After an 0–5 start, Head coach Paul Wiggin was fired following a 44–7 loss to Cleveland in week 7.
Linebackers Willie Lanier and Jim Lynch, the last remaining links to the Chiefs' Super Bowl IV championship team in 1969, each played their final NFL season.
Rookies in italics An 0–5 start doomed the squad with a 44–7 loss at Cleveland (10/30) effectively sealing Wiggin's fate.
Despite the club's record Wiggin was still a popular figure in Kansas City, but was nonetheless relieved of his duties on Halloween, marking the first in-season coaching switch in team history, and the last until 2011, when Todd Haley was fired with three games remaining.
Bettis and the remainder of the coaching staff assembled by Wiggin were released on December 19, one day after a 21–20 loss at Oakland (12/18) in the regular season finale.
[1] The heart and soul of the Chiefs once-vaunted defense departed when roommates Willie Lanier and Jim Lynch, who both joined the club together as second-round draft picks in 1967, retired following the 1977 campaign.