Back in 2018, when the Kansas City Chiefs’ former quarterback Alex Smith was coming off a good season, the front office decided to send him to Washington and give Patrick Mahomes the key to the kingdom. As expected, Mahomes quashed the ‘big arm’ expectations of him and ended the team’s 50-year-long drought with a Super Bowl in his second year under center. The dynasty was already taking root. Five Super Bowl appearances later, though, the team hit the iceberg and went cold. Good thing for the Chiefs, their QB is not that vain. 

Amid all the wins, Mahomes has learned two lessons: One, despite wins, you need to continue growing. And two, losses and mistakes will teach you more than your wins. Now that he is carrying two chips on his shoulder after how the last couple of seasons ended, we could expect a lot more from him and the team. But joining the many naysayers is a former tight end who saw one of the NFL’s biggest dynasty make and break in front of his eyes.

“It’s over for sure,” the former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski said on Up & Adams when asked whether the Chiefs dynasty stays if they lose this season. “I kind of put them in the tier two bucket, okay? You know, I feel like they’re not tier one right now.

“I mean, Patrick Mahomes coming off of the injury, he’s going to have to prove to everyone first that he’s still the elite quarterback that we all know him to be. They have a mini dynasty, there’s no doubt about that. That is over.”

Gronk won’t be wrong. The Chiefs are putting a lot of weight on this season when they have all their best pieces in place possibly for the final time. Under head coach Andy Reid and OC Eric Bieniemy, Patrick Mahomes and TE Travis Kelce have made it to five Super Bowls and won three. They remain the only franchise in the NFL to win back-to-back titles and then go back to the big stage. If they had won against the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, that would have been another record. And Gronkowski predicting this makes a lot more sense when you go in depth.

The overlooked quarterback Tom Brady transformed himself into the legendary signal caller in New England. While everyone kept undermining him and his big arm, he continued learning from mistakes. With Brady under center for 19 of his 20 seasons there, the team went to the playoffs 17 times and won the Super Bowl six times. But you simply cannot ignore the parallels.

Remember the 2008 season when Brady went out? The team missed the playoffs, only for him to return the next season and take the Patriots to five more Super Bowls and win three. Granted, Brady had only played one game that season, while Mahomes had multiple chances over 14 games to look like himself, but he never could. But there’s one thing that both the QBs share: You can prove anyone wrong with hard work. The question now remains: could he repeat it?

Mahomes was a major threat on the ground last season, averaging a career-high 30.1 rushing yards per game. But after suffering a knee injury, the Chiefs may not be able to rely on his scrambling ability as much. The passing attack lacked fire, and the offensive line became flimsy. Mahomes was sacked 34 times last year, two times shy of tying his career-high 36 sacks. It was a rare stretch, finishing with a disappointing 6-11 record. The Chiefs marked their first losing season in a decade and snapped their streak of nine consecutive AFC West titles. They missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014. 

The New England Patriots were the last big dynasty before the Chiefs took hold. But after Tom Brady’s departure, the Patriots fizzled out. Are the Chiefs also in for the same fate?

How Mahomes looks after his rehabilitation

Mahomes has completed his nine-month rehabilitation following surgery to repair his left ACL and MCL. He remains the crown jewel of the franchise; if he is out of the equation, the Chiefs might not make the playoffs. To protect their odds, the staff has cautiously approached Mahomes’ return to practice. Now, he did voice his desire to be ready for the season opener vs the Denver Broncos on September 14, but with QB Justin Fields also in the building, Reid can still take it slow. However, insider Tom Pelissero had a positive update on The Rich Eisen Show:

“I would say all signs are pointing toward Patrick Mahomes being out there.”

Last season has affected the team. Mahomes has explained the feeling before, which even pushed Travis Kelce to run it back one more time. Regardless of whether they have hit rock bottom, the Chiefs are not ready to give up yet. Instead, they kept their rivals on their toes with a blunt message. 

“I think it’s just the bad taste that we had from last season,” said Mahomes during the Chiefs’ kickoff luncheon. “It didn’t go the way we wanted to.

“Coach [Andy] Reid talked about that. But we learned from it, and we’ve gotten better. I’ve worked to get to this point right here to be ready to go for the season. Just as hungry as I am, just as hungry as everybody on this stage and everybody in this audience. We’re going to go out there with the mindset that we’re going to be a new version of the Chiefs, that goes up there and dominates the same way the old one did.”

Since they lost the Super Bowl LIX to the Eagles, many have been counting the Chiefs out. Whether it is because they were the highlight of the league for years now or simple exhaustion, the Chiefs were becoming an afterthought. But Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk had a warning for them:

“I think a lot of people are sleeping on the Chiefs,” Florio said. “It’s easy to do that because we had Chiefs fatigue. I think we’re more quick to embrace the demise of the Chiefs because we’d gotten sick of the Chiefs. There was that sense that football fans had had enough.”

Chiefs Nation, however, is in no mood to give up. They remain one of the most passionate fanbases in the league, creating an environment unlike anything else at Arrowhead. Until then, Mahomes only has one thing to do: keep improving.