Ranking the Chiefs seasons 2001-2017

I'm picking 2001 as it coincides with the year I went to college and the beginning of the Vermeil era.

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17. 2012

Romeo Crennel. Worst team in the league, 2-14. Fans formed the Save Our Chiefs organization, flying banners over the stadium demanding the firing of the GM. And a player committed murder and then killed himself on Arrowhead ground in front of the GM and Coach. No jokes to be made, just the low point of the franchise.

16. 2008

Brodie Croyle was the starting quarterback. He would finish his career 0-10 as a NFL QB.

15. 2007

Coming off a playoff berth, the Chiefs started 4-3 before losing their last 9 games. Damon Huard and Brodie Croyle battled for the quarterback position. Yikes. I saw them lose in person to the Jaguars.

14. 2001

This was a mediocre season that I barely remember. We weren't watching a ton of NFL that first year in the dorms. They finished 6-10 in Vermeil's first season.

13. 2009

They sucked this year finishing 4-12, but did beat the Steelers in overtime on my birthday, which is a better present than most people get. And they blew out the Broncos, knocking them out of playoff contention in week 17. They at least had the decency to suck from the beginning.

12. 2011 

The Chiefs sucked this year too. They finished 7-9 but never felt good. The only highlight was being the only team in the regular season to beat the 15-1 Packers.

11. 2002 

The Chiefs finished 8-8 in last place in the AFC West, but it did have two memorable things: In week 1, Dwayne Rudd on the Browns threw his helmet off in celebration which enabled Morten Anderson to win the game for the Chiefs. The second was the Raiders getting blown out in the Super Bowl.

10. 2006

This year started terribly with Trent Green going down in week 1 (and me burning my burgers filling my apartment with smoke). The highlight of the season was having everything happen exactly right in week 17 to get them into the playoffs.

9. 2004

The season opener featured the left-handed interception by Plummer on MNF. That was a Chiefs loss to the Broncos. Got to see Dante Hall score a return touchdown in the first game that I took Mrs. Hoagie Central to. That was a Chiefs loss to the Chargers. So some decent moments in a frustrating 7-9 season.

8. 2014

This is so far the low point of the Andy Reid era and it was still pretty good. They crushed the Patriots on Monday Night Football and then beat the Seahawks—the two eventual Super Bowl teams. Mrs. Hoagie Central and I flew into KC to see the Chiefs blow out the Rams. And no playoff heartbreak. This is the first good season on the list.

7. 2005

This was my first year in Chicago and this season was actually pretty great. Started with a domination of the Jets in the season opener, a week 6 win over Washington I watched in a Lakeview bar, an incredible win over the Raiders (that at the time I called the greatest game ever played) and a December win over the Broncos on a 4th down stand. I even got to see a blowout win in person, Vermeil's last game. Didn't even have to suffer through a playoff loss.

6. 2010

This was the only season between 2003 and 2016 where the Chiefs won the division. It started on MNF with me doing a rain dance in Burnsy's apartment on Milwaukee. There was an incredible back and forth OT win over the Bills. And we saw them beat the Cardinals at Arrowhead on an incredible birthday weekend. They didn't have a shot in the playoff game but at least it wasn't a choke job.

5. 2017

Last year had quite the ups and downs. Started the year with an incredible win on the NFL Season Opener in Foxboro. Then beat the eventual champs, Eagles. Got to 5-0. And then the wheels came off. Lost to the Giants, Bills and Jets, all three terrible teams in consecutive weeks. I went to two home games, first time seeing the Chiefs beat the Broncos and also the Bills loss. The Chiefs were up 21-3 in the playoffs over the Titans. Great! Mariota came back by converting a deflected pass into a touchdown.

4. 2013

You have to read the 2012 entry at the top of the list to understand the turnaround. The Chiefs bring in John Dorsey, Andy Reid and Alex Smith. They went from having the #1 pick in April to having the #1 record in the NFL in October. They were 9-0 and a legit Super Bowl contender in November. That kind of storybook turnaround is still incredible. Unfortunately, starting 9-0 isn't good enough to win the division. The Broncos beat the Chiefs twice and finished 13-3, Chiefs 11-5. The Chiefs were even up 38-10 in the playoffs in Andy Reid's first year of the Chiefs. Great! Luck came back by converting a running back fumble into a touchdown. The only thing that saved the season was living in Denver and watching the Broncos get blown out in the Super Bowl.

3. 2016

The Comeback Chiefs. Most teams are lucky to get one comeback a year. This season they had 4 incredible comebacks. Down 17-0 against the Panthers, the Marcus Peters strip and punt game. The Eric Berry Pick-2 game in Atlanta. The biggest comeback in Chiefs history, in the opener over the Chargers. And the best game I've seen to date. If I could watch only one game over and over, this is it. Mile High Magic. And then I moved to Kansas City and went to Arctic Arrowhead for the Ty-reek game to win the division. It didn't have a 9-0 start or a playoff win, but this season was the most entertaining and enjoyable as it was happening.

2. 2003

This was the season that rekindled my love for the Chiefs. 2003 was our first year out of the dorms AND the first year we did any kind of fantasy football, so the NFL became a huge part of our lives. And this was the year that Dante Hall broke out and became the most exciting player in the league. Hall's return TD's were the game winners over the Ravens and Broncos. In week 6, the Chiefs were down 31-14 in the 4th quarter to Favre's Packers in Lambeau...and would come back to win 40-34 in OT. Priest Holmes, Tony Gonzalez, the best O-Line. A very special offense. They went 13-3 and earned the #2 seed and a bye. I remember praying at Thanksgiving for the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl. They lost to Manning in the no-punt playoff game and I was devastated. What a formative year.

1. 2015

What a fucking ride. Chiefs opened the season with a solid win over the Texans and had me thinking Super Bowl. And then in the most important game...catastrophe. Charles fumbles away the game to the Broncos. Chiefs spiral to 1-5. I called them brutal. I called their season over. Then they go and win 10 regular season games in a row, including finally beating Manning's Broncos. But it's the playoff win that puts this over the top. Because without this streak, this season, this playoff win, the Chiefs would be 0-9 in the playoffs since 1994 and the insane 2017 Titans playoffs loss would sting a lot more. So yeah, I'm pretty glad they went on that streak. (This season is also marred by the Broncos winning the Super Bowl, but a Chiefs playoff win is still a Chiefs playoff win.)


I supposed the take away here is that hiring Andy Reid was the best thing that ever happened to the Chiefs. And that the Chiefs have given me a lot of joy...even in losing seasons, there are plenty of memorable moments to enjoy.