How To Right A Ship—Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Knows It Takes Focus And Consistency

For years, the Kansas City Chiefs were as reliable as death and taxes.

Now? They’re floundering, searching for an identity, even after a narrow win Sunday against Indianapolis. As the NFL season heads into Thanksgiving Week, the Chiefs, led by head coach Andy Reid and All-World QB Patrick Mahomes, are 6-5. (I beg them on behalf of all teenagers to NOT let their record get to 6-7!) Last year at this time, they were 10-1. And since Mahomes became the team’s starter in 2018, six is the fewest win total the Chiefs have posted by week 12.

In other words, it’s not going too well in K.C.

When you drill down, there are several reasons for the team’s meh record. Age has caught up with the roster, including at times its 36-year-old tight end Travis Kelce. As with all squads, some front office decisions have panned out and others haven’t.

But for a team with one of the greatest QBs ever, Mahomes has few consistent weapons to choose from this season. Kobe has no Shaq, Jordan has no Pippen. You could also point a finger at other possible cracks in the team, from the front office to backup secondary. But success in any field wasn’t born from passing the buck or rampantly assigning blame.

It comes from improvement. It may sound rote, but that doesn’t make it any less true: The only way to right the ship is to look in the mirror and be better.

One play at a time.

Mahomes is a three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback. And K.C. has won their division every year since 2016. But the 2025 season has started out anything but promising. The Chiefs lost their first two games, falling to contenders in the Chargers and Eagles. In October, they enjoyed a three-game winning streak, but two losses in a row to Buffalo and Denver followed. Sunday, they eked out a three-point win against Indy in OT.

On Thanksgiving, the Chiefs play the Dallas Cowboys, another underachieving, high-wattage team. The loser will be booking early vacations in January. But in the face of such a challenge, K.C. fans are asking themselves: How can a team turn around its fate?

There is never an occasion to let go of the proverbial rope during an NFL season. Indeed, the only way for a team to dig out of a hole is increased focus. On every play, the focus should be greater. On every play, the execution should be better. There is no 100-point touchdown, no 5-game win. Instead, it’s about stacking small victories, one at a time.

“It sucks,” Mahomes said after losing to rival Denver earlier this month. “Don’t get me wrong. You got to feel that, but you got to be able to kind of use that energy to push it into the next week, into the rest of the season, and all you can focus on is the next game. You get another opportunity to go out there and prove yourself.”

Of course, you don’t become a three-time Super Bowl-winning QB without knowing what to do in adversity. But sometimes you need to be reminded of it, too.

Writing in Forbes, Ken Gosnell explains that these same issues arise in business. He says, “Companies, just like individuals, have good days and bad days. Sometimes, those bad days can go on for weeks or even months.” Gosnell offers three things to remember in order to right the ship. He says people need to Focus on belief, focus on buy-in, and focus on what’s beginning rather than what’s ending.

Note the key word there? Focus.

In other words: Get back to your roots, look yourself in the mirror, and be better. That goes for everyone on the team. And do it with focus, do it with consistency. As for the Chiefs, no matter what happens this season, the six-time Pro Bowler Mahomes is going to have to be the one to lead the charge and catalyze the change.

But you know what? Like any great leader, he knows it.

“We’ve been losing these close games recently,” the QB said after the Denver loss, “but we’ve played some good football in spurts. It’s just about being more consistent, and until we go out there and do it, all you can do is just keep saying, keep practicing and getting better and better and push yourself to go out there and do it on game day.”

If Sunday’s win is any indication, perhaps K.C. is headed in the right direction.