The Kansas City Chiefs have completed 55 seasons in professional American football and 45 with the National Football League (NFL). This article documents the season-by-season records of the Chiefs franchise from 1960 to the conclusion of their most recent season in 2015, including postseason records, and league awards for individual players or head coaches.
The team began play as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL) in 1960 as the Dallas Texans. Following the 1962 AFL season, the team relocated to Kansas City, Missouri and was renamed the Kansas City Chiefs. The team has played in 810 total games in a total of 51 seasons, and a winning percentage of .514. The team’s three 13-win seasons in 1995, 1997, and 2003 remain their best regular season records to date and their 2–14 record in 2008 and 2012 is the Chiefs’ worst.
The Texans/Chiefs were the winningest team in the history of the AFL, compiling an 87–48 record from 1960 to 1969. The team won three league championships and served as the AFL’s representative in the Super Bowl in 1966 and 1969. Since the franchise’s alignment to the NFL, the team has won six division championships and six wild card playoff berths, seven of which were between 1989 and 1997 when the team never lost as many games as it won. Despite the franchise’s early success, the Chiefs did not win a post-season game between the 1993–94 and 2015–16 playoffs, whilst their victory on January 11, 1970 remains the franchise’s only Super Bowl title to date.
The Chiefs have suffered two main periods of failure. Between 1972 and 1985 the Kansas City Chiefs never appeared in the postseason and achieved only one winning season (in 1981) from 1974 until 1985. Between 2007 and 2012, the Chiefs also struggled, with two two-win and two four-win seasons. However, the recent Chiefs have done much better, with a 44-24 record (including postseason) from the 2013 to 2016 seasons. After a Week 13 win over the Atlanta Falcons in 2016, the Chiefs clinched four consecutive winning seasons.