FanPulse: Chiefs fans’ confidence is sky high headed into Week 1

Many of you here at Arrowhead Pride began voting on various things concerning the Kansas City Chiefs and matters across the NFL last year and this past offseason. This is part of SB Nation’s FanPulse tool, which sends weekly questions to the city’s most plugged-in and dedicated Chiefs fans via email.

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Let’s see what has happened to fan base confidence heading into Week 1:

Trends

• At the end of the season, 94 percent of Chiefs fans said they were confident in the direction of the team.
• At the end of free agency, that number dipped to 79 percent.
• Before the draft, 95 percent of Chiefs fans were confident in the direction of the team.
• After the draft, that number fell to 85 percent.
• At preseason Week 1, 99 percent of Chiefs fans were confident in the direction of the team. That number has only dipped 1 percent, to 98 percent, headed into the Chiefs’ Week 1 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The lowest number of the offseason came after free agency when the only splash Chiefs fans knew about was safety Tyrann Mathieu (The deal for defensive lineman Frank Clark came much closer to the draft).

Perhaps the lack of cornerbacks (the Chiefs only kept four, or five, if you consider Tremon Smith a cornerback) might have led to the slight dip in confidence.

In the national question, fans were asked about which 2018 last-place finisher had the best chance to win its division.

• Most NFL fans tend to think that the Jacksonville Jaguars, who the Chiefs play this week, have the best chance of going from worst to first (52 percent). They changed starting quarterbacks from Blake Bortles to Nick Foles this offseason. The Raiders, who finished last in the AFC West in 2018, only got 9 percent of the national vote. Here are the rest of the teams:
• Jets: 9 percent
• Giants: 8 percent
• Bucs: 7 percent
• Lions: 7 percent
• Cardinals: 5 percent
• Bengals: 4 percent