The Chiefs play the Raiders in the last game of the season on Sunday. The NFL deigned to give us a nationally televised afternoon game because of the rivalry, so that's nice. Even though the Raiders are a train wreck and the NFLers have been hosing the Chiefs all season long.
I thought I'd pound out thoughts about a few items, mostly the things I think about Chiefs improvement for the 2026 season. One of those things is Patrick gets better, and how much he is driven to excellence he'll be back soon enough better than ever. But here are the other things, in order of importance.
Number one, by far: Get a critical mass of people to see what the NFLers are doing to the Chiefs. They have so clearly worked things to make sure this year the Chiefs were nowhere near the playoffs -- we all know how lethal they are once they get in. Again, amazing that over the past seven years the earliest the Chiefs season has ended in any of those years was in overtime in the conference championship game. Every - single - time.
I'm not going to belabor the point, although if I had the time and wherewithal I'd love to prove this reality, play-by-play, penalty call that should be a non-call and penalty non-call that should be called.
For now I will just add that last night I watched some of the Rams-Falcons game. Over the past few years I've taken an affection for the Rams simply because my wife has always been a Rams fan. I've enjoyed rooting with her.
About halfway into the game a Rams receiver pushed off on the Falcons defender, and it is indeed an offensive pass interference. Fine, I get it. (The Falcons safety came over to intercept the pass anyway on this particular play.) They called it, that's fine.
But I was furious, only because they simply never called the same exact pushing-off when the Broncos did it to our guy to get into field goal range late in the Broncos game in Denver, a non-call that won the game for them. They didn't call it the several times when the Cowboys did it against us, calls that cost us that game as well.
Late in this Rams game, with the Rams behind by three and scant seconds remaining, QB Matthew Stafford threw an absolute dime to his receiver at about the Falcons 10-yard line. The Falcons receiver was doing all kind of slapping against the Rams WR to keep him from easily catching the pass. It was obvious defensive pass interference, and the television official even concurred.
No call.
Rams don't get into position to make the game-tying field goal. That one non-call cost them the game.
This happened to the Chiefs all - year - long.
The solution is something I've shared many times before. Make a rule that, ahem, no one can touch anyone else down the field on passing plays. No touching, grabbing, extending arms, pushing, shoving, jostling -- nothing. From the line of scrimmage on -- no more of this you-can-do-it-up-to-five-yards. Let the receivers run their routes cleanly from the start, and the defensive players: Just cope. Adjust. Get better. Do well to get in position and go after the ball. Great.
A critical addition to this is have two officials with cameras in the booth. I've shared this a dozen times before too, maybe it'll take: Make them original call officials. No more of this "Let's check this out, and call up to the booth for review." If a booth official sees something from the start, he then stops play and wires down: "Hey, that's a penalty, you missed it," or "Hey, that wasn't a penalty, pick up your flag," or, in the case of the Chiefs-Cowboys game, "Um, you called defensive pass interference on that? No, it was clearly offensive. You guys are a joke out there."
Well, maybe not that last part, but I sure would love to hear that sometime when a stupid and very costly call goes against the Chiefs.
But again, it has to come from that critical mass of people wherever whoever they are who actually see what is going on and wants something to be done about it. They could change all the rules in the books, but if the NFLers keep effing with the Chiefs it won't matter.
Since I like my Chiefs and like rooting for them and do think there are some things they could to improve as a team -- assuming for the sake of argument that next year everything will much more on the up-and-up, here are the important team things that must happen, again, in order of importance.
2. Expect that Brett Veach will get his mojo back and make excellent moves in the draft and player market. Let's face it, this was not a good year for him. He did do decently drafting, but we have to wait and see how these guys turn out.
Thing is, he signed a running back, Elijah Mitchell, that was worthless. Last year he traded for a good pass rusher, Joshua Uche, who was never used -- turns out I saw he had a fine year with whatever other team he played for.
Why does it seem he gets players we just don't use? To his credit in the draft he got somebody who looks terrific, Brashard Smith, but we hardly played him! That's on the coaching staff I believe, more on that in the next item.
The most significant Veach failure was the very absence this year of his first-round pick three years ago, Felix Anudike-Uzomah. Our pass rush was abysmal this year, yet it would have been much better if we had a stud edge rusher FAU was supposed to be. Now I believe he was injured or something, but I've heard nothing about him filling that need when healthy.
