For years, the Kansas City Chiefs made winning look routine.
According to former Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie, that sustained success made the team’s 2025 collapse even more difficult to process. Speaking publicly about the disappointing season for the first time since being traded to the Los Angeles Rams, McDuffie said the locker room struggled to accept that one of the NFL’s most successful franchises was no longer winning.
McDuffie discussed the season during an appearance on Taylor Lewan and Will Compton’s “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast, describing a team that kept believing it would eventually return to the form that had produced multiple Super Bowl appearances.
Trent McDuffie Says Chiefs Players Didn’t Believe the Losing Was Real
Kansas City opened the 2025 season with a 5-3 record before losing eight of its final nine games to finish 6-11. The collapse ended the Chiefs’ playoff streak and marked the franchise’s first losing season in more than a decade.
McDuffie said the players never stopped believing they could reverse course.
“And then we’re losing, and we’re losing. And we’re like, ‘Nah, we’re good, bro. We gonna make it back,'” McDuffie said. “We do this, we’re used to this. And you lose, and you lose. And everybody’s sitting back like, kind of like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on? This isn’t us. What do we have to do?'”
The two-time Super Bowl champion said the team’s confidence eventually became something closer to denial.
“The biggest thing for me was seeing, there was just no quit. It was almost like guys almost tricked themselves. This wasn’t real,” McDuffie said. “We’re losing, but the scoreboard, that didn’t matter. Nah, we’re not losing. Our record’s really not like that.”
After years of competing for championships, McDuffie said many players simply had no experience navigating a season in which the losses continued to pile up.
Chris Jones’ Postgame Moment Captured the Chiefs’ Frustration
McDuffie said one exchange involving defensive tackle Chris Jones illustrated just how unfamiliar the situation had become.
He recalled Jones speaking with reporters after one of the losses that officially eliminated Kansas City from playoff contention.
“The funniest thing was Chris Jones. I think one of the games where we lost and we got finally kicked out of the playoffs. And he’s up at the podium. He’s like, ‘We still got it?'” McDuffie recalled.
Reporters had to tell Jones the season was effectively over.
“And they’re like, ‘Chris, no…'” McDuffie said. “And he was just like, ‘Oh, I don’t even know what to say. Like, I don’t know how to be here.'”
McDuffie said the moment reflected how unusual the circumstances felt for a roster accustomed to playing deep into January.
Trent McDuffie Says Chiefs Trade Blindsided Him After Contract Talks
McDuffie spent four seasons with the Chiefs before Kansas City traded him to the Los Angeles Rams in March. In return, the Chiefs received a first-round pick and additional draft compensation before selecting LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Although the trade was separate from his comments about the Chiefs’ 2025 season, McDuffie also discussed his departure from Kansas City during the “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast.
He said the organization had consistently told him a contract extension would eventually get done.
“The whole time they’re telling me we’re going to get the contract done, the whole season,” McDuffie said. “Knowing the Chiefs, they’re going to kind of drag this out.”
Instead, McDuffie learned he had been traded while training just days after the NFL Combine.
“Two days after the Combine ends, I’m training, and my Apple Watch dings,” he said. “After I hold on and look, and then I was traded, and my agents were blowing me up.”
McDuffie admitted the move caught him completely off guard because he expected to return to Kansas City.
“I was expecting to go back to the Chiefs, so a little part of me was like, ‘Damn, bro. What’s up with that?'” he said. “You didn’t let me know anything. I didn’t have any conversations about contracts, nothing.”
Now with the Rams, McDuffie said he has regained his “spirit and swagger,” while offering a candid look back at both the Chiefs’ surprising 2025 season and the unexpected end of his four-year tenure in Kansas City.
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