People who were eagerly burying the Kansas City Chiefs after they went 0-2 in the first two weeks of the season are probably not having such a good time now. The Chiefs have rattled off two straight wins and just blew out a Ravens team that was in the Super Bowl conversations before Week 4 (maybe not so much now though).
To sum up, the Chiefs are trending in the right direction after the first month of the season and the NFL power rankings reflect that. Let’s check out where a few different power rankings have the Chiefs placed after they moved to 2-2 on the season.
NFL.com: 9th
Eric Edholm of NFL.com had the Chiefs right inside the top 10 and praised the Chiefs offense with Xavier Worthy back in the lineup. He also pointed out how the Chiefs running backs played well in this game too (though some of the Chiefs’ offensive production was certainly helped out by how decimated the Ravens defense was with injuries).
The line from Edholm that speaks volumes, however, was easily this one: “At 2-2, Andy Reid and Co. aren’t out of the woods yet, but this game announced they’re not going anywhere.” Well said.
The Athletic: 10th
Josh Kendall and Chad Graff of The Athletic slotted the Chiefs in right at number 10 on this week’s power rankings. This time around, their spotlight was on rookie left tackle Josh Simmons. They applauded that he looks like he could be Kansas City’s left tackle of the future but said there’s plenty of work for Simmons.
“Simmons has allowed nine pressures this year, which is the seventh most among rookies with at least 100 pass-blocking snaps. Still, the Chiefs put up a season-high 382 yards on Sunday.” Hard to argue with those two sentences. Simmons has been good but not great and the Chiefs offense had a great day on Sunday.
ESPN: 7th
ESPN gave the Chiefs the highest ranking out of the bunch included here for this article, placing the Chiefs at seventh on their power rankings. Nate Taylor praised Worthy’s performance for the Chiefs in his return to the offense but pointed out that K.C. still has work to do with their run game.
“Kansas City is able to get some production on the ground, but none of it is coming from the running backs. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes still leads the team in rushing with 130 yards, and the Chiefs’ longest designed run this season (35 yards) was from Worthy on an end around. The Chiefs could consider adding another running back before the league’s trade deadline,” Taylor wrote and he’s not wrong here.
Still, the seventh spot in the power rankings here is the highest for Kansas City and hopefully the Chiefs continue to win and climb up the rankings.
CBS Sports: 10th
Pete Prisco of CBS Sports ranked the Chiefs right at number 10 and said this performance had an old school feel to it. Well, old school meaning the 2018 to 2022 seasons of Chiefs football. It was a lot of fun watching Mahomes and the offense tear it up on the field but fans have to ask themselves how much of that was Worthy’s return and how much of it was that the Ravens defense is so bad?
We’ll find that out next week against the Jaguars and will see where the Chiefs end up in the next round of power rankings.
It does feel like the Chiefs are starting to show us what kind of team they really are. The group we watched the first two weeks is not the product we’ll be watching for the rest of the year but hey, you can’t blame the authors of these power rankings for doubting the Chiefs so far. Hopefully K.C. will continue to climb.
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