2025 NFL Outlook - Kansas City Chiefs

July 14, 2025 by CollegeFootballPoll.com staff

Andy Reid, who turned 67 in March, returns as the chief of the 2025 Kansas City Chiefs for his 13th season after spending 14 seasons as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999-2012. Prior to that, he was an offense assistant with the Green Bay Packers from 1992-1998.

Reid got his first taste of Super Bowl success when the Packers were 35-21 victors over the New England Patriots in SB XXXI (1996 season). His first Super Bowl as a head coach saw the Eagles come up on the wrong end of the scoreboard with a 24-21 loss to Tom Brady and the Patriots in SB XXXIX (2004 season).

His teams in Philly had other chances to play for Super Bowl but lost NFC Championship games to the St. Louis Rams (2001), Tampa Bay Bucs (2002), Carolina Panthers (2003), and Arizona Cardinals (2008). An 8-8 record in 2011 and a 4-12 mark in 2012 marked the end of his stay in Philadelphia when his contract was not renewed. He was signed by the Chiefs 5 days later and his new team beat his former team in just the third game of his Chiefs' tenure with a 26-16 victory in Philadelphia.

However, Reid's inability to get past conference championship games continued a loss to New England in the 2018 playoffs. It all change the following year with a 35-24 win over Tennessee paving the way for a 31-20 Super Bowl win over San Francisco. A 31-9 loss to Tom Brady and Tampa Bay kept the Chiefs from repeating as Super Bowl champs. They fell to Cincinnati in the AFC Championship game the following year, but the '22 and '23 season Super Bowls both went to Kansas City as as Reid's team took down his old Eagles club in SB LVII, and then dispatched the 49ers in LVIII. The Chiefs returned for an attempt at a three-peat this past season, but that was derailed by a 40-22 loss to the Eagles.

Reid has the 4th-most wins in NFL history with 273 and his 28 playoff wins trail only Bill Belichick's 31.

Reid's success in Kansas City can be heavily attributed to Patrick Mahomes' arrival as quarterback.

Mahomes entered the 2017 draft as a junior out of Texas Tech and the Chiefs traded up with Buffalo to move from the 27th pick to the 10th to take a player who has become one of the most recognizable names and faces of the NFL. He would start, and win, his debut on December 31 of 2017 with a regular season-ending 27-24 win over Denver as the club rested starter Alex Smith for the playoffs. The club traded Smith to Washington a week later and Mahomes became the starter and threw for a record setting 5,097 yards and 50 touchdowns. He has an 89-23 win-loss record (.795) in the regular season, a 17-4 mark (.810) in the playoffs and a 3-2 record in Super Bowls in just eight seasons.

Clearly, there is a little concern heading into the 2025 campaign as to whether or not the string of success can continue. On the one hand, Kansas City's FanDuel Futures include odds of +320 to make the Super Bowl. On the other hand, they include odds of +310 to miss the playoffs altogether.

Kansas City Chiefs at-a-glance

2025 Records: 15-2 regular season, 5-1 vs. AFC West, 10-2 vs. AFC, 5-0 vs. NFC
Went 2-1 in playoffs (lost Super Bowl to Philadelphia)
2025 Super Bowl FanDuel odds: +800, No. 4 of all 32 teams (No. 3 of 16 AFC teams)
2025 AFC West Champion odds: -115, No.1 of 4
General Manager: Brett Veach (2017)
Head Coach: Andy Reid (2013)
Offensive Coordinator: Matt Nagy (2022, previously 2016-17)
Defensive Coordinator: Steve Spagnuolo (2019)

General Manager Brett Veach has a long history with Andy Reid at Philadelphia and Kansas City, dating back to 2004. He became the GM in 2017 after John Dorsey was let go.

Veach and OC Matt Nagy were teammates with the Delaware Blue Hens and Veach hired Nagy in 2009 to join him in Philly. Both followed Reid to Kansas City. With the Chiefs, Nagy was the QB coach from 2013-2015, and was promoted OC in 2016. But Nagy took his own head coaching job with Chicago where he was 34-11 from 2018-2021 with his best season occurring in his first campaign when the Bears went 12-4 before bowing to the Eagles in the Wild Card round. He was fired after Chicago went 8-8,. 8-8 and 6-10 in his final three seasons and he returned to Kansas City to work for Reid who brought him back as QB Coach before promoting him back to OC in 2023.

Steve Spagnuolo has been the DC since 2019. He worked under Reid in Philly from 1999-2006.

2025 Schedule

Sharp Football Analysis ranks the 2025 Kansas City schedule as the 6th-weakest, based on Vegas-forecasted win totals for each of its opponents.

It certainly doesn't seem that weak on the surface as Kansas City will open in São Paulo, Brazil against the LA Chargers before hosting a Super Bowl rematch with the Eagles. Week 3 brings the Baltimore Ravens to Arrowhead, and Week 6 offers a home date with the Detroit Lions.

The Chiefs visit the Buffalo Bills on November 2, and go to Dallas for Thanksgiving. A grueling December begins with a home game vs. the Houston Texans, a second game against the Chargers and a Christmas visit from Denver. The latter two are crucial division games.

Kansas City will face all of the NFC East teams (Eagles, Giants, Cowboys, Commanders), as well as Dallas and Detroit, but they also get the AFC South squads that only saw Houston top a .500 mark a year ago by going 10-7. The rest of the AFC South contains Indianapolis (8-9), Jacksonville (4-13) and Indianapolis (3-14).

9/5 Chargers (São Paulo)
9/14 Eagles
9/21 at Giants (SNF)
9/28 Ravens
10/6 at Jaguars (MNF)
10/12 Lions (SNF)
10/19 Raiders
10/27 Commanders (MNF)
11/2 at Bills
11/9 BYE
11/16 at Broncos
11/23 Colts
11/27 at Cowboys (Thanksgiving)
12/7 Texans (SNF)
12/14 Chargers
12/21 at Titans
12/25 Broncos (Christmas)
1/2, 1/5 or 1/6 at Raiders

Draft

Round	Pick	Selection
1	32	Josh Simmons, OL, Ohio State
2	63	Omarr Norman-Lott, DT, Tennessee
3	66	Ashton Gillotte, EDGE, Louisville
3	85	Nohl Williams, CB, California
4	133	Jalen Royals, WR, Utah State
5	156	Jeffrey Bassa, LB, Oregon
7	228	Brashard Smith, RB, SMU

NFL Team Articles

This article is part of a series that includes similar articles regarding these NFL teams:

AFC East: Buffalo, Miami, New England, NY Jets
AFC North: Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh
AFC South: Jacksonville, Tennessee
AFC West: Las Vegas, Los Angeles Chargers, Kansas City
NFC East: Dallas, NY Giants, Philadelphia
NFC North: Green Bay, Detroit
NFC South: Atlanta, Tampa Bay
NFC West: Arizona, San Francisco