{"id":158473,"date":"2025-09-15T13:15:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T13:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/158473\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T13:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T13:15:08","slug":"patrick-mahomes-is-on-the-worst-losing-streak-of-his-nfl-career-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/158473\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Mahomes is on the worst losing streak of his NFL career. Here’s why."},"content":{"rendered":"

When the fourth quarter between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles began on Sunday evening, the trappings were in place for another Chiefs miracle.<\/p>\n

In 2024, in the regular season and playoffs, Patrick Mahomes led Kansas City on eight game-winning drives, six of which capped off a fourth-quarter comeback. <\/p>\n

On Sunday, the Chiefs were in the red zone trailing the Eagles by only three points when the final frame began. But four plays into the quarter, a Mahomes pass was dropped by Travis Kelce near the endzone and intercepted by Philadelphia\u2019s Andrew Mukuba, stalling any hopes of another magical finish.<\/p>\n

The Eagles scored a touchdown on their following drive, and the 10-point deficit proved to be too much for Kansas City to overcome. The Chiefs fell to 0-2 in a 20-17 loss. <\/p>\n

Kansas City\u2019s 0-2 start is the team\u2019s first since 2014, which means it\u2019s also the first 0-2 start of Mahomes\u2019s career. Dating back to the Super Bowl in February,<\/a> Mahomes has now lost three straight games for the first time in his career \u2014 and the construction of the Chiefs\u2019 roster seems to be the most obvious culprit. <\/p>\n

\"PatrickPatrick Mahomes on Sunday as the Chiefs fell to 0-2.Jamie Squire \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

In 2022, Kansas City averaged 29.2 points per game, the best in the NFL. In the last two seasons, however, the Chiefs have averaged 22.6 and 21.8 points per game, 15th-best in the league in both 2023 and 2024, respectively. <\/p>\n

Over that time, Kansas City has significantly reduced its investment in its skill positions, while shelling out money for less-than-stellar play elsewhere. <\/p>\n

The Chiefs are spending a little under $17 million on their receiver room this season, per Over The Cap<\/a>, the sixth-lowest figure in the league. They\u2019re spending $6.4 million on their running backs, which is also the sixth-lowest mark.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kansas City is spending big money at tight end ($27.6 million, first in the NFL) and offensive line ($72.2 million, second in the NFL), but the returns from those groups have been inconsistent at best.<\/p>\n

\"TravisTravis Kelce on Sunday in Kansas City.Jamie Squire \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kelce is the third-highest-paid tight end in the league this season, per Spotrac<\/a>, but his production has been lacking since the start of last year. <\/p>\n

In 2024, Kelce finished with the fewest yards, yards per reception and touchdown totals of his career. <\/p>\n

Kelce finished the game with four catches for 61 yards. He didn\u2019t speak to reporters after the loss, though his teammates deflected some of the blame for his key mistake. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe got the defense that we wanted. I threw it just a tad too early,\u201d Mahomes said of his fourth-quarter interception.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf I can put it more on his body and not so far out in front, then [Kelce] can catch it and take the hit and get in the end zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll take full responsibility for that game,\u201d head coach Andy Reid said. \u201cI probably stayed too aggressive. That\u2019s my responsibility. It\u2019s important against that crew that you stay aggressive. I could\u2019ve probably dialed up some different things there. Against them, you\u2019ve got to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The offensive line, meanwhile, hasn\u2019t fully gelled after a makeover following the Super Bowl blowout at the hands of the Eagles. <\/p>\n

Mahomes has been sacked twice in each of the first two games, and the running game has been stagnant outside of quarterback scrambles. Mahomes is the team\u2019s leading rusher through two games, while all the running backs combined haven\u2019t broken 100 yards.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like the Chiefs haven\u2019t tried to build around Mahomes. They still have one of the most expensive offensive rosters in the NFL. And they\u2019ve invested draft capital on that side of the ball, using their first rounder on offense in each of the last two seasons. (It\u2019s also worth noting that receiver Rashee Rice missed most of last year and is suspended through Week 6 of this season.)<\/p>\n

But ultimately Kansas City\u2019s major investments haven\u2019t paid dividends. The margins for success have become very thin. And the result is, even with one of the best quarterbacks of all time \u2014 a guy who once threw 50 touchdowns in a single season \u2014 a middling offense that\u2019s over-reliant on Mahomes and averaging 19 points per game through two weeks.<\/p>\n

Even if that so-so offense with a sprinkle of Mahomes magic has been good enough for two Super Bowl appearances and a championship the last two seasons, this year, it\u2019s caused the Chiefs their worst start in over a decade. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t how we wanted to start,\u201d Mahomes said Sunday. \u201cBut how are we going to respond? I\u2019m excited for the next few weeks to see who wants to be challenged and how we can get back and really get after it.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI know it sucks to hear for the fans, but I feel like we\u2019re close. All we can do is continue to work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the fourth quarter between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles began on Sunday evening, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-158473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}