The Kansas City Chiefs have won three Super Bowls Since 2018 to go along with a .757 winning percentage. Of course, the Chiefs' rise to prominence has largely coincided with the arrival of Patrick Mahomes, who parlayed a dynamic rookie season into one of the most breathtaking careers in NFL history at the age of 28.
It is very rare for the NFL to experience a half-decade of sustained excellence from one team. The only other franchise in recent memory to have a run this impressive that went on for this long was the New England Patriots, led by Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. So, as the Chiefs party on and celebrate their second Super Bowl championship in as many years, the question looms: Are we witnessing a dynasty in Kansas City? Let’s take a closer look at why Clark Hunt’s organization deserves to be recognized for the dynasty that it is.
The Chiefs have enjoyed sustained success for more than half a decade
Since Mahomes took over the reins from Alex Smith as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback, he has compiled an incredible record of 74 wins and just 22 losses. Mahomes has led the Chiefs to six AFC Championship games and four Super Bowls. During this time, the Chiefs have collected three Super Bowl rings.
This is a sustained sample size of outright dominance over the rest of the league. “The road to the Super Bowl runs through Kansas City” has become a common refrain around the league. Even when the AFC Championship game was hosted somewhere other than Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs almost always found themselves right in the middle of the competition.
The Chiefs have never looked out of place among the league’s best teams, and they have never looked like an uncompetitive team since Mahomes took over as the starter.
The Chiefs became the first team in 20 years to win back-to-back Super Bowls
With Mahomes’ walk-off touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman, the Chiefs won Super Bowl 58 and walked into the history books.
No team has successfully won back-to-back Super Bowls in the NFL in the past 20 years. The last team to do what the Chiefs just accomplished was also the last dynasty in the NFL: The New England Patriots led by Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Perhaps this is not a coincidence.
The Chiefs are in a strong position to potentially pull off a three-peat, a feat that has never been accomplished in the NFL. If Mahomes leads his team to a third consecutive championship, the entire football world will have to admit they are witnessing a dynasty.
The Chiefs have won with multiple iterations of the roster
Players come and go in the modern NFL. One of the hallmarks of a true dynasty is a team that can win with multiple iterations of its roster. Sure, the Chiefs have Mahomes on the field and Andy Reid on the sidelines. But it’s entirely okay to have one or two core components of a dynasty that do not change over time. After all, the New England Patriots had Brady and Belichick as consistent contributors and that organization was still considered a dynasty.
First, the Chiefs won with a superstar wide receiver in Tyreek Hill. After Hill left the organization, there were concerns from analysts and fans alike as to how the team would perform without a superstar wide receiver. Could Mahomes continue to make magic happen without Hill’s game-breaking speed? Would Reid’s system even work without a player such as Hill? Mahomes and Reid answered these questions with a resounding “Yes” by becoming the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls since the New England dynasty.
Players on the offensive line have come and gone. There have been several different players to take the role of lead running back during the Mahomes era. By proving that the team can win with a rotating cast of key contributors, Mahomes and Reid have cemented their legacy as a dynasty in Kansas City.
We have gotten to a point in the NFL where it has become almost expected that the Chiefs will win. No matter how far behind they fall, how poorly they play or how bleak things look at certain times, fans and analysts alike know that as long as Mahomes is under center for Kansas City and Reid is on the sideline, the Chiefs can never be counted out.
Other teams with potentially budding dynasties come and go. Take the Eagles for example. They won the Super Bowl in recent memory and came very close against this Chiefs team last year. However, when the Eagles faltered late in the 2023–2024 season, many people were not surprised when they ultimately collapsed in the playoffs. Now, take the Chiefs. Despite their regular season ups and downs, very few fans or analysts counted them out.
This is one of the other core elements of a dynasty: A team that not only believes in itself, but has gained the benefit of the doubt from the majority of the football world. You know a team is a dynasty when they could always be expected to win no matter how bad things are looking in the present moment. The Patriots reached that status. Kansas City has now reached that status, and with it, has proven itself to be a dynasty.
Dynasties are rare in the NFL
Due to a number of factors, it is rare for a team to reach dynasty status in the NFL. The typical career length for players is significantly shorter than all other major sports and injuries that can easily derail a season are more frequent than in most other sports. Additionally, the hard cap built into the salary system puts financial constraints on teams and free agency allows players to pick their destinations.
It is very rare for a team to find a player such as Brady or Mahomes who can excel with any group of players around him. It is even more rare for the organization to be able to optimize their resources in order to achieve a sustained period of winning. Even if that team wins 13 or 14 games every season, there is still immense luck involved in winning a Super Bowl, and it can often come down to something as simple as the ball bouncing the wrong way. Football is a game of inches, and it is very easy for even the best teams to come up short. Dynasties aren't just winning regular season games, you need to win multiple Super Bowls to be considered a dynasty.
An aura of inevitability
The last factor that makes the Chiefs a dynasty is the aura of invincibility that now exists around their organization. No matter what the scenario, no matter how bleak the outlook or how long the odds are, the Chiefs are expected to find a way to get the job done and be victorious.
It was difficult to count the Patriots out, even when they were down 28-3 late in the Super Bowl to Atlanta. However, those who counted them out quickly remembered why it was unwise to do so, as the Patriots came storming back to win. It wasn't 28-3 this time around, but the momentum was decidedly in favor of the 49ers all game in Super Bowl 58. Yet, there always seemed to be a sense that the Chiefs would find a way to fight back and at least keep it competitive until the very end.
If anybody was willing to give up on the Chiefs, their performance in Super Bowl 58 should remind those fans and analysts why that is a bad decision.
After this performance, nobody should feel comfortable betting against Mahomes and Reid. Just like Brady and Belichick before them, that is one of the key signals indicating a dynasty has arrived.
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