For the first time since 2014, the NFL playoffs will feel the jarring absence of the Kansas City Chiefs. To make it worse, Patrick Mahomes went down with a torn ACL. It got to the point where even rivals started to feel it, including Denver Broncos great Mark Schlereth, who admitted the postseason will feel a little empty without them.

“The Chiefs fans love the Chiefs. The rest of us hate their guts. But I’m with you 100 per cent. I think we’ll miss them,” the former guard said on The Rich Eisen Show.

Back in September, plenty of NFL fans would’ve signed up for the Arrowhead team, sitting out January. The Chiefs have been everywhere for so long that fatigue naturally set in. Too many conference title games. Too many Super Bowls. Too many late-game Patrick Mahomes moments.

But now that they’re actually gone, it feels odd. We’re conditioned to see them playing meaningful games this time of year. January without the Kansas City Chiefs doesn’t quite register yet.

It wasn’t always this way. From 1997 through 2015, the Chiefs made the playoffs just six times and never got past the divisional round. Then came the shift. After missing the postseason in 2014, they haven’t skipped it since, until now. Five Super Bowl appearances and three wins during that run.

What people will miss most, though, is Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. He’s built a reputation there that’s hard to match. A 17–4 postseason record. Big throws in tight moments. The sense that no game is ever really over.

In the playoffs, Mahomes has thrown for 5,814 yards with 46 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions. When the moment demands it most, he delivers. He’s a perfect seven-for-seven in chances to lead a game-tying or go-ahead drive in the final minute of regulation or overtime.

Over the seven years Mahomes has been the starter, the Chiefs have won 107 games, including the postseason. No team has done more over a seven-year stretch in league history. That doesn’t all fall on one player, but it’s impossible to separate the run from the quarterback.

This year, though, it never fully came together. Not for Mahomes. Not for Kansas City. And Schlereth was quick to point out what went wrong.

Mark Schlereth points out the Chiefs’ struggles this season

If you’re looking for one clear explanation for how the Chiefs ended up here, it’s hard to find. A lot went wrong. Maybe too much to narrow it down to one thing. Still, some things slipped more than others, and Mark Schlereth didn’t dance around it when he talked about why this season unraveled.

“Ultimately, the things they have been so good at, the magic between Mahomes and Travis Kelce, just was not there. Their ability to get a key stop whenever they needed it on the defensive side was not there. They were not able to make critical plays at critical moments,” he said.

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Very little ever fully clicked. Mahomes didn’t look like himself for long stretches, and part of that was survival. The offensive line was held together week to week, and the pocket rarely felt firm. The Mahomes-Kelce connection was missing. Kelce was a disappointment this year and failed to make big plays like he usually does.

In the Texans‘ matchup last week, he had two drops on back-to-back drives when the Chiefs were trailing by seven points. He has seven drops for the year. You could argue that the Chiefs might have been in playoff contention if it weren’t for some of those drops. But he isn’t the only one to blame.

On defense, the pass rush became the obvious problem by the trade deadline, and nothing really changed. Kansas City entered Week 15 near the bottom of the league in sacks, sitting at 25. The four sacks against Justin Herbert came in a game where the Chargers’ offensive line was dealing with its own injuries.

Then there’s the part that’s hardest to explain. The Chiefs struggled in the moments that usually define them. They’re 1–7 in one-score games, the worst mark in the league, even though their plus-60 point differential is actually better than last year’s team. You can call that a mentality issue if you want.

But close losses don’t always come down to ability, and they don’t always come down to mindset either. Sometimes it’s weird. The team has played more football than anyone over the last seven years. Deep playoff runs take a toll, even when you’re built for them.

Still, excuses don’t carry much weight in this league. The reality is that next season comes with its own questions. Patrick Mahomes’ return timeline matters, and that could mean another slow start. Andy Reid has some things to sort through. The margin isn’t what it used to be.