NEW ORLEANS — Four years ago, after the Kansas City Chiefs had been disassembled by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-9 in Super Bowl LV, general manager Brett Veach had a private moment with head coach Andy Reid. Kansas City’s offensive line had entered the Super Bowl in shambles, then left quarterback Patrick Mahomes battered and bewildered in what he’d later describe as the worst loss of his career.
As the failure of that offensive line settled in for Veach, he was deeply disappointed and absolutely resolute.
“I’m never going to let that happen again,” he told Reid. “Never again.”
One day later, he began work that would eventually build the foundation of two more Super Bowl winners.
For a Chiefs team that has rarely faced such catastrophic failure on the game’s biggest stage, that moment is a vital footnote in the history of Kansas City’s franchise. It reminds the front office, coaching staff, locker room and surrounding fan base that sometimes the worst-case Super Bowl scenario happens. And how you respond to it matters as much as how the failure took root in the first place.
On the heels of Sunday’s 40-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, Veach, Reid, Mahomes and all of the Chiefs pillars are going to have to wake up Monday and start again. And if there’s one thing the franchise learned from the loss, it’s that cracks in the foundation existed long before Sunday night. Four years removed from a similar unraveling in 2021, the organization must find the resolve to attack the fissures with new purpose, starting with an offensive line that collapsed on itself against the Eagles.
For those who watched Sunday and saw the signs of a needed rebuild on offense — or at least a dedicated injection of talent this offseason — you’re not wrong. As Sunday came and went, the years on this Chiefs offensive unit presented themselves. There was 35-year-old tight end Travis Kelce, who had four catches for 39 yards, most of them only when the game was hopelessly out of reach. In front of Mahomes was an offensive line that looked completely out of sync and overwhelmed against the Eagles' defensive line, which needed zero blitzes drawn up to get significant pressure on the quarterback. And then there was a group of wideouts and running backs that looked most like pieces and parts, whether it was an aging Kareem Hunt, who had no real opportunity to impact a game that got out of hand quickly, to a rotation of receivers that continue to lack a dominant No. 1 or even a high level No. 2.
To anyone watching, the offensive line issues and absence of game-breaking impact pieces around Mahomes was clear, particularly when facing an Eagles defensive unit that looked younger, faster and nastier than Kansas City at nearly every turn. That's not to mention the side-by-side comparison with an Eagles offense that is packed with high-end, highly paid talent. Philadelphia’s top two wideouts, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, are both better than any of the Chiefs' receivers. Philadelphia running back Saquon Barkley? Despite being held in check Sunday, he might have been the best offensive player in this game, even with his quarterback, Jalen Hurts, winning the game’s MVP. And there’s no need to go near an offensive line comparison. The Eagles have three of top 11 most highly paid offensive linemen in the league (right tackle Lane Johnson, left tackle Jordan Mailata and left guard Landon Dickerson) — and they play like it.
Surely, this isn’t the kind of disparity Veach had in mind when he vowed to never let a performance like the Super Bowl loss to the Buccaneers happen again.
For a team that is used to having every answer, being able to pull out every close win, and have Mahomes cover for shortcomings even when he isn’t playing at his very peak, Sunday’s empty postgame spoke volumes.
“Their defensive line did a nice job,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said. “That happens in these games — the lines get magnified a little bit.”
“[Being forced to be one-dimensional] gets tough, because the defense knows what you’re going to do,” center Creed Humphrey lamented. “But there’s no excuses. You’ve got to step up and do your job.”
“The defensive line played really well,” Mahomes added. “The [defensive backs] played well to complement them and the linebackers as well. I can’t turn the ball over early in the game when it’s not going our way.”
From one corner of the room Sunday night to the other, that kind of Chiefs messaging was oversimplified but also absolutely true: The Eagles were vastly more talented, played better and dictated how the night was going to go. From the 7-0 in the first quarter, 24-0 after the second — all the way to a 40-6 stomping midway through the fourth quarter. It was only then, when Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and his players took their collective feet off the gas pedal that the Chiefs could scratch out a pair of meaningless touchdowns and make the game look even somewhat respectable.
Afterward, everyone knew the reality. Some parts of the Chiefs seemed exhausted, having eked out so many close games over the course of the season — catching yellow lights that couldn’t last forever. Then came Sunday night’s red light, via an offensive line that had been shuffled into whatever the best version could be. Beyond the reach of wideouts who always seemed to be whatever Mahomes could make of them at any given time. And through the hands of Kelce, who looked every bit of his 35 years at exactly the wrong time.
When you step back and take it for what it is, there’s realistically one of two possibilities. Either this is a pit stop in a rousing run for a Chiefs franchise that has defined the upper rungs of the NFL since Reid took over in 2013 and then handed the quarterbacking reins to Mahomes in 2018. Or it’s the beginning of a trying detour for a dynasty that might look similar to the one taken by Tom Brady and the New England Patriots from 2005 through 2013, a span in which it failed to win a Super Bowl.
Starting Monday, it’s up to the Chiefs — from Reid to Veach to Mahomes and others — to figure out which path lies ahead. Because as much as anyone in the organization can promise to never let something like Sunday happen again, it’s what comes after that promise that defines the dynasty.
