Winners and Losers from the KC Chiefs' Week 14 Victory Over the LA Chargers

In the Kansas City Chiefs' Week 14 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, multiple players stood out for good and bad reasons alike.

Dec 8, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton (98) celebrates after a sack against the Los Angeles Chargers during the first half at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images

The Kansas City Chiefs are victorious once again, and not solely in the scope of Week 14. With their Sunday triumph over the Los Angeles Chargers, the reigning Super Bowl winners are champions of the AFC West for the ninth season in a row and also helped their odds of securing the conference's top playoff seed.

It certainly wasn't easy. After jumping out to a 13-0 lead at halftime, Kansas City gave up a pair of touchdown drives in the third quarter and ultimately needed a late field goal to bring home the win. Thanks to fourth-quarter heroics (more on that later), the Chiefs managed to escape and rise to 12-1 on the year.

With that in mind, let's point out some of the Chiefs' biggest winners and losers from the 14th week of the regular season.

WINNER: Tershawn Wharton

After recording two sacks in three games earlier this year, defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton's production slipped a bit and he was held without one for five games in a row. He bounced back in a big way in Week 14, logging two of them on Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert. Both of Wharton's takedowns came on second down and set up lengthy third-and-16 tries that failed. The former Missouri S&T product now has a career-high 4.5 sacks in 13 games, making the most of his increased playing time. Wharton maximized his opportunities once again on Sunday, which has been an overarching theme of his fifth season with the team.

LOSER: Chamarri Conner

Every week that the sample size of Chamarri Conner as the Chiefs' nickel defensive back grows, the more it seems like the 2023 fourth-round pick is miscast in that role. Conner struggled in coverage once again on Sunday, getting beat by Stone Smartt for 21 yards and later losing to Josh Palmer on a third down. Conner's ability to get going downhill and close as a tackler is nice when it works, but he lacks fluidity in man coverage and runs too hot sometimes. Kansas City's personnel issues don't pertain solely to him, although he's been a part of the problem more than a solution in his sophomore season.

WINNER: Matt Araiza

In his first year with the Chiefs, punter Matt Araiza has done a solid job justifying the club's free agent investment in him from earlier this year. Not only has he been available for every game and done a good job holding for a trio of kickers, but he's seemed to improve as the season has gone on. Sunday featured an absolute beauty of a punt: a 59-yard boot that put Los Angeles at its own 2-yard line. Entering Monday night's play, Araiza ranks just outside the top 10 in punter EPA this year. Kansas City will take that as he continues to stabilize heading into the postseason.

LOSER: Kareem Hunt

It's pretty easy to look at Kareem Hunt's game log and decide what week Isiah Pacheco made his return to the lineup. In two games sharing the backfield with Pacheco, Hunt has set season-low marks with seven and five carries, respectively, against a pair of AFC West rivals. After getting 41 snaps in Week 12, Hunt's workload has dropped to 27 snaps in Week 13 and 20 on Sunday. He'll still have a role down the stretch and likely will benefit from dialing things back, especially with such a high involvement rate beforehand, but this is worth monitoring. If you were planning on keeping Hunt in your fantasy football lineup, now might be a good time to rethink that.

WINNER: Matthew Wright

What a couple of weeks it's been for Matthew Wright since stepping in for the injured Spencer Shrader (who was taking the place of the injured Harrison Butker). After drilling four of his five field goal tries against the Las Vegas Raiders, he went 4-for-4 versus Los Angeles. The Chiefs needed every single one of his points contributed, including his 31-yard doink of a kick as time expired. Kansas City is the first team to ever have more than one kicker in a single season make a game-winner as time expired in the fourth quarter. Wright's name is now in the history books, and deservedly so.

LOSER: Bryan Cook

Leading up to Week 14's game, I wrote here on Kansas City Chiefs On SI that it'd be difficult for rookie safety Jaden Hicks to get too much of a workload increase after seeing his snaps trend upward in recent weeks. While the coaching staff believed he "earned" more reps, those simply didn't seem to be available in abundance given Bryan Cook and Justin Reid's standing atop the depth chart. The Chiefs made an unexpected tweak on Sunday, however, by giving Cook a season-low 47 snaps (78% of those available) and dishing some to Hicks (his 26 snaps were a new personal best). Cook didn't struggle much outside of one rep where he lost deep to Joshua Palmer on what should've been a touchdown, so this workload balance is something to keep an eye on. Could it just be an experiment by defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, or is something bigger at play?

WINNERS: Leo Chenal and Drue Tranquill

Kansas City's linebacker play hasn't always been the best this season, to say the least. Leo Chenal, who blocked a field to go win Week 10's game over the Denver Broncos, deserves the least blame but he had some quiet efforts elsewhere in the middle third of the year. Drue Tranquill got off to an extremely slow start to the season and is just now beginning to play better football. Luckily for the Chiefs, Chenal made an impact against the run and pass early on Sunday and Tranquill finished second on the team with seven tackles. Those two, as well as Nick Bolton, stepped up in Week 14 by finding ways to make a difference in run defense and pass coverage.

LOSER: D.J. Humphries

In all fairness to Humphries, the massive piece of context here is that Sunday was his first live action since tearing his ACL in Week 17 of last season. It was expected that he'd look rusty and struggle to keep up at times. That's precisely what happened in Week 14, seeing him give up eight pressures on 40 pass protection snaps but look better than the numbers showed. Humphries deserves some leeway here, as Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes are already giving it to him. If the 30-year-old left tackle is still on this part of the list in a week or two, then it's time to worry. A hamstring injury suffered late in Sunday's win is also something to note.

Read More: Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, Clark Hunt Discuss Chiefs Winning Another AFC West Title