It just seems everyone is resigned to this being a failed pick, and, well, can you say Breeland Speaks? Brett has absolutely got to get the draft right, and this year instead of reaching for an FAU (and please, didn't we all know it was reach in 2023?), at his pick -- at what, number 9 or 10 this year? -- he has simply got to pick the best player available no matter what. Don't look at need, just get the best players we can put on the field. The only exceptions are quarterback, kicker, and punter.
Everything else is fair game. I prefer defense, but again --
Just -- get -- the -- best -- player -- on -- the -- board.
Brett is good enough to work around all that.
3. Get new coaching blood. I know a lot of people are calling for a new offensive coordinator, and while Andy Reid is one of the absolute greats, really, it is on him the pathetic play-calling that happened overall this season. I mean, it was gross watching the vanilla playmaking the Chiefs put on the field this year. You can blame Matt Nagy all you want, but this is on Reid.
So yes, in the back of my mind, I'm looking for us to move on and get a new, dynamic, exciting head coach in the Sean McVay mold, to be honest with you.
An example of the Reid inadequacy this year is what happened with Xavier Worthy. Two plays in this past Broncos game epitomized Reid's failure -- and yes you could say it is on the receivers coach or someone like that, but please, ultimately, with Worthy's consistent failures to get untracked this year, this is purely on Reid to make sure the best of this receiver is on the field, I'm sorry.
Play One: Our QB Chris Oladokun made a fine play to escape the rush and find Worthy in the left flat. Worthy caught it for what I believe was a first down, but, well, his right foot was way out of bounds. Sideline awareness has been a bit of an issue with him, but after this long as a professional football player making a million dollars a year with nothing to do at work from 8 to 5 but make sure you are catching balls in-bounds? How is this still an issue?
Sorry, but that is on Andy Reid.
Play Two: Shortly after that, Oladokun threw a long pass intended for Worthy that fell incomplete, it was long. But looking at the replay it really did look like a good throw that Worthy simply did not catch up to. Also in the replay it just seemed like Worthy didn't go full speed on his post route. This made me think.
Why?
Really, here's a dude who set the record for speed at the NFL combine two years ago. It is surely why the Chiefs drafted him, that's great!
But then, my thinking, if this guy is The Flash in football shoes, why isn't he just running past people? Why doesn't he just sprint to the post and let our QB drop the ball in his hands as he flies past defenders who will never keep up? And if defenders have to play so deep to adjust to that speed why aren't we easily matriculating the ball down the field with underneath stuff all the time? I think I saw Worthy had one touchdown catch this year.
This is totally inexcusable.
I simply cannot see how this isn't a major failure of the Andy Reid coaching program this year. Major.
4. Get a new very very very good running back. Nothing against Kareem Hunt or Isiah Pacheco. I think they'd have done better if our offensive wasn't so racked by injuries. But we do really need that Priest Holmes in the backfield -- I know, tall order, but if we can get that guy to take some of the load off, Patrick would be unstoppable.
5. Get a new very very very good pass rusher, but then I've already addressed this, and why again the FAU failure was so devastating to our cause this season.
7. Finally, mention must be made of the Arrowhead Stadium situation. I've seen most negative reviews about the decision to build the latest "state-of-the-art" stadium in Kansas. I kind of concur. Arrowhead is an iconic stadium, and while the plus is it is indeed 53 years old -- hard to believe -- and a new STATE-OF-THE-ART stadium is exciting... I mean... This is Arrowhead.
This is not to mention how much Missourians simply do not like Kansas, and feel betrayed by the Chiefs. I don't think it is that big a deal because the local Chiefs fan base is seven states wide, globally it is even wider. They're still playing in the Kansas City metro area, that's great.
Will lame-duck Arrowhead play over the next five years impede our ability to win? I'm not sure. I don't think so, but it is sad to think any kind of new stadium will just not have that very unique and extraordinarily delightful character of our Arrowhead.
Sunday we have a meaningless game with no postseason action to follow for the first time since I believe 2012. I do hope we are playing our youngsters a lot, the Jalen Royals and Brashard Smiths and all those guys.
I'll make a few remarks at that time. Still, no matter what...
Go Chiefs!
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