The Kansas City Chiefs‘ 20-13 loss to the Denver Broncos
on Thursday night continued what has been a shockingly bad season for what has become one of the NFL’s elite franchises. The Chiefs were already eliminated from playoff contention, but now they have to wear the title of “10-loss team.”
The Chiefs have not lost 10 games in a season since the 2012 season when they went 2-14 under then-head coach Romeo Crennel. That was the year before current head coach Andy Reid took over.
It might not be any consolation to Chiefs fans who were expecting another Super Bowl run this season, but this team might be the best 10-loss team ever. Or at least one of them.
For whatever that is worth (not much).
Chiefs are one of the strangest 10-loss teams in NFL history
The first oddity about this Chiefs team losing 10 games is the fact that they have played in at least the AFC Championship Game in each of the past seven seasons, while also reaching five Super Bowls and winning three of them over that stretch. With quarterback Patrick Mahomes still in the prime of his career, Super Bowl expectations remained in place coming into the 2025 season. This was not supposed to be a bad — or even average — team. This was supposed to be one of the best teams in football, an inevitable participant in the AFC Championship Game and perhaps even the Super Bowl.
But a lot of the Chiefs’ luck in one-score games has turned on them this season, and they are not scratching out wins the way they did in recent years. They also have some pretty serious flaws with the roster they have not been able to overcome.
Mahomes’ late-season injury has also hurt their ability to finish strong down the stretch.
The other stunning development at play here is the fact the Chiefs have outscored their opponents for the season by 36 points. Typically, teams that lose this many games in a season get outscored overall and usually by a very wide margin.
The Chiefs are still on the positive side of the point-differential mark despite all of the losses.
According to the Pro-Football-Reference StatHead database the Chiefs are just the 14th 10-loss team in NFL history to have a positive point differential. As of Thursday, their plus-36 point differential would be the second-highest out of that group, trailing only the 2008 Green Bay Packers (plus-39).
The 2008 Packers and 1990 San Diego Chargers (plus-34) are the only other 10-loss teams with a point differential of plus-30 or better.
The 2008 Packers were in a very similar situation as this year’s Chiefs. They were a pretty consistent contender for years and were coming off a 13-3 season in 2007. They had a random down year in 2008, and then bounced back with 11 wins in 2009 before winning 10 games in 2010 and winning the Super Bowl.
Could the Chiefs follow a similar path? As long as Mahomes is able to fully recovery from his leg injury and get back to being the Hall of Fame quarterback he is, then there is no reason why they could not bounce back the way the Packers did. They still have some big flaws to fix, but as long as the quarterback is there, the path is still manageable.