Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

It’s easy to forget that many people were counting the Kansas City Chiefs out of Super Bowl contention late in the 2023 season.

The Chiefs lost four of six games at one point, hitting rock bottom in an embarrassing Christmas Day loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. It appeared that K.C.’s offense just wasn’t good enough to advance deep into the playoffs and some team leaders were visibly frustrated week after week.

However, the Chiefs turned the corner and rallied together after the Christmas Day loss, winning out all the way through Super Bowl LVIII. The team leaned on its leaders who have been there and done that, with one of those leaders obviously being quarterback Patrick Mahomes. During the NFL 101 Awards, Mahomes spoke to SiriusXM Radio and revealed what he was most proud of from the 2023 season.

“I think it was just overcoming adversity.” Mahomes said, “No one turned on each other. I think that was the biggest thing. It was probably the most stressful season I’ve ever had as a leader and as a quarterback, but not in a bad way. It just helped me become better as a man and as a leader. We continued to relate and to push through things. I think we did a lot of great things throughout the season, and it wasn’t necessarily showing on the field, but I could see the work at practice. Instead of hanging our heads we kind of kept pushing and getting better and better and showed that if you continue to do that and continue to come to work every single day with the right mindset, things usually turn for the better and that’s what happened this season.”

It would have been easy and understandable for the Chiefs to chalk up 2023 as a setback year and not reach the Super Bowl. Instead, they rose to the challenge and made one of the most improbable postseason runs in NFL history. There isn’t much that the Chiefs haven’t seen or gone through at this point, making them even more intimidating for the future.