SI Article: Chiefs need to change from efficient to explosive on offense

[FloridaMan88]

Can’t they be both… efficiently explosive?

Link: https://www.si.com/nfl/chiefs-facing...e-travis-kelce

Whether Travis Kelce decides to play in 2025, the Kansas City Chiefs must come to the same conclusion: They have to move onto their next phase.

No, they don’t have to release Kelce, although doing so would save $17.2 million in cap space. Kelce, 35, is too valuable and too important in the locker room to make such a choice, even with those savings.

However, the Chiefs must understand that to move forward, to attempt to reach a fourth consecutive Super Bowl (and sixth in seven years), the offense has to change. It has to go through receivers Xavier Worthy and Rashee Rice, with Kelce being nothing more than a component.

Over the past two seasons, Kansas City has enjoyed immense success. The Chiefs have reached both Super Bowls and won one, to say nothing about winning it all in 2022 as well. All of this came after the team traded All-Pro receiver Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins, but the metamorphosis from explosive to egregiously slow didn’t happen right away.

In fact, the slowdown began in 2021. After ranking sixth, 10th and 13th, respectively, from ’18 to ’20 in average depth of target (ADOT), Patrick Mahomes checked in at 24th in Hill’s last campaign with the club as opponents began to play more shell coverages.

In 2022, the first year without Hill, Mahomes threw for 5,250 yards and earned MVP honors. However, his ADOT was still 23rd in the league. The following year, it took a nosedive to 30th as Kansas City relied heavily on poor wideouts, including Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Justin Watson, Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney.

This past season? Mahomes failed to throw for 4,000 yards for the first time in his career while ranking 41st in ADOT, only ahead of Gardner Minshew II and Tua Tagovailoa. Part of the reason was losing Rice and Marquise “Hollywood” Brown early on to injuries, but another problem was the overreliance on Kelce.

Over the past two years, Kelce has been targeted 254 times. Rice is second on the team over that span with 131 targets despite playing just four games this season. Nobody else cracked 100. Despite that, Kelce hasn’t made either All-Pro team or gained 1,000 receiving yards after seven straight seasons of doing both before 2023.

Of course, the dependence on Kelce is also due to a factor that should keep general manager Brett Veach awake at night … the issues at left and right tackle.

And for Veach, that’s where the offseason focus must be.

For Mahomes to get back to his fire-breathing ways, the Chiefs have to fix their issues at left tackle. While Jawaan Taylor is financially locked in for one more year (before Kansas City almost certainly releases him to save $20 million prior to 2026), the other side has options.

The Chiefs, who have approximately $11.5 million in cap space, can open up another $50 million to $60 million with an extension for All-Pro guard Joe Thuney, a restructure of Mahomes’s mega-deal and adding a void year to Kelce’s pact. With that money, Veach could re-sign Pro Bowl right guard Trey Smith and then shop for a left tackle in free agency as Alaric Jackson, Ronnie Stanley and Cam Robinson are all available.

Veach could also go another direction. He could use the third-round pick acquired from the Tennessee Titans in the L’Jarius Sneed trade last offseason (No. 66) to move up in the first round for an answer on the blindside. By saving tens of millions by drafting a left tackle instead of signing one, perhaps Veach could get in the receiver business.

With Worthy and Rice on cheaper rookie deals for a few more years, would Veach entertain trying to add another big name on the outside? There are a host of free-agent receivers worth discussing at One Arrowhead Drive, ranging from Tee Higgins and Chris Godwin to Stefon Diggs.

For Kansas City, the offensive ethos must change. For years, the Chiefs struck fear into defenses. Mahomes could go over the top at any moment. Most importantly, every throw was on the board. Now, the Chiefs are throwing shorter than any team in football, and the result was the 17th-ranked scoring offense and a unit that led the league in plays per drive.

Efficiency is good. Explosiveness is better.

And that doesn’t only go for the receivers. If the line is improved, the running backs should also be overhauled. While Isiah Pacheco is a quality player, he’s also missed 13 games over the past two years and is hitting free agency in 2026. Kareem Hunt and Samaje Perine are both free agents now.

For Veach, the draft class presents a cornucopia of options in the backfield, with running back being one of the strongest positions of this rookie crop. Kansas City would be wise to take someone on Day 2, giving the Chiefs speed in a way they haven’t enjoyed at tailback since the days of Jamaal Charles.

