Chiefs’ $301m ‘master plan’ revealed and Patrick Mahomes can pass Tom Brady with career reset

Patrick Mahomes missed the playoffs for the first time in his NFL career.

Don’t expect a repeat performance in 2026.

Getty

How will Chiefs answer Mahomes’ worst year?

While the Denver Broncos are the reigning AFC West champions and the Los Angeles Chargers are coming off a second consecutive postseason appearance under head coach Jim Harbaugh, the Kansas City Chiefs are set to make big moves this offseason.

Trading All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie to the LA Rams for a collection of draft picks is just the start of Kansas City’s ‘master plan,’ according to NFL Network analyst Marc Ross.

“Yeah, for sure,” Ross exclusively told talkSPORT.

“For the whole Chiefs organization — I know most of the staff or worked with almost all the staff — the coaching staff there and talking to them at the (NFL Draft) combine, it’s almost as if they needed that reset.

“People don’t realize, all those years of going to the Super Bowl and playing so many games, they played another extra season in the past (eight) amount of years and that wears on you.”

Mahomes is coming off a major knee injury, while veteran tight end Travis Kelce hasn’t announced yet whether he is retiring or returning for the 2026 campaign.

Even without Kelce, the Chiefs have a bright north star in Mahomes and will continue to build around a six-time Pro Bowl quarterback who’s not one of the top-10 paid signal callers in the league.

That salary-cap space — the Chiefs had $24 million available on Friday, while the 2026 NFL cap was set at $301m — should allow Kansas City general manager Brett Veach to improve the team’s roster this offseason via free agency, trades and the draft.

Kansas City has cap room and big plans

The Broncos will only enjoy a one-year run at the top of the West if the Chiefs return to form starting in September.

“As long as you have Patrick Mahomes, you can do that,” Ross said.

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“Some of these teams are scrambling for a quarterback and you have this, ‘Well, no. That plan doesn’t work.’

“But as long as you have that guy (Mahomes), that’s the center of the universe. ‘OK, now we build around him. All right.’ As long as Brett Veach and the staff does a great job of replenishing that talent, then you can get back.”

Kansas City has won three Super Bowls with a star trio of head coach Andy Reid, Mahomes and Kelce, while the Chiefs have been to the big game five times during the last eight seasons.

Entering the 2025 campaign, Kansas City had created the NFL’s first dynasty since Tom Brady and Bill Belichick dominated the league for two decades with the New England Patriots.

If Kelce retires, Chiefs still have hope

The Chiefs went 6-11 last year, though, while Mahomes suffered an ACL injury in Week 15 that led to six consecutive defeats to close out the year.

“Nobody wants a season like this,” said Reid, following a 14-12 season-ending road defeat to the Las Vegas Raiders.

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“But they’re obstacles. They come into play and you’ve got to work through those. There’s a learning curve here that you can set with some of the experiences we had for all of us and then never do it again, right?”

Ross believes that one issue affecting the Chiefs in 2025 was being forced to repeat top-level success in a relentless league, year after year.

“You go, ‘OK, let’s just run it back. Run it back because it’s working,’ ” said Ross, the former New York Giants vice president of player evaluation and director of college scouting.

“But now you almost have to take a step back and say, ‘All right, let’s refresh, let’s regroup. Let’s get a new group of guys in here and see how we can take this to another level and get back to where we were.’ ”

It’s on Reid and KC GM to get Mahomes back

Kelce can’t play forever but doubting Mahomes is foolish.

It’s on Reid and Veach to give famous No. 15 a full complement of weapons in 2026.

“They had some hit or misses the last couple of years,” Ross said.

“But now they’re really going forward. ‘All right, how do we strategically put these pieces in place around Patrick, so that we can go get this Super Bowl again?’ “

The Chiefs’ new master plan is starting to unfold in March.

If Kansas City returns to the Super Bowl in Los Angeles in February, a year’s worth of work will have begun by trading McDuffie and resetting the roster to spur Mahomes’ 2026 resurgence.

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