Kansas City’s Toughest Test Yet LOOMS in 2025

Kansas City’s Toughest Test Yet LOOMS in 2025

The schedule has been out for about a week and today we’re going to be talking about which games are risky business for the Chiefs. Today on Locked on Chiefs from the land of the free and the home of the Chiefs. This is the Locked On Chiefs podcast. Chiefs Kingdom. Welcome back for another episode of Locked On Chiefs, your daily podcast covering the Kansas City Chiefs. Part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every single day. Thank you for always making Lock on Chiefs your first listen. If you haven’t already, go check out another show. Don’t forget we’re free and available on all platforms including YouTube as well. I am Chris Clark from Chief’s Corner. This is Ryan Tracy from RGR Football and Rogue Analytics and NFL 33 and a whole bunch of other different places. Lot to talk about when we start looking at the schedule. We already kind of talked about this on Tuesday. talked about some of our favorite games, some of our favorite matchups, uh, and what could be some of the surprising games. Today, we’re going to talk about what is the riskiest game on the schedule for Kansas City. We’re going to talk about that a little bit later. We’re going to get into also some of the least favorite matchups that Kansas City is going to have, but we’re going to start this off by talking about some of the trouble games of 2025 for this Chiefs team and this Chief’s roster. Ryan, when we get into this, which game on this schedule did you look at and go, “Man, I really don’t feel good about that one.” Honestly, it’s right off the top. I don’t feel good about going, even though the time zone shift isn’t like you’re going to Europe, going to Brazil. Sa Paulo is a long ways away. I believe by my calculations, 14 hours in the air. Maybe they can do something a little bit uh faster if they’re on a you know private charter or whatever, but that’s commercial air estimation, right? That’s a long way to go. And going into an area that especially for a team that hasn’t really started fast in the last few years that has a ton of rookies, some you have to think are going to have to play right away. and most importantly, a left side of the offensive line that is going to be new and trying to function together in a new way. No matter who it is that ends up winning those jobs, it’s not going to be familiar and it’s not going to be set. The good thing is you’re not going to have Joey Bosa out there. You’re going to have some other guys trying to rush the passer, but that and the whole like I can’t get Mexico City out of my head and the field condition. And I’m not trying to to to say anything negative about the folks in Sa Paulo. If you’re Brazilian and you’re taking offense to this, I apologize. That’s not what I’m trying to say. But there’s a difference between maintaining a soccer field and maintaining an American football field. They’re very, very different things. The surfaces are very different and it just the whole thing bugs me. I’m not happy about it, but I guess I’m going to find out what happens. The one thing I will say that works in Kansas’s favor and actually the Chargers favor too is it’s the first game of the season and so you’re not dealing with truncated travel time uh as much as you would be if you were in a different time of the season. Uh so I do think that that kind of helps a little bit but I agree. I mean it’s a tough it’s a tough game and it’s a tough game for Kansas City regardless of who they’re going to be playing because it’s in Brazil. But it’s also a tougher game for Kansas City because they’re going to be playing against a division opponent that could have huge consequences for their entire season week one and they’re not even going to be in the same country. Yeah. Don’t stub your toe. Don’t get off to a bad start. It just makes it too And you know, you know Harbaugh is just sitting back there trying to come up with double pitches and all kinds of things to run around everything that you’re going to try to do and it just sets it up for something that I’m going to be just a little twitchy about. No, I get it. And it’s one of those games where you look at it and go, “Okay, if Kansas City starts 1 and0, the season can I mean, the season starts like this. If they start 0 and1, it starts a different way.” And then the next game is the Philadelphia Eagles. So, it’s not like it gets any easier week two uh when you go up against the Eagles in the second week of the season. Yeah, Eagles. I don’t know. I just Is that a trouble game? I mean, there’s literally no way you can look past it. So, it might be a challenging game, but like trouble is like to me when they come out and they’re like, “Hey, we got this. We don’t have to really bring our a game. We’ll we’ll play our C game and we’ll be all right.” And then somebody actually puts up a fight. I don’t think that’s happening against the Eagles. No. And I and I don’t mean that that’s a trouble game for me. I’m just looking at it from the perspective of you have a week one game. It would be nice to have the Giants who play week three in week two instead of week three. Uh, but it is what it is. And when you look at this schedule, you know, trouble games, uh, games that are going to give Kansas City trouble, the one the obvious one that pops out to me is going to be week nine against the Buffalo Bills. