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There’s still half of the 2024 NFL regular season to go. But attention is quickly rising around the notion of the two-time defending champion Chiefs running the table with an undefeated season, potentially putting an emphatic exclamation point on Kansas City’s bid to have the league’s first three-peat of the Super Bowl era.
The 8–0 Chiefs have not lost since Christmas Day last year, are the NFL’s last team this season without a loss, and are currently favored in all but one of their remaining nine games—a Nov. 17 road contest at the 7–2 Bills. But the bid to become the NFL’s first undefeated team since the 1972 Dolphins is already drawing notice from the likes of The New York Times, USA Today, and ProFootballTalk, and is becoming a dominant storyline of this season.
Only two of the Chiefs’ eight wins to date, however, have been by more than one touchdown, and numerous injuries have beset the team. The average margin of victory of seven points is also an NFL-record low for a team that has won its first eight games. But the victories for Kansas City keep coming.
“You can only give them so many chances,” Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield said after a 30–24 overtime loss to the Chiefs on Monday Night Football.
On one level, the Chiefs’ ongoing dominance is a result of their aggressive offseason spending, which included giving position-specific salary records to players such as kicker Harrison Butker and center Creed Humphrey. Team management, led by owner Clark Hunt, has prioritized using nearly all available salary-cap room in pursuit of continued winning, and the team’s remaining space of $2.9 million is the third-smallest figure in the league.
The team’s success, with 14 consecutive wins and counting extending to last season, is also a likely boost to ongoing stadium deliberations involving potential sites in both Missouri and Kansas.
Riding the Wave
The Chiefs’ quest for perfection is also likely to be a sizable aid to the NFL’s broadcast partners. The team was already a prime factor in the 2024 league schedule, and it will be a featured part of Netflix’s highly anticipated entry into NFL game broadcasts.
After overtaking the Cowboys as the league’s top viewership draw, the Chiefs on Sunday will play their first 1 p.m. ET game of the season after starting with four prime-time games and four more in the 4 p.m. window.
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