For the Kansas City Chiefs, this is normally a celebratory time of year. The Chiefs are typically in the playoffs, and All-Pro rosters are being announced, which means there are multiple Kansas City players being named to both the first- and second-team roster.
Not this year, however. This year the Chiefs got skipped over big time, and names like quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce are missing in action on this year’s roster.
Only one Kansas City Chiefs made the All-Pro roster, and that was center Creed Humphrey, according to Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk, with the announcement reported by multiple other outlets. He made the first team roster, and given the way the Chiefs offense line played, it’s a miracle he was able to make the roster at all. It’s a tribute to Humphrey’s reputation, not to mention his ability to help hold the line together for the first half of the season.
It’s Mahomes’ omission that hurt the most, of course. He kept the Chiefs in a lot of games and covered plenty of warts, just like he always does. It didn’t become obvious just how many warts the quarterback was covering until he went down for good with a serious knee injury, at which point the Chiefs commenced to lose six games in a row.
Kelce’s omission hurt almost as much. He’s not what he used to be, and both the tight and the rest of the world knows it. But Kelce played heroically at times, and he’s part of the Chiefs championship fabric, for those who believe in such things. If he does decide to retire, he’ll be badly missed.
Another painful omission is defensive tackle Chris Jones, but he definitely earned his absence. Jones was expected to put up double-digit sack totals again now that he has a big contract, or at least play well enough for other Chiefs to step up in the pass rush as well.
But none of that ever happened. Instead the Kansas City pass rush vanished down the stretch, and resurrecting it will be a huge item on the to-do list of GM Brett Veach.
The players who get hurt the most by this, though, are younger ones like Trent McDuffie, who got his honors in part because of the overall excellent play of the Kansas City defense last year. Some of his teammates like Jaylon Watson probably played as well as McDuffie did last year or close to it, but no honors were coming their way.
Then there’s the money part of it. A lot of Chiefs had contract clauses rewarding them for making the All-Pro roster, and now that money’s in the wind. It will be up to Veach and coach Andy Reid to see if they can bring it back to Kansas City with a rebound year.