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. It’s a favorite game of mine. And that’s that’s one of the things that’s kind of tough because on Tuesday we talked about some of our favorite games. This is still one of my favorite games, but it’s definitely a trouble game for Kansas City. Yeah, I I agree with you. And we had a disagreement or we we hinted at a disagreement yesterday. For me, one of the trouble games is again because of where it is so early in the season because you’re right, you didn’t come back with the Giants. You got the Eagles, then you get then you do get the Giants. You get a little bit of a break, then you come back with the Ravens. And if you’re hung over from the Ravens game, and hung over by meaning that you had to go all out or or the physicality of that game got to you, one of the trouble ones, the ones that makes me a little nervous is the Jacksonville Jaguars because I think they’ve had a pretty dang good off season. I think they’ve done a lot of what they needed to do and they are building a system there honestly to shadow the Chiefs in that you’re building a a a concentric bowl around your quarterback to give him everything that he possibly needs to be the best that he can be. And I still think he has that potential. I mean, he’s a traumatized kid, right? But if they can get him centered, I think there’s there’s some guts to it. And at that point, I think it might be a sneakup game for the Chiefs. You know, I don’t look at I I wouldn’t say that I think that that’s a trouble game. I think that it’s a potentially I I’ll put it in a different uh category a little bit later. Um, but I’m looking at this schedule and I’m saying, “Okay, trouble games.” To me, the next trouble game is probably or one of the other trouble games is the Houston Texans. And one thing that they have going for them is they have a little bit of extra rest because they play the Cowboys the week before uh on a Thursday night or on a Thursday during Thanksgiving. So, they have a little bit of extra rest against the Texans. But to me, that’s a trouble game. The Texans are going to be a good football team again this year. CJ Strad showed that he is everything that he looked like his freshman year and I think he’s going to be better in year three and they have continued to build around him. So to me that’s a trouble game. Yeah, I I can understand where you’re coming from. I think it’s another team that has gone out of their way to kind of push reset on the support system for their quarterback and they understand what they have and on a rookie contract. I think that makes a lot of sense. So, I will not argue with that as being included in what could be troublesome. Uh, certainly as the Texans, I think, are going to be in a position to take their division and they’re going to be fighting for playoff seating even that early in in the year. What week is it’s like the first week of December, right? 14. They’re going to be in it. Yeah, it’s going to be tough. When we get back, we’re going to talk about our least favorite matchups for the Chiefs in 2025. That’s coming up next. As a small business owner, your work doesn’t end when the clock hits 5. Your business is always on your mind, which means it’s time to hire. You need a partner that works just as hard as you do. That’s where LinkedIn Jobs comes in. When you clock out, LinkedIn clocks in. LinkedIn makes it free and easy to post for free on your profile with your network and get qualified candidates that you’re looking for all in one place. So, post your job. The new feature can even help you write job descriptions and then quickly get in front of the right people with deep candidate insights. And here’s a pro tip. Add the the hashtag hiring frame to your profile picture to double your reach to qualified candidates. No wonder 72% of small businesses say LinkedIn helps them find the highquality hires right away. Post your job for free at linkedin.com/lockedonfl. That’s linkedin.comlocked NFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions do apply. least favorite matchups of 2025 for the Chiefs. This one’s pretty simple for me. Kind of hinted about it two days ago and you kind of we’ve already kind of mentioned it once. Uh New York Giants just really doesn’t do anything for me. Um they’re a rebuilding team. Uh yeah, it’s going to it should be nice that it should be an easier game for Kansas City, but it’s not going to be something that I’m really going to be looking forward to. Uh, I’m hoping that it’s a better game than I think it should be. Uh, but it is a prime time game and that doesn’t make any sense to me when looking at the schedule. I have to agree with you. Like, and if I’m a Giants fan, I’m I am royally pissed off. Like, you get a prime time game and it has to be against Kansas City. Like, I would not be happy in the slightest, but that’s the way it goes. And you want to get exposure. You’re the big apple. Sometimes you’re just going to have to play a ball game whether you’re the favorite or whether you’re a long long long long underdog. But that’s okay. Um if we’re going with the the ones that are just not exciting to me on paper. I mean I’ll let I’ll let you take another one, but I’m just going to lay it out here just because I’m sure somebody in silver and black’s watching. I don’t care about your games at all. Nothing scares me about the Raiders. Okay. Yes, she got a great running back in the draft. Well done. You have a 72 year old quarterback and an even older head coach. So, it is what it is. No, you hit my point exactly. Uh like that you don’t scare me, okay? Like