Kansas City Chiefs: Are the NFL’s only unbeaten team serious Super Bowl contenders?

Kansas City Chiefs are the only unbeaten team left in the NFL through the first four weeks of the season.

Therefore, are we looking at potential Super Bowl contenders for Minnesota come February 4, perhaps even the beginnings of a new NFL dynasty?

Or is this just another false dawn? Should there be a note of caution to accompany their 4-0 start? We take a closer look at Kansas City’s early-season success…

Unbeaten burden?

The last time there was only one unbeaten team through the first four weeks of the season was in 2010, when the Chiefs were once again the only team with an untarnished schedule. Though that team went on to win the AFC West, they were one-and-done in the playoffs, slipping to a 30-7 Wild Card defeat to the Baltimore Ravens.

Further caution comes from looking at the teams to start with a 4-0 mark last season – the Denver Broncos and Minnesota Vikings – as neither made the playoffs. The Broncos ultimately slipped to 9-7, while the Vikings actually stretched out their unbeaten start to five games, only to then go 3-8 the rest of the year and also miss out on a postseason party.

Keep on running

The difference, perhaps, between those teams and this Chiefs outfit is the presence of their rookie running sensation Kareem Hunt, who has destroyed defences through his first four games in the NFL – averaging 7.4 yards a carry and notching six touchdowns, three of those being 50-yard plus scores in consecutive weeks to start the season.

"It’s hard to believe the success he’s had," said Sky Sports’ Shaun Gayle, on Hunt. "It’s hard to even fathom – a third-round draft choice that comes out of nowhere and he has just set the league on fire!"

Hunt follows in the footsteps of recent rookie running successes Todd Gurley and Ezekiel Elliott, although the difference is those two were first-round selections, while Hunt was the sixth RB chosen in the 2017 Draft.

Hunt’s 759 scrimmage yards is the most in a player’s first four career games since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, beating Detroit Lions’ Billy Sims’ 745 in 1980, while the 502 of those that have come on the ground is more than the Arizona Cardinals (228) and New York Giants (237) have combined for through four games.

Better than Gronk?

"I love Travis Kelce and I’ve said at least for the last couple of years I feel he is the best tight end in the NFL not named Rob Gronkowski." The sentiments of former NFL safety Solomon Wilcots, speaking to Sky Sports.

While Wilcots does not quite consider Kelce better than Gronk, given the New England Patriots’ tight end’s dominance at the position in recent years, for Kelce to even be in the conversation, and take second spot, is some achievement and shows the high esteem in which he is held.

Kelce is coming off the back of a career-high 1,125-yard year, and has started 2017 strongly, tallying 255 yards and two TDs through the first four games, including two 100-yard outings in Week Two and Four.

Where Wilcots feels Kelce falls down, though, is run-blocking, saying: "I just believe that Gronkowski is a more well-rounded tight end. We know that Kelce is not raising his hand when you say ‘who can run block?’"

But, coach Jeff Reinebold is not so sure, telling Sky Sports: "My two words about Kelce’s blocking are: Kareem Hunt. Check the statistics, the Chiefs run the football fine with Kelce in.

"Gronk will body you, he will use his physicality, but I think Kelce, for my money, is the best. Give me his athleticism. It’s an athlete’s game – he brings a dynamism to the tight end position."

Winning wideout

Incredibly, only three years ago Kansas City were in the midst of a 21-game streak without a wide receiver catching a single touchdown pass! That streak ran through the final three games of the 2013 season, all of 2014 – the first team to ever play a 16-game season minus a receiver TD – and the first two games of 2015.

The man to break that streak was Jeremy Maclin, who notched eight scores and a 1,000-yard year in his first after arriving from Philadelphia Eagles. But, the Chiefs were willing to part ways with their No 1 receiver after two years, shipping him off to Baltimore in the offseason. Why? Tyreek Hill.

Hill is ridiculously fast. He was a high school track and field sensation, missing out on Roy Martin’s 1985 national high school record in the 200 metres by only one hundredth of a second – a time that would have been good enough for him to qualify for the 2016 Olympics final – while he earned a 200m bronze in the 2012 World Junior Championships in Barcelona and a gold in the 4x100m relay.

Speedster Hill was a fifth-round pick-up for the Chiefs in the 2016 Draft, having reportedly ran a good-enough-for-second-quickest-of-all-time 4.24 40-yard dash at his pro day. He had 593 yards in his first year but has racked up almost half that mark already through only four games of 2017 as Kansas City’s offence becomes ever more expansive.

QB game management

The greatest beneficiary of this is Alex Smith. So often labelled as a ‘game manager’, a poorly disguised critique of a quarterback seemingly unwilling, or unable, to deliver a potent vertical passing attack.

But, with such a vast array of offensive weapons at his disposal, that certainly has not been the case through four games, Smith throwing for 1,067 yards and four touchdowns, with zero interceptions, including a monster 368-yard day against the New England Patriots to open the season, where he connected with Hunt and Hill for 75-yard+ scores.

The reason for such sudden, expansive play? Many believe it lies with the Chiefs investing their first-round draft pick (10th overall) on big-armed Texas Tech QB Patrick Mahomes II.

"Maybe it’s the threat of Mahomes," said Sky Sports’ Reynolds. "He would have been looking over his shoulder and he has maybe been scared into being more adventurous."

Whatever the reason, it’s working, and in the meantime Mahomes can benefit from more time learning the offence and sitting behind veteran Smith.

Head coach history

Andy Reid is quite rightly considered one of the great coaching minds of the game – his Week One beating of the Bill Belichick-led Patriots certainly acting as pretty conclusive evidence.

During his 12-year tenure with Philadelphia, he led the team to five NFC Championship games, including four in a row from 2001 to 2004, with one Super Bowl appearance in 2004. Despite that success, though, Reid was, and has continued to be, chastised for his inability to win in the postseason, with no Super Bowl ring to his name.

Reid’s playoff record is won 11 and lost 12, and he has done nothing to dispel those doubters while residing in Kansas City. He has led the team to just one playoff win in his four seasons with the team – a 30-0 Wild Card drubbing of an under-strength and Brian Hoyer-led Houston Texans the only success – to go with three defeats.

That brings us to…

Playoff performances

Last year was no different for the Chiefs. Despite a 12-4 record, good enough for the second seed in the AFC and home-field advantage in the Divisional Round, Kansas City went down 18-16 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. It is the eighth time the Chiefs have been one-and-done in the playoffs in their last nine appearances, with that Texans triumph two years ago the only exception.

In fact, to find their last playoff win before then you would have to go all the way back to 1993 when, led by four-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback great Joe Montana, the Chiefs beat the Steelers and the Houston Oilers on their way to the AFC Championship game, where they would ultimately lose to the Buffalo Bills.

The team’s last Super Bowl appearance, meanwhile, was way back when in the 1969 season, where they beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-7. Is that perhaps a good omen? The city of Minnesota hosts this year’s Super Bowl on February 4, and the 4-0 Kansas City are certainly making the right noises that this just could be their year.

Watch the Kansas City Chiefs @ Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football, live on Sky Sports Action (407) from 1.20am. But join us from 5.30pm for the two earlier games, Carolina Panthers @ Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers at Dallas Cowboys.

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(c) Sky News 2017: Kansas City Chiefs: Are the NFL’s only unbeaten team serious Super Bowl contenders?