The Kansas City Chiefs are sitting at 4-7 and in the basement of the AFC West. Yet it’s also clear that they’re a decent team when they want to be — such as the defensive effort on Sunday Night Football against the Pittsburgh Steelers. They’re a difficult team to figure out and perhaps that’s why Pro Football Talk has the Chiefs at No. 23 in their NFL Power Rankings with the statement, “This team may not be as far away from contending as it appears.”
Mike Florio likely knows as much as the next guy as to how good the Chiefs could be next season when fully healthy. While injuries are a part of the game, the Chiefs and Colts in particular have suffered injuries that hardly any other team could take. They’ve lost Jamaal Charles and Eric Berry, Matt Cassel and Tony Moeaki. In addition, the team failed to improve via free agency the way other teams did, hording $30 million in extra cash for reasons not yet clear.
Still the Chiefs have shown guts at certain point and gotten punched in the gut at others. It’s hard to know with this team just what they have, but hopefully Kyle Orton can help close out the season with some momentum in the right direction.