nothing about it other than the fact that it’s inner division and something always goes wrong and they always play tougher than they should, but it doesn’t scare me. I I go back to what I said right after the draft. That was a poor pick by them. Uh agreed. plenty of other directions you could have gone, plenty of other things that could have helped your team and your quarterback, and you went with a running back. Congratulations for making another dumb Raiders move. But, uh, yeah, I would say that’s probably one of my least favorite matchups, uh, the two games against the Raiders. And the other one is is like the other part of it that I think falls into that is kind of what we talked about on t what I talked about on Tuesday. I also feel like it’s possible that by that week 18 game, Kansas City might not even need to play and then it’s even then it’s even worse. Absolutely. You’re going to see Max Crosby once this year. That’s all. Cuz it’s not going to matter. It’s not going to be a factor, I don’t think, in any way come week 18. So October 19th is your showdown. If you if you want to go to Vegas, there’s a reason that it’s on at noon. There’s a reason. And it’s because of the quality of this ball game. I I I’ve never slept through a ball game since we started doing this and since I started covering this team, even before we started working together. I won’t do it this time, but I’ll be tempted. Yeah. No, I can’t say I blame you. And you talked about Boronzi and learning about the Tennessee Titans as one of the reasons why you like that game. To me, it’s one of my least favorite matchups. Mainly because it’s the Tennessee Titans and what are they really going to do? like I don’t think they’re going to be a challenger to the Chiefs this year. And that’s something that I wish was earlier in the season because look at the murderers road that they face. And that’s really what this comes down to me is like you look at the first half of the season, it’s Chargers, Eagles, Giants, Ravens, Jags, Lions, Raiders, Commanders, Bills. There’s I mean that is rough in the first nine weeks of the season. And then you get you come back and you have the Broncos, you have the Colts, Cowboys, Texans, Chargers, then the Titans. Yeah, that is not It’s one of my least favorite on the schedule. My least favorite match up is the whole first half of the season. How’s that, right? You don’t like that? No. What did it come out the fifth toughest schedule in the league this coming year? Just to make I think the Eagles are 16th. So just just to make things even, you know, let’s let’s make it that much harder for old Patrick. Well, I mean, you know, it is what it is and they get the teams that are their division is going against. So that works against them uh some years and and helps them in others. But the other part of the reality is is that the NFC, sorry, not the NFC, the AFC West is probably going to be better than it was last year. And it wasn’t bad last year. You had three good teams in the division last year. I don’t think the Raiders are going to change and go from being bad to good, but I would say that they have the ability to go from bad to at least average or slightly above average because QB play is such a huge part of it. And while Gino Smith isn’t a star quarterback, he’s much better than anything they had last year. Agreed. Clearly an upgrade. Sorry there, uh, plumber guy, Okonnell or whatever his name is. Um, that is an upgrade. And most importantly when you put together the Pete Carol fit with it right like it’s proven that it can work in that system and I I think that does bring a touch of synergy to a team that has been absolutely disconnected with itself and everybody in it for a very very long time. So maybe just that little kernel gives them ray sunshine. But are they still I think they’re still disconnected. I mean who takes a running back at six overall? I just I’m not gonna get past that one. Yeah. Okay. Another least favorite matchup for you. I don’t want to throw everybody under the bus, but that seems to be what I’m doing here. I’m going to follow along with my theme. This is America’s team, and when they play the former America’s team, sorry, I don’t think it’s going to be that close. I think Dak’s a solid quarterback. I don’t think he threatens this Chief’s team. I just don’t see it. I think it’s it’s disarray. It’s a coaching change. It’s a number of things. You put George Pickkins on this roster on purpose. You get what you deserve. By the time you see them November 27th, it might be falling apart. It could be a dumpster fire by that time. Could be. And it’s going to be really interesting to see how the Cowboys are able to deal with that extra personality in their locker room after uh you know, they already have CD Lamb. I’m not saying C Lamb has that type of personality, but he’s already pretty boisterous. Uh, let’s put it that way. Uh, Micah Parsons is pretty out there is pretty pretty boisterous as well. Uh, and then to get a guy like CD or sorry, to get a guy like George Pickkins, the problem I see with the Cowboys when it comes to a guy like that is who are they going to use to rein him in? They know. Brand new coach. Brand new coach. they’re not going to be able to do it, right? So, I mean, good luck with that. I that I’m not going to say it’s the least favorite cuz I’ve got a one of my best friends is a Cowboys fan and I hate to admitting that, but uh going to love being able to tell him uh yeah, that was a fun game. But it is what it