Let’s Argue: “The Chiefs will lose the AFC West to the Raiders”

Welcome to this week’s edition of Let’s Argue!

Inspired by a video series created by music reviewer Anthony Fantano, Robert Rimpson’s weekly series takes a look at hot takes, unpopular opinions, wacky predictions and more from Kansas City Chiefs fans.

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“Sunday was a fluke — and the Chiefs are still going to win the Super Bowl”

While I don’t think Sunday was a “fluke” per se, I do agree with the sentiment of this take — that Chiefs fans who were excited about the team before the season started shouldn’t give up hope.

Super Bowl teams lose to mediocre teams in the regular season all the time — like when the New England Patriots lost to the Tennessee Titans last year or when the 2016 Atlanta Falcons lost to a Philadelphia Eagles team that finished 7-9.

Getting blown out during the regular season would be a reason for concern. Losing several games in a row before the playoffs would be worrisome. Losing your best player for the remainder of the season due to injury would be terrifying. But none of those things have happened to the Chiefs. They have had their share of issues that need to be fixed — but they are fixable, and there is still time to right the ship.

“The Oakland Raiders are winning the AFC West”

Hey — remember when I said the Chiefs still have time to get things right? Well, the margin for error could get very small — depending on how the Raiders play.

The Raiders are only a game and a half behind the Chiefs for the lead in the AFC West, and the remainder of their schedule is pretty soft. If the Chiefs drop a few more games and Oakland continues on their hot streak, there is a scenario where they could steal the West from the defending champions without ever defeating them.

While that may be scary to think about, I don’t think it’s actually going to happen.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, the Chiefs only win three more games this season. The Raiders still would have to win five of their remaining seven games to win the West without beating the Chiefs.

Raiders games against the Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, New York Jets and Jacksonville Jaguars could be chalked up as a win if you want to give Oakland the benefit of the doubt, but wins against the Chiefs, Titans and Los Angeles Chargers are not as easy to pencil in.

Kansas City is in control of whether or not the Raiders have a chance. In order to squash Oakland’s bid for the West, all the Chiefs have to do is beat the Raiders and win the majority of their remaining games. If you believe that Oakland is just an outright better team than the Chiefs, then I could see why you would be worried — but I am not.

“Chris Jones is the only difference-maker on defense — and the Chiefs would be undefeated with Kareem Hunt”

Make no mistake about it: Jones is the best pass rusher the Chiefs have — and possibly the best player on the defense — but I disagree that he’s the only guy that makes a difference.

Tyrann Mathieu has been making plays for the Chiefs secondary all season, and Emmanuel Ogbah led the team in sacks before he went down with a season-ending injury on Sunday.

And let’s not forget Jones missed a couple of games during the stretch in which many people thought the defense had improved. Jones deserves every compliment you can give a player of his caliber, but he isn’t the only guy that can make things happen on defense.

As for how the Chiefs would fare with Hunt... who knows? And who cares?

We could spend all day imagining scenarios where Hunt doesn’t do what he did and is still on the team. But it doesn’t matter. It happened. He’s gone.

Some have suggested the Chiefs could re-sign him once he becomes a free agent, but we should cross that bridge when we get there. For now, I think it would be better to focus on players who weren’t released by the team and then suspended for eight games.

“The Chiefs should move on from Dave Toub”

I remember a time not so long ago when Chiefs fans were scared to lose Dave Toub to other teams that wanted him as their head coach. Now — after one bad season — fans are ready to ship him away as soon as possible.

But seriously, special teams has been undisciplined this season — and Toub should take some of the blame for that. But Toub does have a proven track record of coaching extraordinary special teams units — and deserves the benefit of the doubt when we’re only 10 games into the season. As recently as last year, Football Outsiders ranked Chiefs special teams unit as second-best in the NFL. Going into Sunday, the Chiefs were ranked eighth in special teams DVOA.

If the undisciplined special teams play continues for the rest of the season, I believe it be would fair to put Toub on the hot seat. But until then, let’s not call for anyone’s job.

Speaking of which...

“It’s time to get rid of Andy Reid”

Well here’s the thing...

“He is making too many mistakes”

I see that you’re frustrated, but I think...

“He will always find a way to lose when it matters most”

OK, so people are frustrated with Andy Reid — and maybe for good reason. In Reid’s own words after Sunday’s game, it was his fault that the Chiefs blew their lead against the Titans.

But I — for one — am in no rush to fire one of the best offensive minds football has ever known. I listed some reasons not to fire Reid in a previous Let’s Argue, but I think it all really boils down to this: What would the Chiefs do after firing Andy Reid?

Would they hire one of the head coaches available right now? Mike McCarthy is available, but that’s about it.

Hire a new young coach in hopes of getting Sean McVay 2.0? It would certainly take time for that coach to establish his system and have the best chance at winning.

Would they hire an Andy Reid assistant — like the Eagles did? Sure... they saw great success for one magical year but haven’t made much noise in the playoffs since then.

No one on the Chiefs roster or staff should be above criticism. Right now, there are issues everywhere. For the team to realize its Super Bowl aspirations, these issues need to be fixed. But pointing fingers — and firing everybody before the season is over — isn’t going to help anyone.