Chiefs playoff picture: Updated chances for Kansas City to make 2025 NFL postseason in Week 15 originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Here's what needs to happen for Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs to make the 2025 NFL playoffs.

The Chiefs haven’t been eliminated from postseason contention, but each loss drives them further away. The New York Times playoff calculator puts their chances of making the NFL playoffs at 12% (though that percentage-chance would rise to 47% if the Chiefs win out, starting with Sunday’s noon home game against the Los Angeles Chargers).

Although their reign atop the AFC West is over, the Chiefs' playoff hopes aren't officially dead yet. At 6-7, the Chiefs will need quite a few things to go their way down the stretch if they want to make the postseason, which explains why our SportsLine projection is giving them just a 9.1% chance of getting in. Patrick Mahomes can do that math.

The Kansas City Chiefs only have a handful of picks in the 2026 NFL draft, but they could select starting talent from Clemson, LSU and more.

Sometimes they say in the NFL that the moves you don't make are the best ones. That's not necessarily the case with one of the trades the Kansas City Chiefs tried and failed to make ahead of the 2025 NFL season.

The Kansas City Chiefs face a critical juncture at 6-7, risking a playoff miss. Ex-NFL star Robert Griffin III identifies \"predictability\" as the offe