is at this point. When we get back, we’re going to look what is the biggest risky game for the Chiefs in 2025. riskiest game. This can go a lot of different directions and can be looked at from different points of view because to me risky could mean is it a risk of like bad, you know, bad playing surface, bad situational, you know, bad situation like we kind of talked about in Brazil. Is it a bad matchup because of who they’re playing and how they’ve played them in the past? Uh, like the Bills, which way would you go is what is your riskiest game in this one in 2025? I lean towards the latter and the execution of the players that you’re playing against. The Bills are certainly at the top of the list, but the one that stands out to me is I think the one that’s kind of under the radar, unless you live on the East Coast and you’re following this because one of the best left tackles landed in this town this off season. One of the best all-around athletes at a pass catcher position landed in this town. They have a solid running game that I think can help this quarterback out who happens to be the phenom of the last 12 months. And I don’t think that they got worse on defense. I think they actually improved. Now, I’m not a huge Kinlaw fan, but the Commanders added him. They already started Jay-Hawk, so you know they’re well ahead of the rest of the league. So, that’s a big plus. But all kidding aside, I think that the Commanders are are a team that if everything goes the way they plan, and I I really respect Dan Quinn. I think that’s really for me what it comes back to is I think there’s an advantage there. I think they’ll prepare well and if everybody lives up to what I think you can project their offense might be one that’s able to put up the points that the Chiefs need. They’re going to require somebody to come out of their comfort zone at the safety position. Most likely Jaden Hicks, but maybe if you feel like Drew Tranquil or even the rookie Bosa who does have a lot of coverage ability can be that X factor to kind of control what Jaden Daniels can do with his feet. it it’s going to be a unique game plan and it’s going to be a lot of stress on a defense that I think wants to play a different way except for this ball game. Man, that’s a good game for the riskiest game in in the on the schedule. Um, I’m going to take the easy one. I’m going to say the Buffalo Bills mainly just because to me it’s Josh Allen. Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. It is the Brady Manning of this generation and that’s going to be what it is. I mean, you can change the players around both quarterbacks and it’s really not going to matter too much because the quarterbacks are what makes the team. And to me, Josh has always seemed to get the the better of Patrick in the regular season. And I’m not and it’s kind of interesting to me uh because that doesn’t really make sense because when the playoffs come it just seems to be I don’t know if it’s playoff Pat or it’s Andy Reid changing the way he does things but it’s just a different scenario for Kansas City and they usually find a way to win against the Bills in the playoffs. I would theorize this and this is not for those of you who who follow the Bills and might see this and certainly our buddy Joe Marino this is not a dig on the Bills organization. And I think the difference is that Josh Allen is perfectly capable of raising his game when he has to. We’ve seen him do that. I think he’s capable. I think he’s probably the second best quarterback in this league right now. He’s right up there with Patrick. But the difference is I think Patrick is better at forcing and demanding and extracting that raising of the game from everyone else around him better than Josh’s. I think he gets better performance out of his teammates, not just on offense, but on the other side of the ball too when he needs it. And I I think that might be the separator. Well, and if that’s the separator, then I mean, how do you beat the best QB in football when he is doing something like that? I don’t think you can. Generally speaking, uh I mean, again, that goes back to what I said though, a regular season, and Mahomes isn’t using that same type of energy, using that same type of drive, and trying to get the best. Yes, he’s trying to get the best out of his team, but it’s not the same when you get into the playoffs and it’s playoff Patrick. That is a different type of dialed in uh that you I mean, go back to when he first started his first playoff game. Go back when he first started in the NFL a couple years ago when his fir in his first couple starts. He came out on fire to an extent the first five starts of his career, but he also came out and missed some easy throws early on. Like he was just a little amped up. He has gotten to the point where he has dialed in his ability to be amped but not too amped up. And that has caused him to be able to have the ability to go and do things on the football field that most players can’t. Yeah. And that’s that’s those differences are sometimes what turns not just a game but a season and certainly a championship. And I think that that pro that game is absolutely up there just like the other one was. But I also think that there are a couple of teams that are going to sneak up and maybe give the Chiefs more competition than they thought. You mentioned one earlier in the Houston Texans and and you may still feel that way and want to go on, but I still feel like the punch for punch in this division might