8. Kansas City Chiefs (5-4)
Chiefs are on their bye in Week 10
The Kansas City Chiefs are an interesting team. A loss in Week 9 against the Buffalo Bills kind of stalled out what was a bit of a resurgence. The team had started 0-2 and then proceeded to go 5-1 over their next six games, so many had figured they’d take care of Buffalo, who has not looked great this year.
Now flirting with a .500 record more than halfway into the season, the Chiefs have to get serious. They play the 8-2 Denver Broncos in Week 11, a team riding a seven-game win streak. Denver also has not lost at home in over a calendar year, so that’s a giant mountain KC will have to climb.
And if the Chiefs lose that game, it would be hard to envision the 5-5 Chiefs, already being down one game to the Broncos, making up ground on a 9-2 team with seven games to play. It’s not an exaggeration to say that this Week 11 game could be their most important of the season.
The Chiefs have a flawed roster and are all of a sudden not winning the one-score games they did in the 2024 season. Talent-wise, this group is nothing special, and it’s really no shock they’re 5-4.
But, at the end of the day, the Chiefs still have Patrick Mahomes, and he’s good for some magic here and there.
7. Detroit Lions (6-3)
The Detroit Lions were expected to win this game, and they did. The Lions actually seemed to make a major change, as Dan Campbell was calling the plays in this one, not offensive coordinator John Morton, who they hired to replace the departed Ben Johnson this past offseason.
And it’s no surprise that the Lions had one of their best offensive outputs of the Campbell era. Morton was clearly not getting the job done, so Campbell saw that and made the change. It would shock me if “Motor City Dan” didn’t continue calling the plays for the rest of the season, but I really do not think he wants to for the long-term.
The Lions improve to 6-3 on the season and hang with the Chicago Bears in the NFC North, which is not something I expected to be saying here in 2025. The Lions should be able to pull away here, as they’ve got the best roster in the division and the best QB as well.
Detroit has flirted with a Super Bowl berth these past couple of seasons and might have another realistic shot at it in 2025, but the health of this team is a huge factor here, as they were super banged up in 2024 and are pretty injured here in 2025.