Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt speaks inside the Robert B. Docking State Office Building on Monday, Dec. 22. Liam Keating/The Capital-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Clark Hunt Has 3 Reactions to Chiefs’ 2025 Season

Originally posted on Kansas City Chiefs on SI
By Zak Gilbert | Last updated Jan 31, 2026 9:05 PM ET

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Chiefs already are scheduled to make two trips to SoFi Stadium in 2026.

Will they earn a third?

The Los Angeles venue will host Super Bowl 61 next year. And if Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are going to claw their way back, they know difficult road games against the Chargers and Rams are only pages in a fairly thick book they need to complete.

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An optimistic outlook

“Well, we're excited about the challenge that we have now, getting back,” Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said on Tuesday’s edition of Good Morning Football . “We still have a great roster; we still have Andy Reid and a really outstanding coaching staff. We're going to work very hard in 2026 to make sure that we're part of the playoffs and hopefully part of the Super Bowl.”

Being part of that Super Bowl means completing the chapter of Mahomes’ rehabilitation from Dec. 15 knee surgery to repair both a torn ACL and LCL. The quarterback said Jan. 15 he’s established a goal of returning in time for the team’s Week 1 game, the weekend of Sunday, Sept. 13.

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Struggling to get used to remaining home for the postseason

In the meantime, Hunt’s team is trying to wrap its head around not simply missing the Super Bowl – something they’ve reached in each of the last three seasons – but also missing the playoffs for the first time in 11 years.

But Hunt is still looking forward to seeing the NFL’s two newest teams in the big game, New England and Seattle.

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“Yeah, well, it's definitely made for a quiet January, for sure,” Hunt said. “We're used to going to playoff games, and it's just a little bit different this year. Obviously, we've got some great teams headed to the Super Bowl. They had tremendous seasons. And we're looking forward to the opportunity in 2026 to hopefully get back to the playoffs and make it back to the Super Bowl.”

That strange feeling, something Reid said he wants to remain a strange feeling, comes with a strange bonus. The Chiefs’ reward for a 6-11 season is the ninth-overall selection in April’s draft.

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Capitalizing on a lofty draft pick they don't want in future

Kansas City hasn’t had a selection that high since three months after Hunt hired Reid, in 2013. That year, the Chiefs selected tackle Eric Fisher first overall after finishing with the league’s worst record the year before.

“One of the few silver linings to not participating in the playoffs,” Hunt explained, “is having an opportunity to really step back and evaluate what didn't go our way in 2025, and what we can do to get better.

“And then just talking to Coach Reid, I know he feels we have an opportunity to be better in all three phases. There were times during the year where we were successful, but there was a lot of inconsistency, really, across the squad.”