acquired Deshaun Watson in a move that will go down as one of the worst trades in history. The Eagles lost Super Bowl LVII to the Chiefs, then went one-and-done in 2023, which led to questions about coach Nick Sirianni’s job security. Two of the Chiefs’ 2023 postseason opponents, the Miami Dolphins and 49ers, were shells of their former selves this year and missed the playoffs.
There are obvious exceptions, but organizational urgency blurs many of these downfalls. High-ranking decision-makers, whether team owners or chief personnel directors, demand some type of change to chase down the pack leader.
“There’s pressure from ownership,” a second Super Bowl-winning executive said. “Why is this (opponent always) winning? We’ve got to catch them. There’s no time to build. There’s no patience to rebuild. There’s less patience to build this thing methodically. They just keep taking shots to try to catch up. Why have the Chiefs reset two or three times and still getting back to the Super Bowl, and we can’t?
“It’s because of two guys — Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid.” And neither of them will be available this offseason.
History suggests the future won’t be kind to the Texans (again) if they fall in Kansas City (again) this weekend. These playoff losses have had long-term consequences.
Continuing the chase
The Chiefs have won nine consecutive AFC West titles, including seven since Mahomes became the starter. They’ve gone 112-36 in the regular season over those nine years. Their division rivals — the Chargers (73-75), Raiders (65-83) and Broncos (62-86) — all have losing records over the same time frame.
What’s more, the Chiefs’ division foes have combined to make six playoff appearances, including this season, and have a singular playoff win to show for it. They’re a combined 1-6. All of that losing has had consequences.
Since the Chiefs took total control of the division in 2016, the Chargers have employed four head coaches and two general managers, not including interims. The Broncos have had five coaches and two GMs. The Raiders will have had five coaches and five GMs after they hire to replace the recently fired Antonio Pierce and Tom Telesco.
It can be argued that the lack of job security has more to do with organizational dysfunction than the Chiefs’ reign. However, Kansas City’s success has undeniably created more urgency within the division. The problem is that every reset pushes those teams further from contending with the Chiefs, essentially making it easier for them to keep toppling the division.
Compare it to New England’s reign from 2001-18, when the Patriots won 16 AFC East titles, the Bills employed seven head coaches and six general managers, the Dolphins had six coaches and seven front-office heads and the Jets had four coaches and four GMs. While the Patriots won six Super Bowls over that stretch, their division foes combined to win six playoff games, all by the Jets.
The Patriots recalled one firing in particular. Todd Bowles wasn’t getting results with the Jets, going from 10-6 in his first season in 2015 to a combined 14-34 over his final seasons. However, the Patriots, according to team sources, recognized that the on-field product was improving and becoming harder to play. There was a collective sigh of relief at Gillette Stadium when the Jets fired Bowles after the 2018 season.
“(Organizational consistency) helps tremendously,” the second executive said. “This was the case for the Patriots for the Brady-Belichick run. These teams are changing scouting systems and grading scales on the front-office side and obviously are changing schemes on the field. It takes years to establish great processes, whether that be in player acquisition or in coaching.”
Timing matters, too. The Chiefs’ ascension coincided with the breakup of the Patriots, who eliminated Kansas City from the 2015 and 2018 postseasons. Brady even had enough in the tank to haunt Mahomes one more time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.
But timing isn’t necessarily everything. Mahomes is 29, and Reid is 49 wins shy of breaking Don Shula’s record — with that pursuit a likely catalyst to keep Reid plenty motivated — so the organization’s pillars figure to be in place for the foreseeable future. It’ll be up to the Chiefs’ opponents to go out and take it from them because there’s no evidence to suggest they’ll simply fade away.
Unless that happens, though, there’s been just one cast of characters enhancing their own legacies. The rest have only been around to witness the carnage.
The Chiefs’ effect is real, and it’s had historic implications.
(Photo illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; photos of Kyle Shanahan, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes/Andy Reid and Lamar Jackson: Tom Pennington, Jamie Squire, Michael Owens and Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6013548/2025/01/14/chiefs-dynasty-patriots-super-bowl-legacy/
