There is a difference between NFL stars and NFL starters. There is a difference between NFL starters and NFL backups. In football , like any team activity, it’s very helpful to have some history working together in full speed situations.

But there was a bill due for this season’s fun and success: watching the team’s backups lay a complete and total egg against the Denver Broncos in Sunday’s season finale. Kansas City’s 38-0 loss was simultaneously the most stress-free and least fun game of the season — perhaps even in all of the Patrick Mahomes era.