We’ve all been waiting for the moment, knowing it was probably coming. Even so, when it finally arrived, it still felt strange to say out loud. The Chiefs were officially eliminated from postseason contention after a 16–13 loss at home to the Chargers in Week 15, dropping them to 6–8. And in the locker room afterward, defensive tackle Chris Jones tried to put words to the heartbreak.

“Success is rented every year…sometimes it doesn’t go how you want it to go. We understand that success is an everyday thing. We’ve got three more games and we gotta finish strong still as competitors. It’s important for our pride…looking forward to next year,” he said on the elimination.

The math made it unavoidable. With the Chargers, Bills, Jaguars, and Texans all winning, each sitting at nine or ten wins, the door slammed shut. Kansas City’s Super Bowl hangover collapsed on itself. To make it worse, Patrick Mahomes went down with a knee injury on the final drive, the last desperate push of a season that never quite found its footing.

At best, the Chiefs can finish 9–8. That won’t be enough. Not with head-to-head losses against every team they’d need help from. It’s over, cleanly and completely.

Jones, at least publicly, seems to be handling it with perspective. The Chiefs haven’t missed the playoffs since 2014. For a large portion of this roster, this is unfamiliar territory. There’s value in that discomfort if they let it sit with them. This season, by their own standards, was simply mediocre. And that’s probably the kindest description.

Very little clicked. Mahomes didn’t look like himself for long stretches, and part of that was survival. The offensive line was patched together most of the year, and the pocket rarely felt stable. Rashee Rice being unavailable early hurt, no doubt, but this was supposed to be a deeper group. More was expected from the skill players across the board.

Defensively, the pass rush became the glaring issue by the trade deadline, and nothing meaningful changed. Kansas City entered Week 15 near the bottom of the league in sacks, sitting at 25. The four they managed against Justin Herbert were only because the Chargers‘ OL had its own injury problems.

The slow start buried them. And now, with Mahomes dealing with an ACL injury, there’s at least some concern that next season may not begin smoothly either. Jones, again, tried to frame it the right way. He had a message for his quarterback.

Chris Jones’ message for Patrick Mahomes

For the first time since he took over as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback in 2018, Patrick Mahomes won’t have a chance to carry Kansas City to a Super Bowl. That reality settled in on Sunday, and it was made heavier with the ACL injury. In the quiet aftermath, Chris Jones spoke the way a longtime teammate would.

“I just hugged him, man. That’s my brother,” Jones said. “We’ve been through so much.”

They really have. Mahomes and Jones have shared a locker room almost from the beginning. Mahomes arrived in 2017 as the future. Jones had already been there a year, drafted in the second round in 2016. Together, they became pillars of one of the league’s defining runs. Five Super Bowl appearances. Three Lombardi Trophies.

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And now, for the first time in either of their careers, no playoff football at all. It’s unfamiliar territory for both of them. The injury adds another layer. An ACL recovery typically takes around eight months, and that puts Mahomes’ return somewhere near the start of next season, depending on when surgery happens and how the rehab goes.

If anything is delayed, there’s a real possibility he could miss the opening game of 2026. That’s not a scenario the Chiefs are comfortable with, especially after how uneven this season felt from the start.

Kansas City needs Mahomes back at full strength, and they need him to look like himself again. There were stretches this year when he did. At times, he still felt like an MVP-level quarterback. But the consistency wasn’t there. Hopefully, he comes back stronger.