Is This the End of the Kansas City Chiefs as We Know Them?

Patrick Mahomes’ torn ACL caps a late-season collapse, ends Kansas City’s playoff hopes, and throws the Chiefs’ immediate future into uncertainty as roster turnover, cap pressure, and potential retirements loom.

Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in the bitter cold of Arrowhead Stadium may not have just ended the playoff hopes for the 2025 Kansas City Chiefs, but the 2026 team as well.

Patrick Mahomes suffered a torn ACL in the latter part of the fourth quarter in KC’s 16-13 loss on Sunday, the Chiefs’ fourth loss in five games that guaranteed the team would miss the postseason for the first time since the 2014 season. While Mahomes was still really good this season — ranked fifth in the league in ESPN’s QBR metric — Kansas City scored at least 30 points in just three of its 14 games to date, none since a Week 7 win over the Raiders. The two-time MVP and three-time Super Bowl champion also failed to throw a touchdown pass in three of the last four games and four of his last six contests.

Don’t know why this had to happen. And not going to lie it’s hurts. But all we can do now is Trust in God and attack every single day over and over again. Thank you Chiefs kingdom for always supporting me and for everyone who has reached out and sent prayers. I Will be back…
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) December 14, 2025

The run game didn’t help, ranking 21st in total yards and 17th in yards per carry. But Mahomes simply didn’t have enough help at wide receiver, either. Rashee Rice‘s suspension kept him out six games, and there just wasn’t enough reliable production between Xavier Worthy, Marquise Brown, Juju Smith-Schuster, and Tyquan Thornton. And with Travis Kelce‘s contract up after the season and already reportedly considering retirement even before the Mahomes injury, it would make logical sense that the chances of No. 87 hanging it up after this season just got a lot more likely.

And if Kelce is done after this season and Mahomes misses a vast majority of, if not the entirety of, 2026, the Chiefs will have to endure a transitional season next year. That transition might be especially painful, considering Mahomes’ current projected cap hit next season is $78.2 million, 25% of the expected 2026 salary cap and second in the league behind Deshaun Watson’s comically preposterous $80.7 million figure for Cleveland.

While Kansas City will obviously be extremely limited without Mahomes, what will help is the Chiefs’ projected overall continuity beyond the skill positions. While running backs Kareem Hunt and Isiah Pacheco will hit free agency, as will Kelce, Brown, and Smith-Schuster, only six Chiefs who play more than 50% of the team’s snaps have contracts that are up this offseason, per Over The Cap. Starting cornerback Jaylen Watson, starting safety Bryan Cook, starting linebacker Leo Chenal, and rotational edge Charles Omenihu will also be free agents.

Longtime head coach Andy Reid turns 68 in March. Will he want to endure what, for all intents and purposes, will be a transition season? Will he retire and let defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo take over, or perhaps even just take a sabbatical season?

Maybe Chiefs general manager Brett Veach works some magic with a veteran bridge quarterback among a free agent group that includes Joe Flacco, Marcus Mariota, Carson Wentz, Tyrod Taylor, Russell Wilson, Phillip Rivers, and Aaron Rodgers. Perhaps he brings in a group of running backs, receivers, and tight ends that help Kansas City defy the odds and compete for a playoff spot behind a top-notch defense. But the most likely outcome here without Mahomes is that the Chiefs will be bad for the first time in well over a decade.

If Mahomes indeed misses the 2026 season, he’ll be approaching his 32nd birthday the next time he takes a snap in an NFL regular-season game in 2027. With one injury, the NFL’s most reliably consistent and stable franchise over the last decade is now very much in flux. How the team will look then, as Veach and the Chiefs map their short-term future without one of the few greatest football players of all time, is now very much uncertain.