The Kansas City Chiefs are on a roll. After a shaky 0-2 start, the reigning champions have rattled off five wins in their last six games, with each victory coming by double digits. Following a dominant 28-7 Monday Night Football win over the Washington Commanders—where the defense pitched a second-half shutout—the hype train has officially left the station.

On ESPN’s First Take, the mood was celebratory. Panelists Jeff Saturday and Chris Canty were ready to crown the Chiefs, or at least punch their ticket to the AFC Championship game.

“Um, inevitability, right?” Saturday, a former Pro Bowl center, stated matter-of-factly. “It’s coming through Kansas City.” He praised the team’s unselfishness, the “sneaky old man” brilliance of Travis Kelsey, and the offense’s resurgence. “This team… it feels inevitable that they’re going to be back in the action again. It’s unreal.”

Chris Canty echoed the sentiment, declaring the Chiefs one of the two best teams in the AFC, alongside the Indianapolis Colts. “What Patrick Mahomes is doing is otherworldly,” Canty said, highlighting his league-leading passing yards outside the pocket. “It makes him a cheat code… you can’t plan for the improvisation that Mahomes brings to the party.” Canty even argued that the offense isn’t even the best phase of the team, pointing to the defense’s stifling consistency.

The narrative was set. The Chiefs were back. The league was on notice.

And then, Stephen A. Smith, who had been listening quietly, decided to “throw a little cold water on it.”

“Here we go,” Smith said, his voice rising. “I just do.”

In a fiery, passionate monologue that has become his signature, Smith proceeded to dismantle the very foundation of the hype his co-hosts had just built. He wasn’t just disagreeing; he was accusing them of journalistic malpractice, of being “a little bit too nice.”

“I expect a full critique,” Smith declared, looking directly at his colleagues. “I expect you guys to sit up there and say, ‘Let’s hold the horses,’ because they got Buffalo coming up this week. Okay? Let’s see what they do against Josh Allen and the crew.”

Smith’s core argument was simple and devastatingly effective: Who have the Chiefs really played?

He conceded the stats. First in yards per game. Third in scoring. Outscoring opponents 89-24 over the last three games. But then he delivered the knockout blow.

“Who are those three opponents?” he challenged. “Agreed, they got the Lions, which had some injuries. And then after that? The Raiders and the Commanders without Jaden Daniels!”

The air went out of the “inevitability” balloon. Smith was relentless.

“Come on, y’all!” he exclaimed. “I mean, over the last two weeks, who have they really, really played? You gave up seven points over the last two weeks. That’s why you got one of the top-rated defenses right now—because you went against two teams that can’t score!”

He wasn’t finished. “Who ain’t going to stop Marcus Mariota right now? Who ain’t going to stop Gino Smith and the Raiders right now? I mean, I expect my man ‘Cece’ [Chris Canty]… you come on First Take and I dare say y’all were a little bit too nice! Just sprinkling flowers all over the place.”

Smith’s eruption perfectly captured the central tension surrounding the 2025 Kansas City Chiefs. Are they the dominant, “inevitable” force that Saturday and Canty see, a team rounding into championship form? Or are they, as Smith argues, a talented squad that has been feasting on the NFL’s bottom-feeders, building a resume of “fool’s gold” before heading into the meat of their schedule?

The truth, as the panel eventually conceded, lies in what’s next. The Chiefs are about to enter a gauntlet that will define their season and prove whether the hype is real or manufactured. As host Molly Qerim pointed out, they still have to play the Denver Broncos twice (including a Christmas night showdown), they host the red-hot Indianapolis Colts, and their immediate test is a difficult road game in Buffalo.

“They still got a lot of work to do,” a guest analyst noted, reminding the panel that despite the win streak, the Chiefs are still two games behind the Colts for home-field advantage. “They lose to Buffalo this week, they’d be two and a half back.”

This is the critical point that Smith was driving at. The race for the number one seed in the AFC is paramount, and the Chiefs are currently on the outside looking in. The panel was unanimous on one thing: no team, not even the surging Colts, wants to travel to Arrowhead Stadium in January.

“If I’m the Indianapolis Colts, every game is a priority,” Canty said, “because I want to make sure that the road to the Super Bowl comes through our house. I do not want to be Indy and I’m stuck putting Daniel Jones in a situation where you got a quarterback at Arrowhead Stadium in a major playoff situation. I want that game in Indie. No doubt.”

But to get that coveted top seed, the Colts will have to keep winning, and the Chiefs will have to prove they can beat teams that actually have a pulse. Saturday, while defending his initial praise, admitted the brilliance of Mahomes is what makes the Chiefs a perennial threat, regardless of their record or recent opponents.

“Listen, we can say whatever we want,” Saturday argued. “Patrick Mahomes makes the incredible look common, and that is just a hard thing to overcome… Somebody has to unseat the champ… you’re going to have to knock them out.”

The debate also briefly pivoted to the Chiefs’ last victim, the Washington Commanders, and the grim outlook for their season. With rookie quarterback Jaden Daniels sidelined with an injury, the panel largely agreed their season is “lost.” The concern, as Saturday and Canty pointed out, is not just the immediate injury but the long-term viability of a quarterback with Daniels’ slight frame and his style of play, which invites repeated, brutal hits.

“This was my critique on Drake May,” Saturday shared. “I love Drake May, but I watched him at Carolina. Like, he takes a lot of unnecessary hits… at some point, them dudes in the NFL [hit hard]… you got to be on the field.”

But the focus quickly snapped back to the AFC titans. The segment ended with the same tension it began with, only amplified. The First Take desk had laid bare the two narratives battling for control of the NFL season. Are the Chiefs the inevitable champions, a sleeping giant now fully awake? Or are they, as Stephen A. Smith so passionately argued, a “nice” story that’s about to get a rude awakening from the league’s real contenders?

The stats are impressive. The winning streak is real. But so is the upcoming schedule. As Stephen A. Smith demanded, it’s time to “hold the horses.” The next month of football won’t just be a test for the Chiefs; it will be the final exam. And this time, they won’t be graded on a curve.