Have you been paying attention to the Kansas City Chiefs?
Like … really paying attention?
Over the last few meaningful weeks of the regular season, they weren’t the cardiac kids. Yes, they had an ulcer-inducing run of one-score wins. They had a reputation for letting it go down to the wire. But Kansas City didn’t have to stress quite so much in their recent victories. In Week 15, they had a two-touchdown lead over the Browns. They managed an eight-point victory over the Houston Texans in Week 16, but it never felt close. And in Week 17, the Chiefs absolutely whooped the Pittsburgh Steelers, 29-10.
The difference is Kansas City’s offense, which is gradually getting healthier and more sure of itself.
In Week 17 — the final week that all the starters played — Patrick Mahomes completed 76.3% of his passes for 320 yards and three touchdowns. It was his most complete performance of the year, in part because of the degree of difficulty (against the Steelers) but also because of the breadth of talent (and scheme) that he maximized. He had completions to eight different pass-catchers. No one eclipsed 100 yards but seven of them had two or more catches. It was a smooth operation.
“That’s what you want to do,” Mahomes said postgame when asked if the Chiefs were peaking at the right moment. “Obviously, we feel like we can continue to get better and better. But obviously we’re playing, especially offensively, our best football at the end of the year. … This isn’t the end. This is just the beginning.”
But let’s be clear: It has been a grind for Mahomes this year.
Kansas City’s preseason plan fell apart early.
When I watched the Chiefs at training camp, they had a four-pronged attack on offense.
1) Hand the ball to running back Isiah Pacheco.
2) Let Travis Kelce rip up the middle of the field.
3) Ask Rashee Rice to serve as a possession receiver.
4) Create openings for Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy to attack outside the numbers, preferably (but not exclusively) deep.
You could argue they never got past step one.
Rice suffered a season-ending knee injury in September.
Brown returned in Week 17 from a shoulder joint injury he sustained in preseason.
Worthy initially seemed overwhelmed by the offense.
Pacheco missed nine games with a broken leg.
Even Kelce, who had 97 catches for 823 yards and three touchdowns this year, admitted he’s not operational in his normal ways.
“Where I take a lot of pride is once we get in that red zone, man,” Kelce said on Dec. 4 on the “New Heights” podcast. “I get a little hungrier. Right now, for whatever reason this year, I just can’t find my way in the end zone. I’m just not on the same page as Pat. It can get frustrating. It can get f—ing frustrating. That’s for damn sure.”
Overall, the Chiefs had to formulate a new plan for their offense this season. And it transformed — many times.
Amid the absences and struggles of their key players, Mahomes has worked in tight end Noah Gray, running back Kareem Hunt and wideout Justin Watson. The Chiefs also traded for veteran wideout DeAndre Hopkins, whose sure hands have been a clear relief to the offense.
That combination didn’t quite lay a new foundation. It was actually a role adjustment for Kelce that has helped substantially, with the tight end settling in as a checkdown option. He’s catching plenty of balls — but he’s almost an extension of the run game (or, at least, the screen game), given his targets’ proximity to the line of scrimmage. Hopkins took on some of Rice’s possession role. It was something. But the Chiefs weren’t there yet.
If there was one signal that the tides were changing around Mahomes & Co., it was Worthy. In the second half of the season, the rookie wideout seemed to find some clarity.
Is Kansas City’s offense back in form?
He never eclipsed 100 yards, but he had five or more catches in his last five games. And he had receiving touchdowns in Week 16 and Week 17 and a rushing touchdown in Week 15.
“You can sense it from watching tape. Now all of a sudden, you naturally see more targets, you see more touches, you see more production,” offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said in December. “It’s exactly what happened with Rashee, and I’m telling you, it’s crazy how similar it is. And it’s exciting because you see what Rashee did early on [this season], and I think that’s the path for this kid.”
Rice was one of the team’s most reliable offensive players on Kansas City’s Super Bowl run last year, with 26 catches, 262 yards and a touchdown over four postseason games. So if Worthy is in store for that kind of role, the Chiefs will be thrilled.
The return of Brown has been just as encouraging.
“It’s like holding a horse back,” Reid said December when asked about keeping Brown off the field during his injury recovery. “Man, he wants to get back in every time we take him out, which is a positive thing. He’s got a great attitude.”
Brown impressed the Chiefs in camp when he surprised Mahomes with effectiveness on a diverse set of routes. Hollywood was a deep threat — but there was more nuance to his game beyond his burning speed. We saw that in Week 17, when he attacked the perimeter without springing a huge play. But there’s no coincidence that Watson’s 49-yard catch, the third-longest reception for the Chiefs’ this season, came with both Worthy and Brown on the field.
The plan isn’t that different from where they started. It just took them the whole regular season to get there. And there are some alterations.
1) Hand the ball to Pacheco and Hunt. (And don’t forget Samaje Perine in the screen game.)
2) Let Kelce rip up the short middle.
3) Ask Hopkins to move the chains.
4) Scheme up plays to get Worthy horizontal.
5) Get Hollywood vertical.
Now, we haven’t yet gotten into the offensive line, which has been its own issue. Most notably, the Chiefs’ plans at left tackle fell apart, too. They drafted tackle Kingsley Suamataia in round 2 to start. He lost the job after a few poor performances, and his replacement, Wanya Morris, was as bad — if not worse. Kansas City moved guard Joe Thuney to left tackle, and he was fine — but his replacement was also fine, which meant that the Chiefs were weakening two positions (and the whole left side) rather than one.
But, getting back to how things are on the upswing, the Chiefs signed tackle D.J. Humphries to take over that role. And though he’s recovering from a hamstring injury, he returned to the lineup in Week 18.
The Chiefs want to three-peat. And it was hard to doubt Mahomes, no matter the offensive inefficiencies. But with the way the team was built at midseason, it would have been all on Mahomes to get his offense another Lombardi Trophy. Now, there’s a competence in every unit (including special teams) that looks like an airtight championship team.
Kansas City was never out of it. The Chiefs went 15-2 for a reason. But they did seem weaker than their record showed. You could see it in their Week 11 loss to the Buffalo Bills. You could see it in their narrow season-opening victory over the Baltimore Ravens — and the narrow wins over basically every playoff team. We wondered: Can the Chiefs really do this for three straight postseason games?
Now, it looks like they won’t have to.
Prior to joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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