KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The expansion of the NFL’s regular season to 17 games has quarterback Patrick Mahomes eyeing a new benchmark for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Mahomes told Bleacher Report in an interview from his foundation’s recent fund-raising golf tournament in Hawaii that his goal is for the Chiefs to become the NFL’s first team to finish a season at 20-0 with 17 regular-season wins and three more in the playoffs.
“That’s not really a record to be broken I guess you could say,” Mahomes said. “[But] to be the first one to do that would be awesome.”
Mahomes brought up the 20-0 possibility himself in response to a question about what record he would like to break this season.
Doing so would not come easily.
The 1972 Miami Dolphins hold the NFL record for wins in an undefeated season. They finished 17-0 in an era when NFL teams played 14 regular-season games per season.
The 2007 New England Patriots were 16-0 in the regular season and won two playoff games before losing in the Super Bowl to finish 18-1.
According to ESPN Stats & Information, including the playoffs only one team has won at least 20 straight games over multiple seasons in NFL history: the Patriots won 21 straight games from Week 5 of the 2003 season through Week 7 of the 2004 season.
The Chiefs had won 25 of their previous 27 games before losing Super Bowl LV to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in February.
The Chiefs’ strength of schedule for the 2021 season is tied for the 11th most difficult. Five of their first seven games are against 2020 playoff teams.