KC Chiefs Not Losing Sleep Over Missing No. 1 Seed in AFC

Despite a Week 16 loss, the Chiefs remain confident in the opportunities still ahead of them.

With a loss to the Las Vegas Raiders and a Baltimore Ravens win on Christmas, the Kansas City Chiefs are officially eliminated from the race for the AFC's one-seed.

That isn't a huge surprise considering how things have gone in recent weeks, as Andy Reid's squad is just 3-5 since starting the season 6-1. Any five-loss stretch out of eight games is likely to put a serious damper on those hopes. Despite that, Kansas City entered Week 16 with a shot of securing the conference's lone first-round bye. That's all gone now, setting the table for quarterback Patrick Mahomes to potentially make his first road playoff start should Kansas City advance far enough in the postseason.

Speaking in the locker room after Monday afternoon's game, wide receiver Justin Watson didn't come off as too concerned about missing out on the one-seed. He just wants the Chiefs to get into the dance first and go from there. 

“I’ve been on a team that won the Super Bowl [as] a wild card team," Watson said. "You just have to get in. I know people around here are accustomed to all the home playoff games and the first-round bye but I don’t care if it’s easy, nothing this whole second half of the season has been easy. Just give us a chance to play, and let’s do our thing.”

Watson's point about what fans are "accustomed to" is appropriate. Dating back to the 2018 season (when Mahomes took over as the franchise's full-time starter), the worst Kansas City has done is compete until the very end of the AFC Championship Game. Of those five playoff runs, all but one started on the heels of the aforementioned bye. The season that didn't, the 2021 campaign, saw Kansas City host the shell-of-themselves Pittsburgh Steelers on Wild Card weekend. This year's opponent could be a bit more daunting depending on the matchup.

While the Chiefs' sentiment is that their mistakes are fixable and everything they want is still in front of them, that isn't completely true. Sure, Reid's team can still win the division and host a playoff game to start January's all-important run. With that said, getting that bye is off the table and it does make things more challenging. Defensive tackle Chris Jones isn't losing sleep over it, though, saying the team can still get what it wants out of playoff positioning if it takes care of business and maybe gets some help along the way. 

“I think more so, as a team, we are focused on winning the AFC West," Jones said. "Then, whatever falls after that, we look forward to. The number two seed is still open, right? So, everything we want is still ahead of us. Number one gets the bye week, right? The number two gets a home game and can continue to play at home throughout the playoffs. That’s right ahead of us. We have to finish strong, as a team, make sure we execute and win these last two games. I think we are where we want to be.”

Coming out of Week 16, the Chiefs are the AFC's No. 3 seed at 9-6. That puts them two wins behind the Miami Dolphins at 11-4, although they do have a head-to-head tiebreaker over Mike McDaniel's club. Should Miami lose out and Kansas City win out, that assists in the quest for the second overall seed. First up, the Chiefs have to handle the feisty Cincinnati Bengals and then a Los Angeles Chargers team that will undoubtedly be looking to play spoiler. According to safety Justin Reid, the time to move forward is now. 

“We’re going to have to digest this film, take it on the chin, look better for it and then really focus on closing out this season strong," Reid said. "Once you have a ticket to the dance in the playoffs, it’s about going 1-0 every week. We need to finish the season strong and build some momentum going into that.”

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