By Since Patrick Mahomes took over as the franchise’s full-time starting quarterback in 2018, the Kansas City Chiefs have established themselves as the premier club in the NFL. So much so, in fact, that their Super Bowl LVIII win over the San Francisco 49ers cemented them as a modern football dynasty.
Where does that dynasty stack up to others in league history? While Kansas City has a chance to keep adding to its championship total, its accomplishments dating back half a decade put it in relatively rarefied air already.
In a recent list for CBS Sports, Bryan DeArdo ranked the NFL’s greatest dynasties of the past six decades. Runs from the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers occupied the respective top four spots. The Chiefs, though, edged out the Dallas Cowboys for the No. 5 slot on DeArdo’s list. He cites an additional Super Bowl appearance and the emergence of Mahomes as reasons for that ranking.
“Like the Patriots before them, the Chiefs have proven that you can still build dynasties in the salary cap/free agency era,” DeArdo wrote. “Kansas City’s consistent level of excellence allowed them this past season to become the first team in 19 years to successfully defend its title. Kansas City may not have as many stars as other teams on this list, but it has an all-time great at QB, TE and head coach.
“Like the Patriots before them, the Chiefs have proven that you can still build dynasties in the salary cap/free agency era. Kansas City’s consistent level of excellence allowed them this past season to become the first team in 19 years to successfully defend its title. Kansas City may not have as many stars as other teams on this list, but it has an all-time great at QB, TE and head coach.”
Putting the Chiefs’ recent accomplishments into perspective, the team has done no worse than making it to overtime of the AFC Championship Game since the 2018-19 campaign. From 2019 on, Andy Reid’s squad has participated in four Super Bowls and won three of them. That includes consecutive triumphs over the Philadelphia Eagles and the aforementioned 49ers – both thrilling come-from-behind wins on the biggest stage.
Earlier this offseason, Zack Eisen of Arrowhead Report on SI.com helped contextualize the modern-day Chiefs dynasty. He, like DeArdo, concluded that Mahomes and Co. are worthy of being ranked ahead of Dallas.
“The ’90s Cowboys are fascinating to look at,” Eisen wrote. “The years between their first and third Super Bowl was only four and, unlike the 2000s Patriots, they didn’t miss the playoffs the year they didn’t win the Super Bowl. They made the conference championship game that season. Dallas also won back-to-back Super Bowl championships during their run. So they have the best four-year run in modern NFL history, but adding that fifth year gives the Chiefs an argument. The Cowboys didn’t make the conference title game on either side of their four-year run, while the Chiefs made that game yearly.”
If Kansas City can accomplish a three-peat of titles next February, it will be the first NFL club to ever do so. Thanks to some savvy moves from general manager Brett Veach in recent months and years, the roster is good enough to do it. Now, it’s just a matter of the Chiefs seeing how far they can stretch this dynasty and how high they can soar among the all-time NFL organizations.