come down to the Denver Broncos and seeing what they can put together and Shawn Peyton’s style of trying to keep the ball away. And I do think it is going to be keep away all season long because how do you, as you just asked, how do you stop the best quarterback in the league from being the best quarterback in the league? It’s don’t let him have the ball so long. and and I do think that league’s going to double down on that, particularly the Denver Broncos. Yeah. The interesting thing on that is to me when I sit here and I look at this, and I don’t want to speak hypothetically speaking on on the wide receiver situation because we don’t know what’s going to happen, how it’s going to develop, and what Rashi Rice’s punishment is going to be. But the one thing I will say is they play the Broncos in week 11. If he is suspended, he is not gonna be suspended in week 11. He will have had several games back. This offense is going to start clicking when you get Hollywood and Rasheed and Xavier Worthy and Juju Schmid Schustster and Travis Kelce. When you have all those guys on offense, obviously take injuries out of it. When you have all those guys on offense, and then we don’t haven’t even talked about Jayen Royals or any of the new pieces that they’re adding as well. uh and and Jared Wy coming back from injury. I mean, this offense should look a lot different this year because of what they went through last year. And as we have talked about this entire off season, the biggest question and the thing that’s going to make this team stumble, if they’re going to stumble, is going to be the left side of the offensive line and who their left tackle is. If they have that at least average to above average, this is going to be a lot of fun to watch on offense. Let’s hope so. the biggest offse question could become the thing that turns it amazing how those things come together but I I I think it’ll be a little rough to begin with and I think you nailed it on the head having both those Broncos matchups after the buy allows you to have sorted out your situation on the whole left side to be honest that too yeah I mean you could I I’m not trying to is I’m not trying to wish ill will but maybe Jaylen Moore doesn’t work out and you have Josh Simmons as your starter at that point. I mean, you’re that far into the season. Who knows? We’ll see. I I hope that’s not the case because I would like to give Josh Simmons uh some time to acclimate and to get healthier. Uh but if it happens, it happens. I think that by then you would at least have that figured out on on your offensive line. Yeah, knock on wood. The pass rush is going to be a question there as well. In every game that we’ve talked about in this last this last group of the risky ones, it does come down to controlling your pass rush and being able to affect the opposite quarterback to give Patrick that differential between what he’s able to do in terms of time and function versus what the opposing quarterback’s able to do. Yeah, it’s going to be a lot of fun. I cannot wait until this season starts. Unfortunately, it is what four months, five months away at this point. It is quite a long way away, but we are going to have you covered every single day between now and then. 5 days a week, we are here on Locked on Chiefs. Ryan, any other thoughts on risky games going into the 20 to 25 season, take nothing for granted. The only thing that’s for real is you don’t got to worry on uh week nine, is it? No, week 10. That’s it. There’s a by-week. That’s it. So, other than that, it’s going to be hold on for dear life. Uh I I like what you said yesterday about a couple of cardiac games. I think you’re absolutely right, but hopefully we start to see some sunshine between those score differentials. Yeah. And the other thing that stands out to me, and I know this isn’t necessarily a negative, but they do have some pockets. One of the negatives, I guess I would say, they have some pockets where they’ll have extra rest, but that also means they have those pockets because they have shorter weeks the week before. So, lots of that coming in because they have two different Thursday games on top of the season opener. So, lots lots of go going on for the Chiefs. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you all for listening today. We really do appreciate it. Be sure to check us out. We will be back tomorrow to talk more about Kansas City and get you ready for this season. OTAAS kicks off next week. A lot more to talk about there. Thank you all for listening again today and we will talk to you tomorrow.

Can the Kansas City Chiefs navigate their 2025 NFL schedule with ease, or will unexpected challenges arise? With a season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers in São Paulo, Brazil, the Chiefs face a daunting start. The long travel and unfamiliar conditions could set the tone for a season filled with high-stakes matchups.

Chris Clark and Ryan Tracy dissect the Chiefs’ riskiest games, spotlighting the Buffalo Bills clash as a potential showdown between Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. They also explore the impact of offseason changes on the Washington Commanders and how these might pose a threat. Key figures like Andy Reid and Josh Allen are central to the discussion, offering insights into strategic shifts and player dynamics.

Tune in to uncover how the Chiefs plan to tackle these challenges and what it means for their path to success.

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