Would 2025 Chiefs Beat Kansas City’s 2024 Super Bowl Team?

A year ago this week, the Chiefs were preparing for training camp with a rookie left tackle. This year, the Chiefs are preparing for training camp with a rookie left tackle.

Other than drafting Josh Simmons, trading Joe Thuney to Chicago and adding a few free agents and intriguing draft picks, Kansas City is much the same team that won 15 regular-season games in 2024. So, why would Mike Tannenbaum say the team is better than the group that got blown out by Philadelphia just five months ago?

“I think the Chiefs did a great job of evaluating their problems, which clearly were on the offensive line,” the former GM said Tuesday on ESPN’s Get Up. “What do they do? They get arguably the best left tackle in the draft, Josh Simmons. If he was healthy, he may have been a top-10 overall pick. They should be better, and credit the Chiefs for being aggressive, not just sitting on their laurels.

“So, while we talked about Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, and their opportunities to dethrone Patrick Mahomes, I think the 2025 Chiefs would beat the 2024 Chiefs handily, and that was a team that got to the Super Bowl.”

Super Bowls are how quarterbacks are ultimately measured, despite the perception that Burrow is playing the best at the position. That’s why Kevin Clark this week put Mahomes in a tier alone, a tier he called Terminator.

“He's in a tier by himself,” Clark said, “because of what he can do, his record when the team is down 10 points, which is the best in history. He is a terminator. And he strikes fear in every single fan base. Even the Eagles fans try to say that they didn't fear him, but if they get to February, if they play him again, they'll be a little bit nervous.”

Considering the Eagles’ six sacks in Super Bowl LIX and 36 sacks during the regular season, both the most he’s ever had in a single game and single year, Mahomes has to be a little bit nervous, too.

But one key difference in Kansas City, as the quarterback enters his eighth season as an NFL starter, is two stretch-the-field weapons that will remind observers of the Tyreek Hill days. Those deep threats, Xavier Worthy and rookie third-round selection Jalen Royals, are part of a loaded receiving corps that returns a healthy Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown. So, if the gap is closing between Mahomes and those other quarterbacks, hitting more deep balls could help widen it again.

“And how many times,” Clark asked, “did you take those screen grabs and say, ‘Hey, this play, where Patrick Mahomes has three guys around him, he's going to roll to his right and hit Tyreek Hill for a 45-yard touchdown. Or he's going to find Travis Kelce sitting down in the zone for a 35-yard gain.’ That has not happened the last couple of years.”

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