AFC Odds Shouldn’t Ignore Chiefs, Parkins Says

“How are the Bills and the Ravens bigger AFC favorites than the Chiefs?” Parkins said on Monday’s edition of Breakfast Ball. “Am I the only one who remembers that they won 15 games last year with all those problems on offense, and made it to, what’s that game called?”

It’s called the Super Bowl, where Kansas City has represented the AFC in five of the last six seasons. Parkins isn’t the only one who believes that the recently published odds about winning the next Lamar Hunt Trophy are irreverent and irresponsible, with regard to Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

Since head coach Andy Reid took the reins of the Chiefs in 2013, he’s guided Kansas City to the playoffs in 11 of 12 seasons, including appearances in each of the last seven AFC Championship Games. That’s one reason why Parkins thinks the 11.5-win over/under is too low.

“That's a 13-4 team if I've ever seen it,” Parkins said.

But just like investing in the stock market, where past performance is no guarantee of future results, the disclaimer with the Chiefs is an assortment of chinks in their armor.

Pulverized in their 40-22 Super Bowl loss to the Eagles, the Chiefs allowed six sacks of Patrick Mahomes, the most ever in a game. During the regular season, Kansas City allowed 36 sacks of the two-time MVP, most in his career.

To put those numbers in context, from 2022-24, the Chiefs have allowed a 4.8-percent sack rate per pass attempt, second in the NFL during that span behind Buffalo (4.1 percent). That’s how bad last season was for the Kansas City offensive line.

Jaylon Moore, who has 12 starts in four years while backing up Trent Williams in San Francisco, was the Chiefs’ answer in free agency to their left-tackle position that saw four different starters in 2024. After the season, Kansas City traded its best of those four, Joe Thuney.

During the offseason, Tom Brady and the Raiders added another Super Bowl-winning coach and Pro Bowl quarterback to the AFC West, Pete Carroll and Geno Smith. In other words, each of the Chiefs’ three division foes has a head coach with Super Bowls on their resumes. Smith and Justin Herbert have combined for three Pro Bowl selections, and Denver’s Bo Nix could be the most dangerous of those three.

But Kansas City has seen this movie before. In 2021, Brady and the Bucs also delivered a painful Super Bowl thrashing. Reid simply removed one Hawaiian shirt and donned another, went to work and started a run of three straight Super Bowls.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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