Adam Clay
Hiawatha World

A 9-0 start to the season is nothing to sniff at, and the Kansas City Chiefs are the NFL’s lone undefeated team, and are at least two games up on every team in the league except the 8-1 Detroit Lions. The only problem is that the Chiefs haven’t looked like one of the league’s best teams, and their 16-14 great escape of the Denver Broncos on a last second field goal block did nothing to enhance the optics. So what does it all mean, or does it mean anything at all?

I’m tempted to opt for the latter, as 9-0 is 9-0, and while teams like the Ravens have looked far better than the Chiefs, they haven’t managed to beat them, and have also had weeks that they look like they forgot how to play the game (Granted, you could say the same about the Chiefs at times on Sunday), and haven’t shown the winning pedigree that Kansas City has spent the last two years showing off. At this point, much of the national media doesn’t even address the situation in KC, because what do you do with it? The rest of the country want to call this the season–just like they did last year–but since that became a narrative, the Chiefs are 15-0 and pundits have shuffled on to other projects.

It would be nice to believe that’s going to hold up, and while I don’t see the wheels falling off, by any means, I do think the reality of the situation lies somewhere between. The fact is, the injuries are seriously mounting and creating some real issues on both sides of the ball. The defense that has spent the last two years pulling the offense out of the fire is starting falter a bit. I’m not calling them out–not by a long shot–they gave up just 14 points this week, and that’s pretty darn good no matter who you’re playing–but we’re seeing teams move the ball when it matters most. Losing Jaylen Watson has been a major hurdle–probably bigger than anyone thought it would be–and it’s created spacing issue all over the field. The offense has been hamstrung time and again by injuries this season, but they have found the right players to step in week by week–if left tackle Wanya Morris continues to miss time, it may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Rather than turning back to Kingsley Suamataia, who has struggled far more this season than the team expected, the move that the entire world seems to think the team is going to make is bringing back Donovan Smith, who has been waiting for a call from home all season long. Smith is familiar with the system and while the team let him walk for a reason, there is clearly value there compared to running out a young tackle who has been an utter liability on the edge for the best quarterback in the league.

This week’s match up with the Buffalo Bills takes the Chiefs on the road to visit a legitimate threat for the first time in weeks, so I think get a good picture of where the team is at right now. The Bills are good but not great, and rely heavily on their superstar quarterback Josh Allen–they’ve also been flying somewhat under the radar recently. I think both teams see this game as a litmus test in the middle of the season, and one of them will go home unhappy–but given what we’ve seen, I think you have to push your chips in on the Chiefs bumping their season mark to 10-0.