Anti-Dynasty #50: 1974-79 Kansas City Chiefs

Peak Anti-Dynasty Points: 36
Record: 28-60 (.318)
Average DVOA: -14.9%
Bottom-Five DVOA: -17.7%
One last-place finish in the NFL; Two last-place finishes in the AFC, Four last-place finishes in the AFC West
Head Coaches: Hank Stram, Paul Wiggin, Tom Bettis, Marv Levy
Key Players: QB Mike Livingston, RB Ed Podloak, T Charlie Getty, T Jim Nicholson, G Tom Condon, C Jack Rudnay, LB Willie Lanier, CB Emmitt Thomas, S Gary Barbaro, K Jan Stenerud
Z-Score: -5.18

By the 1970 merger, the Chiefs were arguably the best team from the AFL—two league championships and a win in Super Bowl IV give them the nod over the Oakland Raiders' superior record over the last half of the AFL's existence. However, to go from a great team to a perennial powerhouse requires finding and developing new talent, and the 1970s Chiefs fell far short in that category.

Those Super Bowl-era Chiefs had five Hall of Famers—Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier, Len Dawson, Buck Buchanan and Jan Stenerud, plus coach Hank Stram. The last time all five players were on the field together was the final game of 1974, and the Chiefs basically lost one every year throughout this down period. Even Municipal Stadium, where the Chiefs had played in the AFL, was dismantled in 1976, a relic from the 1920s no longer fit for purpose. The stadium, at least, was replaced. The Hall of Famers, not so much.

In 1973 and 1975, the Chiefs had no first-round draft pick thanks to trades for George Seals and John Matuszak (24 combined starts for Kansas City), and frankly, the picks they did make weren't much better. From 1970 to 1976, the Chiefs took Sid Smith, Elmo Wright, Jeff Kinney, Woody Green, and Rod Walters; all of them under 16 career Approximate Value. The Chiefs made 11 picks in the 1975 draft; only one ever saw an NFL field, where running back Morris LaGrand picked up a career 37 yards. A team can survive a bad draft or two, but general manager Jack Steadman's run would be crippling for any franchise. He took 91 players between 1970 and 1975; only 11 started a single game for Kansas City, and none ever made a Pro Bowl or All-Pro team. You could make an argument that the four worst drafts in franchise history all fell in that six-year span. That's bad.

The remaining Chiefs legends kept things from falling apart entirely for years; a series of 5-9 seasons in the mid-1970s were bad, but not in and of themselves enough to qualify for this list. By the late 1970s, however, there was just nothing left, to the point where new head coach Marv Levy installed the old Wing-T in 1978 to try to produce something on offense. In the dawn of the modern passing age, Levy's Chiefs set NFL rushing records, including running the ball 69 times on opening day while holding the ball for more than 40 minutes of clock time. They were still terrible, don't get me wrong, but at least they were an interesting, novel sort of terrible. Levy's work eventually brought the Chiefs to mediocrity, where they would stay until Marty Schottenheimer came to town.