After back-to-back frustrating losses—a blowout in Seattle and a meltdown in Denver—the Kansas City Chiefs are in a strange place. They're still clearly among the contenders in the AFC, but that's part of the strange feeling surrounding Chiefs Kingdom. They're among the rest of the contenders, not rising to a tier above them.

With a week until the NFL's trade deadline, what could the Chiefs do to bolster their roster in the next seven days, and where does the team stand now? That's what we'll unpack in today's Chiefs On SI mailbag.

In your opinion, what trades or position upgrades should the Chiefs make at the deadline? And realistically, which ones will they actually make? What’s your gut saying? -@MrEd315

The Chiefs clearly haven't gotten enough out of their pass catchers or pass rushers so far this season, so that's the place to begin. On the defensive line, however, I don't know if there's an external option that truly makes sense.

I'd be surprised to see the Chiefs make a huge swing for a player like Josh Sweat unless his price tag is much lower than expected, and if they look for a lower-tier player, they have to be an improvement (and earn Steve Spagnuolo's trust) over players like Felix Anudike-Uzomah and Ashton Gillotte, who are having nice seasons so far.

Wide receiver has some openings. I'd keep calling the Colts about Josh Downs until the price drops as far as it'll go, and I'd be interested in Brian Thomas Jr. as a multi-year solution while he's a buy-low candidate. I'd make room for someone like Dontayvion Wicks at a fair price too. There are a few creative mid-level answers out there... but my gut feeling?

My gut feeling is that it might not matter all that much. Andy Reid's comments last week, if taken at face value, remind us that the best chance for an improvement this season may have to come from a player who was on the team in training camp.

What are the top three realistic fixes the Chiefs can make in the middle of this season that give them the best shot to win the Super Bowl? Offensive line help? WR? -@mattlacasse.bsky.social

Since we just talked about trade options, I want to take this question to three internal solutions the Chiefs could find without reaching for outside help.

First, keep ramping up Cyrus Allen's workload. It wasn't perfect on Sunday in Denver, and it won't be perfect in the weeks to come. But he's more dynamic than Jalen Royals or Andrew Armstrong, and Xavier Worthy's apparent mistakes haven't kept him off the field.

Second, lean into the ground-and-pound production we saw during the first several weeks of the season. With Rashee Rice back, the offense should be multidimensional enough to keep defenses guessing, and the under-center offense is worth returning to. Go under center and hand it to Walker. Go under center and run some play-action. These last two weeks have felt like a regression to some of the problems of 2025. (And as a bonus, use that under-center offense to be aggressive on 4th-and-short. No more questionable kicks or unnecessary punts.)

Third, get as many pass-rushing snaps for R Mason Thomas as possible. If the Chiefs' pass rush is going to take a meaningful step forward, I think Thomas would be the most likely candidate for a substantial breakout. The rookie defensive end played a season-low 17 snaps (27%) in Denver after playing a then-low 20 snaps (29%) in Seattle. He doesn't need to be on the field for every likely rushing down, but he needs opportunities to get after the quarterback.

Is there something going on with Chris Jones? Dude's production has completely disappeared. -@ZachTakes

I have been (and still remain) extremely hesitant to sound the alarm on Chris Jones; he's one of the three most important players of the Chiefs' dynasty and has shown an incredible ability to be disruptive, even when facing tremendous attention from opposing offenses. I'm still holding out hope for a late-season/playoff-push stretch of games where Jones turns back the clock, but it's impossible to pretend that he's performing at his usual standard.

I think that's partially the encroachment of Father Time having an impact on the 32-year-old and partially an indictment on the rest of the Chiefs' defensive front, revealing how much they've relied on Jones to be elite for so many years. Still, that doesn't feel like enough to explain the fact that he hasn't recorded a statistic in two weeks. He had a calf issue reported on the Chiefs' injury reports through Week 4, but he's been clear of that designation since the bye.

I still believe that there will be game-changing moments from Jones down the stretch of this season, but I have to acknowledge that it's been a long time since we've seen one.

Did Reid decide to attempt a field goal in the fourth quarter as a way to assess if a change was needed this week? -@SoCal1186

I sure hope that wasn't the logic. Even without Harrison Butker's recent history front of mind, kicking a field goal there was the wrong choice. According to Next Gen Stats, punting the ball away in that scenario would have added the most win probability (raising it to 74.3%), while going for it would've put KC's win probability at 72.5%. Attempting the field goal was the least-analytically-sound decision at 71.5%.

If you don't care about analytics, you could rely on the eye test, your gut, and your recent memory to surmise that a 54-yard field goal in the rain was probably not going in from the struggling Butker. If he had hit that field goal, the Broncos would've still had solid starting field position after the kickoff, needing a touchdown to take the lead, and I think Butker would've still needed a few more clean weeks before he could be viewed as "back." However you slice it, I just don't think sending him out there in that scenario was a good decision.

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram for the latest news.