The Chiefs created a heightened degree of difficulty in crucial offseason

Of the handful of stinging Chiefs playoff defeats over the past 20-plus years, the game flow and stakes of the most recent blemish presents a case for it to be the worst.

Dee Ford, a fourth quarter featuring Patriots-friendly officiating and a Patrick Mahomes-confined-to-a-frigid-sideline overtime have the most recent AFC championship game stacking up well among some of Kansas City’s greatest-hits defeats. 

The vibe soon shifted from typical Chiefs January misery to future promise. Mahomes’ presence should ensure the 2020s will be filled with similar opportunities, the post-heartbreak party line goes.

Kansas City's loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion could be labeled as a stepping-stone moment, but that was a championship route that will be difficult to replicate. 

The Chiefs should have a perennial shortcut in Mahomes and Andy Reid. They have a tremendous chance to finally clear a 50-year barrier and reach Super Bowl LIV. But recent events and near-future developments may end up illuminating what kind of window the franchise just missed.

Mahomes has one more year of surefire rookie-contract control. For as stunning as the reigning MVP’s ascent was, the Chiefs have not done the best job building a roster around him. Early in the lead-up to their most important season in decades, the Chiefs should be in better position than they are.

Kansas City’s roster decisions, the contracts to come and the prospect of having to cut another top-flight weapon all cloud what should be an envied setup.

Jettisoning Justin Houston and his $21 million cap number made sense. But shipping out both starting edge rushers (Ford was traded to the 49ers) brings the kind of risk a defense coming off a 26th-ranked DVOA season may not be in position to take.

In a vacuum, acquiring a 2020 second-round pick for the inconsistent Ford represents decent value. But given the makeup of the Chiefs’ current roster and the stakes 2019 brings, this is not the best way to make cap space. This organization has not created a situation to sell high (and high is debatable) on the 2018 Pro Bowler.

Gutting one of their best facets at this juncture places significant pressure on general manager Brett Veach to recreate a competent edge rush. This is not exactly a good spot for a Super Bowl contender to be understaffed. 

If the Chiefs' transition to a 4-3 defense prompted this, to accommodate a defensive coordinator who has produced more last-place defensive rankings (two) than top-16 defenses (one) in his past seven tries, it is not the most encouraging sign for this reconstruction effort.

Elite pass rushers launched Steve Spagnuolo's career, so watching the Chiefs try to reload here on the fly makes for one of the offseason’s more interesting plot lines.

Alex Okafor has shown flashes, but Ford — 2-for-5 in effective seasons — has more sacks in his two slates as a full-time starter (23) than Okafor has in a six-year career (22). The Chiefs are probably operating under the premise their premier outside rusher is not yet on the roster. Either this is the thinking, or the team watched superb Breeland Speaks practices last season.

Ford certainly carries the risk of a contract-year fluke, but situations like this are kind of the purpose of the franchise tag. If Ford’s tag price and scheme fit intervened, a bigger problem exists.

While some of John Dorsey’s decisions — waiting too long to extend Houston and Eric Berry and thus inflating their price tags, misidentifying veteran wide receivers, gambling on high-risk draft picks, etc. — have been scrutinized, the popular Cleveland resident gave the Chiefs their core. If some of those moves forced the current front office to shed talent this offseason, Veach’s acquisitions accelerated this course.

Veach’s biggest expenses last year — Sammy Watkins and Anthony Hitchens — nudged the Chiefs into position where disbanding their edge rush became a consideration. Neither free agent came close to delivering on those contracts. 

Tyrann Mathieu is a high-quality safety whose versatility should be vital, but he is not surrounded by much. As of now, the Kansas City defense is Mathieu, Chris Jones, stopgaps and unknowns. 

Jones' next contract should bridge the gap between Aaron Donald’s price range and Fletcher Cox’s. A (deserved) $17 million-plus-AAV accord will make stocking the roster more difficult. Tyreek Hill’s next deal, in theory, will do the same. 

If the Hill process gets ugly, the Chiefs — given what happened with Kareem Hunt and Jovan Belcher this decade — will see their standing suffer and have questions to answer that go beyond how losing an elite wideout would affect their offense. Football-wise, a historically potent attack losing Hunt and Hill in a few months' time, as Travis Kelce's age-30 season nears, would be an astounding occurrence.

Mahomes' potential $200 million deal in 2020 would be well-deserved, but it has yet to be determined if a top-market quarterback contract can headline a championship team. A veteran passer anchoring a team opens long-term contention paths wider than any other roster feature. However, this CBA’s Super Bowl winners have mostly featured rosters absent such a cost.

The Ravens, Seahawks and Eagles depended on their quarterbacks’ rookie salaries; John Elway cut Peyton Manning’s 2015 salary by $4M; Eli Manning comprised 11.7 percent of the 2011 Giants cap. Tom Brady’s strange twilight-years contracts have benefited the Patriots, but even as he took up 12.4 percent of the Pats' cap in 2018, New England continues to thrive on unparalleled bargains elsewhere on the roster. 

Last year’s top six quarterback contracts did not produce playoff berths. The only current-CBA Super Bowl participants to have rostered a passer comprising more than 14 percent of the cap: the 2013 Broncos and 2016 Falcons. 

A quarterback on a megadeal will surely win a title at some point, and the Chiefs’ Mahomes-Reid partnership gives them an inside track on it. The Mahomes-rookie-deal era is not over yet, but barring a strong draft and a trade for a veteran that relegates Okafor to edge-sidekick status, this Chiefs defense is not in position to take advantage of the bargain Mahomes’ contract creates.

Veach deserves the opportunity to repair his defense before judgment can be made, but this is his year to boast quality veterans on both sides of the ball. Midway through free agency’s second wave, that is not the case here.

Mahomes’ otherworldly sophomore season allowed the Chiefs to surmount a steep degree of difficulty last year. The angle is not looking much friendlier yet.

The MVP’s presence will make the Chiefs’ 2019 iteration a Super Bowl favorite. But in a year when everything should be in place, this franchise has a long way to go.