{"id":681056,"date":"2026-01-16T05:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T05:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/681056\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T05:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T05:30:19","slug":"patrick-mahomes-admits-chiefs-problem-after-missing-nfl-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/681056\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Mahomes Admits Chiefs’ Problem After Missing NFL Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> failed to make the playoffs for the first time in the Patrick Mahomes<\/a> era, finishing with a 6-11 record. They lost their last six games of the season and ended up third in the AFC West.<\/p>\n

Mahomes’ season-ending injury in Week 15 certainly didn’t help. The star quarterback suffered a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee against the Los Angeles Chargers<\/a> and needed surgery to repair the issue.<\/p>\n

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The Chiefs quarterback recorded 3,587 passing yards and 22 touchdowns, along with 422 rushing yards and five scores on the ground. So, his absence was certainly felt by the Chiefs.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters in his first press conference since his injury<\/a>, though, Mahomes admitted that the team’s “compounding mistakes” were what really doomed them.<\/p>\n

\"Kansas<\/p>\n

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (left) and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (right).Denny Medley&comma; Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(Denny Medley&comma; Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Mahomes specifically pointed out their offensive inconsistencies as a major culprit, adding that he was part of the problem.<\/p>\n

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“For myself, I look at the red zone interceptions I threw,” Mahomes shared, according to Charles Goldman of A to Z Sports<\/a>. “I think offensively we weren’t consistent enough.”<\/p>\n

Mahomes threw 11 interceptions in 14 games during the 2025 season, five of which came in the red zone<\/a>. That said, the two-time NFL<\/a> MVP emphasized that he needs to work on his game. He also encouraged his Chiefs teammates to step up as well.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to be better. That starts with me,” Mahomes stated. “We’re all motivated to be better next year.”<\/p>\n

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For now, Mahomes’ focus is on his recovery<\/a>. He said in the same press conference that he and the Chiefs have a plan in place when it comes to his rehab, and that his goal is to be ready for Week 1 of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Related: Taylor Swift Messages Are Pouring In for Chiefs TE Travis Kelce<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jan 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kansas City Chiefs failed to make the playoffs for the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[7,110,262,6,84,499,17397,500],"class_list":["post-681056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-playoffs","tag-football","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-patrick-mahomes","tag-star-quarterback","tag-travis-kelce"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115903138358874127","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}