Clark Hunt on Duality of Need for Balance, Chiefs Being ‘All In’ on Three-Peat

As the Chiefs locked up another division title, Hunt confirmed the team's strong desire to win another Super Bowl while also thinking ahead to the future.

Sep 29, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt during the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

If you haven't heard about it already, hopefully your slumber under a rock was pleasant: This season, the Kansas City Chiefs are setting out to make history. If they can win a Super Bowl in February, they'll be the first NFL team to ever secure three titles in a row. Every member of the exclusive back-to-back club, faced with that daunting task, has fallen short thus far.

Despite dealing with a multitude of injuries this season, Kansas City is in a pretty solid position as the postseason approaches. Not only is Andy Reid's team 12-1 on the year, but another AFC West title has been locked up and there's a two-win cushion on the Buffalo Bills in the race for the conference's top playoff seed. Securing a first-round bye would not only allow for rest, but it'd also eliminate the possibility of an upset before the Divisional Round.

Winning the West is nice, but the Chiefs have bigger goals in mind. If the rest of the regular season unfolds how they want it to, they'll be having their cake and eating it too. Maximizing talent and development with limited resources is a difficult balancing act, which team chairman and CEO Clark Hunt acknowledged after Sunday's win.

“Obviously, it is a big goal for us," Hunt said. "Winning the Super Bowl is the goal every year. If we do it this year, we’d do something no NFL team has ever done, which is really special. We try to balance that with the long-term perspective. Our goal is to consistently compete for championships, and you’ve got to be thoughtful in your roster management when you’re trying to do that, but Brett (Veach) and his guys do a tremendous job with that. He’s found guys that work within our limited salary cap resources, and they’ve been able to come in and contribute. D.J. Humphries is an example of that tonight.”

Any year with Patrick Mahomes at quarterback is viewed as a Super Bowl-or-bust campaign in Kansas City. After all, the worst outcome they've had dating back to 2019 is a pair of narrow losses in the AFC title game. As rings continue to pile up, however, hitting on NFL Draft selections and making savvy investments in free agency and trades has grown increasingly important. Throwing the war of attrition on top of that leaves Hunt, Veach and everyone else with a razor-thin tightrope to walk.

Even with there being clear flaws in this year's team, the Chiefs remain among the league's perceived top contenders. Hunt knows that having a proactive mindset is extremely helpful, but that isn't stopping anyone from pushing so hard to make the most of the present.

“It has really been no different than it has been since I’ve been here," Hunt said. "We’ve tried to be thoughtful about making sure we’re giving ourselves the best chance to win this year, but also putting ourselves in a position where we can win next year and the year after that. As I think about it, head coaches are very much focused on the year at hand and really, they are focused on the week at hand. A really good general manager will be thinking about not only this year, but about the next couple of years, and I think it is part of my role to help the organization think long-term. But certainly, we have an opportunity to do something, as I’ve said, that’s never been done, and we are definitely all in on it."

The proof is in the pudding or, in this case, the decisions the Chiefs have made. In-season moves at wide receiver (JuJu Smith-Schuster and DeAndre Hopkins), running back (Kareem Hunt), offensive tackle (D.J. Humphries) and defensive end (Joshua Uche) all serve as examples of a team trying to complete its mission. Next year is never promised, especially with a finite amount of salary cap space and only so many draft picks to work with. The "fine line" is something Veach himself admitted is very real just last month. That's at least partially why all of the aforementioned players are on one-year deals.

With two months (and counting) to go until Super Bowl LIX, Kansas City will soon find out if that balanced but all-in approach will pan out.

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