You wouldn’t need many guesses to learn which team is the current favorite for Super Bowl LIX. The reigning champions, Kansas City Chiefs, are going for a three-peat and looking to become the first team in NFL history to win three Super Bowl titles in a row. They’ll also be looking to make a 5^th Super Bowl appearance in six seasons. Andy Reid’s team is clearly a sporting dynasty now.

While there are other contenders, and we will get to them in a moment, it does feel somewhat ominous that the Chiefs are the only team with a perfect record so far as we get into the business end of the NFL season. Many of the games have been hard-fought, though, and it has become a characteristic of the Chiefs under Reid that they know how to win ugly when it’s required.

Chiefs could emulate Patriots and Dolphins

After that 7-0 start, the whispers have started that the team is good enough to go through the season unbeaten. With the introduction of a 17-game regular season, that would mean the Chiefs would become the first to go 17-0, eclipsing the 16-0 New England Patriots of 2007. They’d also look to emulate the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who went unbeaten on the way to winning Super Bowl VII. With a 14-game regular season and 3 Playoff victories, that put the legendary Dolphins on 17-0, making them the only fully unbeaten team across an entire NFL season.

Now, when you are making your NFL picks across a game week, you’ll know that shocks do happen on any given Sunday, and it’s a huge ask for the Chiefs to go another ten games unbeaten. Moreover, there is also the potential for Andy Reid and his staff to take their foot off the gas once the No.1 Seed spot is wrapped up (something that feels inevitable). Reid may want to keep up the momentum, but he will also want to keep some players fresh and prevent injury before the business of the Playoffs.

Plenty of ‘losable’ games remaining on the Chiefs’ schedule

That said, you can also argue that the hardest stretch of the Chiefs’ season is already over. They have already beaten the two teams ranked closest to them in the preseason Super Bowl odds – the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers. There is a handful of tough ties remaining, including games against the Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans, both of whom have big ambitions for the Playoffs. There are other tough ties, and we’d cite the Denver Broncos as one of the most underrated teams in the NFL this year: The Chiefs still have to play them twice. A trip to Pittsburgh, too, is never easy, but the Steelers are also looking strong this season.

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The point, as such, is that there are at least five games of the Chiefs’ remaining ten that would be considered in non-shock territory if they ended up losing. Sure, the Chiefs will be favored to win in the game betting odds – they are a historically strong team – but these are the sorts of games that even a great team can lose. In short, it’s not going to be easy to have a perfect season.

If the Chiefs keep winning, you can expect this talk to increase tremendously as we head towards Christmas. The chat, too, will also focus on the possibility of the Chiefs winning 20 across the regular season and the Playoffs. It is, of course, much too early for such speculation. There are no guarantees in football, and as we saw with the Patriots in 2007, going unbeaten across the regular season does not guarantee a Super Bowl win. Yet, the Chiefs seem to have that mentality, an air of inevitability, which leads teams to be beaten before they step on the field. How far it will take them on their quest for immortality this season is anyone’s guess.

By Chris Bates