The following is an excerpt from Warren Sharp's 2025 Football Preview book. In addition to Warren's deep, detailed write-up on all 32 NFL teams, each chapter features page after page of full-color charts, stats, and heatmaps as well as penalty analysis from Joe Gibbs. Click here for a full FREE chapter from the 2025 Football Preview.
Penalties are an under-discussed aspect of NFL success and failure. Average teams can become playoff contenders with good discipline, and good teams can become great simply by winning the penalty battle.
Let's look at how the Kansas City Chiefs performed from a penalty perspective in 2024 and where they can improve in 2025.
How Did Penalties Impact the Kansas City Chiefs?
The Good
- The Chiefs ended the 2024 season ranking 28th in penalties per game. They performed even better at home, ranking 30th in per game average.
- The Chiefs ranked 29th in pre-snap penalties per game. These infractions accounted for 30% of the team's overall penalties, below the league average of 38.5% in this category.
- The Chiefs offense was a top 10 beneficiary of automatic first downs via penalties.
- There was a clear advantage for the Chiefs when playing at home in a variety of key penalty categories. These include defensive holding and defensive pass interference, roughing the passer, and unnecessary roughness. The Chiefs benefited at home at a higher rate than the overall league average in these important categories.
The Bad
- Offensive holding accounted for 31% of the Chiefs' penalties, significantly higher than the NFL average of 19.8% in this category.
- The Kansas City offensive line accounted for a disproportionate 45% of the team's penalties, with the bulk coming via the aforementioned offensive holding.
Grade: A
The Chiefs feel as vulnerable as at any time in the Patrick Mahomes era, with division rivals Chargers and Broncos both on the upswing.
Heading into 2025, there are some metrics that could derail the Chiefs if history is any indication. They won 11 one-score games in 2024, a historic feat that is a prime candidate for regression.
Additionally, Super Bowl losers traditionally struggle the following season. Those two factors loom large for Kansas City heading into the 2025 season.
Offsetting some historical negatives, the Chiefs benefit from nine home games in addition to one neutral site contest. That's a major positive for a team with one of the best home field advantages in football.
Chiefs rookie offensive lineman Josh Simmons is a high risk, high reward player after suffering a serious knee injury in college.
The Chiefs are banking on Simmons paying immediate dividends for a team in desperate need of stability along the offensive line.
Kansas City might be wounded after their Super Bowl loss, but in the end, it boils down to whether you believe a divisional rival can rise and take the crown away from them.
Until we see this occur, the Chiefs are and will continue to be the team to beat in the AFC West.
This analysis continues in the 2025 Football Preview
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