A Kansas City Chiefs flag - Source: Unsplash
NFL 2025: Can Anyone Stop the Kansas City Chiefs from Reaching a Record-Equalling Fourth Straight Super Bowl?
Heading into the 2025 NFL season, everyone had written off the Kansas City Chiefs, despite the fact that they have reached the Super Bowl in each of the last three seasons. However, it was their performance in the most recent of those Big Games that set alarm bells ringing, February's 40-22 mauling at the hands of the merciless Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans. And it looked as though those critics would be proven right as KC slumped to an 0-2 start, the worst of the Patrick Mahomes era.
But the Chiefs do not fold; they adapt, attack, and ultimately overcome. That 0-2 became 2-3 following another bruising defeat, this time on the road at the Jacksonville Jaguars in week five. But since then, Mahomes and company have surged with venom, uncorking emphatic wins over the Detroit Lions, Las Vegas Raiders, and Washington Commanders. In a matter of weeks, they’ve transformed doubt into awe, rebuilding their record to 5-3, and, more importantly, restoring the familiar aura of championship inevitability.
The chase for a fourth consecutive Super Bowl appearance—a chance to equal the NFL’s most hallowed run—is back on, and odds providers suddenly make the Chiefs Lombardi favorites once more. The latest in-play odds at Bovada make KC a +225 favorite to reach yet another Big Game, as well as the +450 frontrunner for a third championship in four seasons.
So, can anyone stop them from making it to San Francisco in February? Here are the three leading candidates to do exactly that.
Indianapolis Colts
This Indianapolis Colts team has detonated every preseason projection—and then some. At 7-1, Indy’s ascension atop the AFC standings is more than smoke and mirrors. It’s mathematics, violence, and style. They lead the league in point differential (+116) and average a jaw-dropping 6.3 yards per play.
The catalyst? Daniel Jones. Cast off from the Giants after a disastrous five-year stint at MetLife and presumed to be little more than a stopgap, Jones in Indianapolis has been transformative. With a 71% completion rate, 2,062 yards, 13 touchdowns, just three interceptions, and four rushing scores for good measure, he boasts seven straight games with a QB rating above 100. That alone is rarified air, paralleling only MVP campaigns of decades past.
Consider Jonathan Taylor: 800-plus yards before Halloween, defenses stacked tight and almost always a step late as he churns out 100-yard games with blasé regularity. Michael Pittman Jr., meanwhile, is coming of age—600 yards and counting—offering Indiana Jones the outside physical threat every playoff team craves.
Defensively, Shane Steichen’s team is opportunistic (23 sacks, +8 turnover margin) and mean—just ask Tennessee, who were eviscerated 38-14 in Week 8 as Jones and Taylor combined for six touchdowns. If the former can sustain this MVP-like trajectory, and if the injury bug stays at bay, the Colts, priced at a scarcely believable +460 to win the AFC, are not a curiosity—they’re a headache for any opponent, Kansas City very much included.
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills have been defined as much by heartbreak as brilliance, but in 2025, they look built for a reckoning. Sitting 5-2, with a +61 point differential, they have all the hallmarks of a battle-hardened postseason machine.
Josh Allen, per usual, is an axis of chaos and control. With 1,614 passing yards and 12 touchdowns versus just four picks, plus over 400 yards and six scores on the ground, he’s once again proving impossible to corral. The reigning MVP's masterstroke came in a 40-9 Week 8 clinic over Carolina—four touchdowns, 300+ yards, and the Panthers left in bits by his arm and legs alike. Bills running back James Cook (700+ yards, 7 touchdowns) is a punishing complement; Khalil Shakir and sophomore Keon Coleman, meanwhile, provide the vertical menace needed as games get tighter and weather nastier.
Defensively? It’s a brick wall up front (22 sacks), quietly suffocating against the run and allowing just 5.3 yards per play. Matt Milano remains the cerebral nerve center, and their +2 turnover differential is the mark of a unit that capitalizes on mistakes.
Yet the question always lingers: can they slay their playoff nemesis? Allen, more than any, knows the pain of postseason heartbreak at Arrowhead. Their +350 conference championship odds and soft late-season schedule tantalize, but both the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons have already provided warning shots. Destiny will demand a reckoning against Mahomes and the Chiefs, providing Buffalo makes it that far.
Denver Broncos
Perhaps the most intoxicating variable of all, however, is in Denver. Under Sean Payton’s unflinching stewardship, the Broncos are 6-2 with a +56 differential, riding a five-game heater and holding Arrowhead firmly in their sights. The Mile High outfit currently sits ahead of Kansas City in the AFC West standings, and the Empower Field faithful are dreaming of a first divisional crown in a decade.
Much of the credit goes to sophomore sensation Bo Nix. Last season, the gun-slinger QB played not as a debutant, but as a commander, and he has continued to impress in his second year: 1,803 yards, 15 touchdowns, and a masterful streamlining of mistakes. The Broncos’ offense, both ground-and-pound and airborne, is a whirring machine—over 1,100 rushing yards (5.0 per carry), Javonte Williams on pace for 1,200-plus, and Courtland Sutton’s 700 yards and 55 catches proving All-Pro gravity.
But defense is Denver’s hammer. The Broncos have terrorized passers with 36 sacks, are yielding only 4.4 yards per snap, and unleash Pat Surtain II as a force multiplier on the back end. Their signature: a 44-24 decimation of the much-improved Cowboys, with Nix engineering his third four-TD performance and a dual-threat attack pounding out 77 points over two weeks.
With a pristine 4-0 home record and +900 AFC odds, Denver might lack big-stage experience, but their physicality and tempo—combined with the ice-blooded Nix—make them a dangerously live underdog as winter arrives.