Week 17 NFL Power Rankings Roundup: KC Chiefs Tumble After Bad Loss

A loss on Christmas certainly didn't help the optics for Kansas City as the regular season slowly comes to a close.

As the calendar slowly turns from December to January and 2023 flips to 2024, NFL playoff hopefuls are looking to peak at the right time and play their best football. The Kansas City Chiefs are one of those squads, although they haven't exactly figured things out in the late stages of the season.

A Christmas Day loss for Kansas City brought coal rather than presents, with Andy Reid's team dropping a game to the Las Vegas Raiders. The 20-14 defeat brought the Chiefs to 9-6 on the year and also ended their one-seed hopes in the process. While securing the AFC West is still very likely, the pressure is on for Kansas City to improve in time to close the season. 

With the previous week of games in the books and a new slate on the horizon, where do the Chiefs stand? Let's look at Week 17 NFL power rankings to see where some major outlets rank Kansas City among its peers in the AFC and NFC.

NFL.com: 9 (last week: 6)

The Chiefs drop more in the Week 17 NFL.com power rankings than in any other outlet appearing here. Going from sixth to ninth, the rankings cite Kansas City as a club that is playing like a "broken" one right now: 

This looks like a broken team in some ways. How else do you explain losing to an opponent whose quarterback had ZERO completions on 10 pass attempts after the first quarter? The defense did its job against the Raiders, but the offense flunked yet another test. Dropped passes, turnovers and ill-timed penalties have turned one of the league’s most dangerous offenses over the past five seasons into one of the league’s most mistake-prone and disappointing units. Patrick Mahomes is averaging 6.9 yards per attempt (fewer than Desmond Ridder) and has been forced to use his legs more often, just to get anything started offensively. The Chiefs have only provided a few truly explosive offensive performances the entire season, and those were back in September and October. It’s hard to imagine that magic suddenly reappearing just in time for the playoffs.

ESPN: 8 (last week: 7)

The theme of this week's ESPN power rankings is focusing on every team's best rookie thus far this season. That's an easy answer for the Chiefs, as second-round wide receiver Rashee Rice is turning into one of the better first-year players in the league:

Rice, a second-round draft pick, has dominated the Chiefs' wide receivers in terms of production. His 74 catches are more than twice the total for their next highest wideout. He is also second on the Chiefs in touchdowns with seven. The Chiefs have increasingly turned to Rice in big situations as the season has progressed. Rice is the easy choice here as none of their other rookies have had much of an impact. -- Adam Teicher

Bleacher Report: 7 (last week: 7)

The Bleacher Report weekly power ranking trio of Gary Davenport, Maurice Moton and Brent Sobleski isn't moving the Chiefs despite another questionable week. Davenport knows it's tough to count Patrick Mahomes and company completely out, but he isn't relying on this year's team to prove legitimate:

"Had the Denver Broncos not choked at home on Christmas Eve," Davenport said. "The AFC West could be realistically in play with two games to go. The Chiefs simply cannot generate offense down the field, and opponents know it. Mahomes melting down on the sidelines is becoming a regular occurrence. And the AFC's No. 1 seed is no longer a possibility. It would be folly to completely dismiss the Chiefs in the playoffs. But this team? You can mostly dismiss them, because they don't look like a threat to Baltimore or even Miami."

The Athletic: 9 (last week: 8)

The Athletic drops the Chiefs one spot in this week's power rankings. Patrick Mahomes is cited as the team MVP for 2023, which seems pretty obvious. The reigning MVP winner won't get it this year, although that doesn't mean he isn't easily the most important player on the Chiefs and perhaps in the NFL: 

Mahomes won’t win the league award this year for the same reason Michael Jordan didn’t win NBA MVP every year — it just gets too boring. It’s not because he doesn’t deserve it. Mahomes is dragging an offense with an aging (but still great, everybody stay out of the comments) Travis Kelce and only one reliable wide receiver into the playoffs, and no one wants to face him there. After Monday, he is fourth in the league with 3,938 yards.

Yahoo Sports: 8 (last week: 7)

Yahoo football/betting writer Frank Schwab opened his weekly power rankings by urging folks to discount the Chiefs at their own risk. He elaborates later on, saying their Christmas Day loss was "fluky" and something that doesn't necessarily indicate a bad team:

Again, it's worth putting into perspective: The Chiefs lost a one-score game in which they gave up two defensive touchdowns in seven seconds. That's fluky. You're going to hear a lot of overreaction this week about Kansas City, and some will be justified, but also don't buy into the notion they're not any good.

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