Let’s Be Honest: The Chiefs’ Season Was a Failure

They had some success along the way, but the Chiefs ended their year on the wrong note.

The Kansas City Chiefs' goal this season was to win the Super Bowl. They didn't accomplish that and for that reason alone, the 2021 season can — and should — be classified as a failure.

There was a lot of talk on Sunday night about how Kansas City still had a good season despite coming up short of the sky-high bar it set. There's no denying that fighting back from a 3-4 start to the season to somehow host three playoff games is a major feat but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. The grand scheme of things only factors in how a team ends its season. No matter how many lessons the Chiefs learned along the way or how much success their wins brought in the short-term, they failed when it mattered the most. 

Failure shouldn't be a taboo topic. The Chiefs aren't afraid to fail, and history shows that this group will embrace being embarrassed in the AFC Championship Game and use it as fuel to bounce back in the future. Before the Patrick Mahomes era of Chiefs football began, the expectation for the team was that it should simply make the playoffs and have a shot to win a game. Until the very end of its lengthy playoff run, the Chiefs had that shot to win.

The aforementioned expectation has changed, though.

Gone are the days in which simply stringing together a couple of playoff wins in a row is good enough for a team of this caliber. A team with the best player in the NFL and several other elite playmakers on both sides of the ball shouldn't be satisfied with just making the conference title game. The phrase 'Super Bowl or bust' applies to no other team more than it does to the Chiefs. The bar has been raised for a few years now, and it isn't going to be lowered any time soon. 

Jan 30, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) runs with the ball against the Cincinnati Bengals during the second quarter of the AFC Championship Game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

Despite how scary that thought might be, it's time to fully accept this reality. The process is more important than the result in many of life's challenges, and that partially applies to the NFL. Bad processes can be tinkered with in-season in an effort to produce better results down the road. Once a team reaches the end of that road, though, those processes have to be thorough. The Chiefs were susceptible to poor processes all year long, and it cost them a trip to the Super Bowl when it mattered the most. 

Football is a results-oriented business. There are no participation trophies and if there are pats on the back, they are immediately followed by plans to improve ahead of another season. For the second time in as many seasons, the Chiefs failed to win the elusive Super Bowl they wanted so desperately to capture. Until they're able to do so again, they're stuck being the team that had a great year but managed to fail in the end. That's a spot most other franchises still long to be in although for Kansas City's purposes, Mahomes and company have their eyes set on bigger and better things.