KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Looking ahead to 2016, there is much to be encouraged about from the way the Kansas City Chiefs finished last season. The Chiefs won 10 straight games to finish the regular season and another in the playoffs, their first postseason win in 22 years, before their divisional round defeat against the New England Patriots.
The Chiefs are ninth in ESPN’s way-too-early power rankings for next season and at this point that sounds a bit too low for a team that won 11 straight games down the stretch.
But the point of this exercise is to project what things might look like when next season begins. Since the Chiefs have a large number of key players who are prospective free agents, it’s easier to conclude they’ll take a step back next season rather than move forward.
It’s too convenient now to forget how close the Chiefs were to winning the AFC West. But they chased the Denver Broncos to the finish line and came close to catching them. It’s just as reasonable to think the Chiefs can close that narrow gap as to fall back.
It just won’t be easy. The Chiefs have 10 significant contributors from last season who have expiring contracts and they probably won’t be able to keep them all. Their work in the open market may be limited to filling those holes. The Chiefs have a full allotment of draft picks but their first selection is 28th, making it unlikely they’ll find an impact player in the first round like they did last year with Marcus Peters.
So this thing could go either of two ways. It’s on the Chiefs to make sure it’s the direction in which they want it to go.