The Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive line might be the most beat-up unit in football right now. It’s been an issue all season, and every week seems to bring a new injury that makes Patrick Mahomes’ job even harder. Andy Reid admits he has some tough evaluations ahead.

“Andy Reid said he will evaluate the offensive line this week, with Wanya Morris likely done for the season. Last night, Esa Pole was at LT with Jaylon Moore at RT,” Chiefs reporter Pete Sweeney wrote on X.

The plan entering the game was already a patchwork solution. With Smith and Taylor out, Morris got the call at left tackle while Moore flipped to the right. But the situation worsened immediately. Morris went down with a left knee injury on the first offensive snap, forcing the Chiefs to play with three backups and a rookie protecting Mahomes’ blind side.

To their credit, the line held up better than expected. Mahomes was sacked only twice, a small improvement for a quarterback who had been sacked at least three times in each of the last five games. Still, nothing came easy. The Chiefs’ offense sputtered all night against the league’s top defense, and Mahomes threw three interceptions.

In all, the Chiefs have used 17 different offensive line combinations this season. Their most stable group, the Week 1 starters, has only played 379 snaps together, ranking 14th among all OL groupings, and hasn’t appeared in more than two games since Week 6. That’s a tragic stat.

Morris is out for the year, Josh Simmons remains on IR, and the Chiefs are running out of options. Reid can only hope Taylor returns soon so Moore can shift back to his natural spot. But even then, the damage might already be done. At 6–7, Kansas City may not have the chance to test any of these fixes beyond the regular season.

Will the Chiefs make the playoffs?

We all knew going into the Texans matchup that Kansas City had to have this one. A must-win for both sides, and the Chiefs blinked. The offense sputtered again, Travis Kelce’s mistakes proved costly, and when it was over, Kansas City walked out on the wrong end of a game that could’ve kept their season on life support. Can they still make the playoffs?

Mathematically, sure. Realistically, it’s a steep climb. According to the New York Times playoff simulator, the Chiefs now sit at a 16% chance to reach the postseason after falling to 6-7 through 13 games. Before Sunday night, that number sat at 37%. NFL Next Gen Stats estimated their chances would have topped 50% with a win.

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They’ve slid to 10th in the AFC, trailing both the Colts and the Ravens. And here’s the harsh truth: if Kansas City drops two more games, they’re essentially done. The wild-card contenders ahead of them already have eight or more wins, so catching up requires wins of their own and help elsewhere. Not an impossible scenario, but far from ideal.

Andy Reid can shuffle the offensive line again next week if he has to, but none of it matters if they can’t string wins together. Yes, the injuries have piled up, and Patrick Mahomes has been running for his life behind a revolving-door line. But that doesn’t erase the larger issue.

This team hasn’t shown the resolve we’ve come to expect over the last five years. Even if they sneak into January, they haven’t played with the kind of edge that travels in the postseason.