Remember the playoff team that always found a way to trip? Before 2017, the Chiefs won divisions, made the playoffs, and flirted with becoming contenders, yet never broke through. The stats tell the story. Twenty percent playoff win rate from 2013–2017. The team’s QB is putting up 4,000+ yards and 26 touchdowns in his best season, but still no Super Bowl. But everything changed when Patrick Mahomes arrived. KC’s playoff win percentage soared to eighty-one percent. And suddenly, that old narrative started to vanish, and so did the patience of the man Mahomes was set to replace.

Alex Smith was still producing difference-making stats. Four playoff appearances in five seasons, a 50-26 record. Smith felt overlooked; his grip on the franchise felt undeservedly fragile. Then, draft da

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