Chiefs can’t waste time recalibrating with Patrick Mahomes’ new weapons

Henry McKenna

AFC East Reporter

Patrick Mahomes is still a little pissed off about last year.

Yeah, we all know he won the Super Bowl. And the Super Bowl MVP. He also cemented his place as one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play. But the Kansas City Chiefs finished third in the AFC standings with a record of 11-6. They had a particularly rough phase in the middle of the season when they lost five of eight games. It’s a pretty dang good season. It just wasn’t good enough for Mahomes and Kansas City.

“Obviously, the end result was awesome, but I think a lot of us still have a weird feeling in our mouth,” Mahomes told reporters this week. “We really didn’t play football the way we wanted all year long. It wasn’t fun. Every single week, having to try to just continue to get better and better and the results not paying off the way you want it to — it wasn’t a lot of fun.”

The rest of the NFL is dying to have a season like Mahomes’ no-fun 2023 season. But that quote provided some perspective as to why Mahomes is preaching urgency during the Chiefs’ rookie training camp. Kansas City drafted receiver Xavier Worthy in Round 1. The thought process is clear: Bring back the Chiefs’ explosive offense. Worthy, who ran the fastest-ever 40-yard dash time at the combine, will be a huge part of that. Mahomes doesn’t want to wait around for things to come together.

“There’s no easing,” Mahomes said. “He’s going to have to be ready to go. We got a lot of competition on this offense. He got a lot of mental work in these last few weeks that he had during OTAs and minicamp, but it’s time to go now. Y’all saw it with Rashee [Rice] last year and some of the throwing-up days he had. We’re going to push you to the limit and prepare yourself to be ready to go for the season. That’s not just him. That’s everybody and everybody has to have that mentality when they come into camp.”

Worthy missed most of the offseason program due to a hamstring injury. He watched practices during OTAs and minicamp, which was “driving him crazy,” according to coach Andy Reid. But now that training camp is underway — at least for Chiefs’ rookies — Worthy is participating in practice.

“I definitely feel like there’s no time to ease it. It’s all go,” Worthy said. “I understand definitely what Pat’s saying and just to build that connection with him — it’s going to be key.”

In 2023, the Chiefs had 52 passing plays of 20-yards or more, 14th in the NFL, and they had eight passing plays of 40-yards or more, 17th in the NFL. Let’s compare those numbers to 2022 when KC had 73 passing plays of 20+ yards (1st) and 13 passing plays of 40+ (tied for 2nd). That’s a major falloff for explosive passing plays. It’s why Mahomes quietly looked like one of the biggest game managers in the NFL last year. That style of play — while impressive that we could see him adapt — is a waste of his tremendous talents.

The Chiefs got away with their methodical offense because they had one of the best defenses in the NFL. Kansas City allowed 17.3 points per game, the second-fewest in the league, and 289.8 yards per game, also second-fewest. But that defense has come apart in a few key places due to free agency. They’ve seen cornerback L’Jarius Snead, safety Mike Edwards and linebacker Willie Gay depart in free agency. Those guys accounted for 2,767 snaps on the Chiefs defense.

Snead was the biggest loss of all. He played the most snaps of any defender and finished the season as a consensus top-10 cornerback, which was why he signed with the Titans for four years and $76.4 million with $51.5 guaranteed.

If the defense is going to let up more points, the offense is going to need to score more.

Can the Chiefs three-peat?

The Chiefs have restocked at the receiver position to utilize Mahomes’ rare blend of awareness and arm talent. Worthy is the first piece of the puzzle. And then there’s Hollywood Brown. He had a rough 2023 season in the Arizona Cardinals offense. (Everyone in that offense had a rough season.) He finished with 51 catches for 574 yards and four touchdowns. But no matter how you cut it, he has not had a season as impressive as his final year with the Ravens in 2021 when he had 91 catches for 1,008 yards and six touchdowns. That’s the kind of production the Chiefs want to help Brown reactivate.

We’ve seen what small, speedy receivers can do in this offense alongside the best pass-catching tight end in NFL history (Travis Kelce). Tyreek Hill, of course, became the NFL’s best receiver in Kansas City.

But can Brown or Worthy become anything near what Hill was for the Chiefs? It’s such a crucial question in solving the Chiefs’ problems for the 2024 season (which are leftover problems from the 2023 season). Mahomes knows it. That’s why he said there’s no “easing” Worthy. And it’s easy to imagine he’d say something similar about Brown. Kelce will keep being Kelce. Rashee Rice emerged late in the year as a possession receiver, but he is likely facing a suspension for his role in a multi-vehicle accident that left him facing eight felony charges. The Chiefs need production from their new receivers, particularly in the opening six weeks of the season when the Chiefs are vs. Ravens (Week 1), vs. Bengals (Week 2) and @ the 49ers (Week 6).

Kansas City’s offense can’t wait around like last year. There’s no time to recalibrate. Mahomes wants Worthy and Brown to make an impact right away. And there’s good reason for that urgency.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as the AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.