The 2025-26 NFL season hasn’t exactly gone according to plan for the Kansas City Chiefs. Not only did their nine-year streak of winning the AFC West get snapped, but last week they were eliminated from the postseason for the first time since the 2014-15 season.
A team that had made the previous three Super Bowls saw its starting QB Patrick Mahomes tear his ACL in a Week 15 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers — and then on Sunday at the Tennessee Titans, backup QB Gardner Minshew got injured in an ugly 26-9 loss. That left third-string QB Chris Oladokun to play for the rest of the game — and be in line to start on Christmas Day against the Denver Broncos.
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Oladokun will have a tall task on Christmas, as the Chiefs are currently 13-point home underdogs against the Broncos at BetMGM — the most points Kansas City has been an underdog in nearly 50 years.
The Chiefs were last a 13-point underdog at home on Oct. 3, 1977 against the Oakland Raiders, and lost the game — but did cover — 37-28 en route to a 2-12 season overall.
The lookahead line at sportsbooks for this game was Broncos -5.5 when it was believed that Minshew would be the starter, but a combination of how Kansas City looked in Tennessee, Denver’s ferocious defense and Oladokun’s inexperience has made the line balloon.
The Chiefs are 6-9 overall and 5-9-1 against the spread this season. They have clinched the under on their preseason win total of 11.5 and currently own the 12th overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft.
