Dan Orlovsky: Chiefs Are a Bad Football Team Right Now

The Kansas City Chiefs are under .500 in what certainly qualifies as the biggest surprise of the young 2021 season. Patrick Mahomes and Co. fell to 2-3 after a 38-20 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday Night Football. We've become so accustomed to the easy excellence of Andy Reid's squad that it is stunning to see them struggle like they have so far.

And the problems are almost too many to count. The defense is terrible both in the pass and run game. The Chiefs spent a small fortune in cash and draft picks to revamp their offensive line yet can't run the ball worth a lick. Mahomes has thrown six picks in five games after throwing six all season and has made more head-scratching decisions than we've seen him make in his first three seasons combined. There's still a lot of season left and betting on the Reid/Mahomes combo to figure it out has paid immense dividends lately, but this is the worst stretch of games KC has played since Alex Smith was still out there.

Dan Orlovsky and the Get Up crew took the struggling team to task this morning, and Orlovsky just went out and said it: the Chiefs are a bad team right now.

It is hard to disagree after last night's game. There was mistake after mistake after mistake coming from the Kansas City sideline, in their own house, against the strongest contender to their AFC title. It was a big game they didn't show up for, which is setting off alarm bells because we've all grown used to the shows Mahomes normally puts on under that kind of spotlight.

There is, of course, plenty of season left to play, and a Mahomes-led team will be fine at worst. The Chiefs would rather stumble now than late in the year near playoff time. To compare powerhouses, there were countless seasons in which Tom Brady's Patriots looked like they were finally falling off only to put their foot on the gas in November and suddenly find themselves in the Super Bowl again. Kansas City is entirely capable of doing the same.

But flipping the switch isn't easy, and so far, the Chiefs' play has been concerning enough to wonder if they have the capability to do that.