What’s Wright - Best Of: Nick Wright's CHIEFS ROLLERCOASTER season week-by-week reaction | NFL

Best of the week on What’s Right with Nick Wright. Quick hits, big swings, and I’m starting with the yearly no‑brainer: Kansas City over 11 and a half wins, and the Super Bowl exacta is back.

Exacta time: Kansas City versus Tampa Bay at roughly fifty five to one, with a longer shot on Kansas City to beat Tampa Bay.

Bonus theater if it happens: Mahomes and Baker revisiting their wild college shootout where both put up video‑game numbers.

Through two weeks I wasn’t panicking, but I was honest: the run game looked toothless, protection felt uneasy to Patrick, and he was tapping into playoff scramble mode way too early, which I hate for both health and strategic reasons.

Travis had a rough start, the pass rush needed blitz help, and they didn’t deserve Super Bowl favorite status, though I still saw value to win the division; the spark moment was Patrick chasing down a near scoop‑and‑score against the Giants and flipping that game’s energy.

After the Giants and then your win over my Ravens, did the Chiefs rewrite the o and two story?

They steadied it and looked like themselves once the receivers were functional, even if the run room and four‑man rush still needed work; the league around them wasn’t scaring me, and the media fatalism was laughable.

Then Trevor Lawrence took one on his birthday. Do you want to hit your prince’s big day or the Chiefs’ collapse?

That loss stung because Kansas City almost never blows a two‑score lead while winning the turnover battle, yet they beat themselves; soon after, they flipped the narrative on national TV, the market reset them as favorites, and the ref‑conspiracy noise was silly, even in that paid‑to‑read study.

Quick notes from the next win: Patrick made one bad decision and one tipped‑to‑a‑pick, Travis had a bobble, and it still didn’t matter because the offense hummed and the defense allowed seven points across two weeks heading into a Bills‑Broncos‑Colts gauntlet that would shape seeding.

Buffalo beat you before the bye and took a victory lap. How did that sit?

Credit to the Bills: the defense smothered, Josh was excellent, Patrick was off, and McDermott’s late field goal was still wild; none of it changed how I view a playoff rematch, and I’d still lean Chiefs for the division.

At six and six with bad tiebreakers, how worried were you?

The only sure path was winning out, and it was hard to trust because the defense kept failing on third and long; one win could cascade, but they were a win away from being a win away.

Denver was a gut punch: missed Worthy for a walk‑in, a costly alignment penalty erased first‑and‑goal, two fourth‑quarter three‑and‑outs, and the defense surrendered third‑and‑forever conversions while Bo Nix outplayed Patrick that day.

Then came the save‑the‑season effort: down eleven in the fourth to the Colts, the defense squeezed them to thirteen non‑short‑field points, forced four straight three‑and‑outs, and the offense did just enough to keep hope alive heading into a tight stretch.

After the Houston loss, the cold, the drops, and the limping, was there any path left?

It was razor thin: sweep Chargers, Titans, Broncos, Raiders and get help from the Chargers stumbling; lose once and it was lights out.

And then the bottom fell out: eliminated after the Chargers game, and Patrick tore the ACL and LCL. Chapter closed.

This is pro football’s cruelty; Brady, Manning, Rodgers, Lamar, Burrow have lived it, and now it’s Patrick’s turn, which doesn’t erase a seven‑year run that stacks up with any dynasty window in league history.

They weren’t good enough this season anyway—no run game, shaky pass rush, receivers stalled, protection issues—so the task is rebuilding the edges while Patrick attacks rehab; I’d bet on him back for Week One and coming out sharper from the pocket.