We've spent a lot of time talking about the impact Jeremy Maclin will have on Alex Smith's deep ball, how Jamaal Charles can help lead the Chiefs, the emergence of Travis Kelce and a top five KC Chiefs defense. But maybe all those things aren't quite as important to the Chiefs success as this one: injuries.
The Chiefs two years ago were a very, very healthy team and ended up winning 11 games. Last year the Chiefs were on the other end of the spectrum as one of the more banged up teams and they won just nine games.
This list of adjusted games lost by Football Outsiders (via Reddit) the last two years shows what I'm talking about. The Chiefs were second in injuries two years ago; last year they were 26th.
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We can say that it appears that injuries affect the Chiefs success. What's also interesting is that injuries don't seem to affect the success of some teams. The Colts, for example, have been one of the most injured teams the last two years yet they'e won 11 games each year. Then there are the Jets who haven't seen their healthy lead to any more success.
So injuries are important but they're not the only factor. Having a guy like Andrew Luck seems pretty important, too.