Ultimately, Kansas City needs to get faster across the board, and it needs to rediscover the ability to play aggressively. For years, the Chiefs and Mahomes have eschewed the intermediate and deep routes for smaller, surer gains. It’s hard to argue with most of the results, but Super Bowl LIX also showed that without a better line and some weapons to back defenses off, disaster is always looming against a quality opponent.

Kelce might play in 2025. His decision hasn’t been made. Fair enough.

But if the Chiefs want to taste glory once more and keep their dynasty rolling, Kelce’s choice pales in comparison to the other tasks at hand.

[MahomesMagic]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Would you argue that they weren't?

I mean Rice went down awfully early. Kelce was...lets just say 'conserving himself' for the sake of diplomacy. Brown was hurt all season and Worthy was a rookie who really developed nicely but still took time.

And frankly, when Mahomes DID go deep to him, he missed. Sometimes due to PM, sometimes due to Worthy. But it wasn't working so they shelved it while trying to find other ways to involve him.

I mean for 1/3 of the season or so we were running Justin Watson out there as our WR2 with Worthy at WR1.

So...I mean...yeah, I think it's fair to say our weapons were pretty piss poor.

If it's NOT weapons, is it your assertion that Reid just hates throwing it downfield now? Guy's been building passing offenses for 25 years now and since he finally has one of the best to ever do it he's decided "eh, **** it - just throw slants..." for poops and grins?

In literal decades of Andy Reid as an NFL head coach, what has given you the impression that if he COULD push the ball all over the field, he wouldn't?

I mean what's your alternative to "Our pass catchers weren't very good..." because whatever it may be, it's gonna be harder to support than "our pass catchers weren't very good"

They very clearly were not.

If the argument was it was because of Rice, after the Baltimore season opener, the next two games WITH Rice Mahomes YPA was 6 against the Bengals then dropped below 6 against the Falcons.


I don't think it's any one thing. Probably weapons, OL.


But coaching too has to reviewed. The offense they have chosen, even when they have lesser opponents is one of the lowest attack yards in the league.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by staylor26

It was a combination of weapons, LT play, and Pat just not playing up to his standard.

But the weapons absolutely had a lot to do with it. You take any teams WR1 AND WR2 that early in the season, and they're going to have problems.

And they can say whatever they want, I think the Chiefs were probably surprised by how little Kelce had left in the tank.

I know they weren't exactly leaning into him much early on, but I think they always kinda thought they could. And then when the bullets started flying and he was really struggling to raise his level of play, that knocked ANOTHER leg out from under PM's stool.

The burst was waning a bit in 2023 but you still saw it. What I noticed with Kelce was mostly that he moved in straight lines more than he had in years past. And got tired more often. But there was still burst there.

This year it was just never there at all.

They had to build the plane while they were flying it and it just never had the engines to go supersonic. I don't really know how that's at all difficult for some people to grasp.

Did they not WATCH this season?

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

And they can say whatever they want, I think the Chiefs were probably surprised by how little Kelce had left in the tank.

I know they weren't exactly leaning into him much early on, but I think they always kinda thought they could. And then when the bullets started flying and he was really struggling to raise his level of play, that knocked ANOTHER leg out from under PM's stool.

The burst was waning a bit in 2023 but you still saw it. What I noticed with Kelce was mostly that he moved in straight lines more than he had in years past. And got tired more often. But there was still burst there.

This year it was just never there at all.

They had to build the plane while they were flying it and it just never had the engines to go supersonic. I don't really know how that's at all difficult for some people to grasp.

Did they not WATCH this season?

Hopkins too. I don't know how much they thought he had left in the tank, but it had to be more than we got. You would think everybody talking about how slow the offense was outside of Worthy would make it easy to make the connection.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

If the argument was it was because of Rice, after the Baltimore season opener, the next two games WITH Rice Mahomes YPA was 6 against the Bengals then dropped below 6 against the Falcons.

I don't think it's any one thing. Probably weapons, OL.

But coaching too has to reviewed. The offense they have chosen, even when they have lesser opponents is one of the lowest attack yards in the league.

Downfield passing concepts, schematically, are about as easy as it gets.

There's nothing new under the sun with them. You need space, time and speed. They're pretty easy to put together because you have a lot of room to work with down the field and fewer bodies to navigate. The ball's in the air longer allowing for more adjustments by pass catchers. The timing doesn't have to be as precise because there's too much that happens in the route for those to really be strict timing routes.

Downfield passing is pretty basic shit if you have the manpower to do it. They didn't FORGET how to draw up those concepts. There's a reason they weren't using them.

I don't think it's because they wanted to neuter Mahomes. I don't think it's because, after years of believing otherwise, they decided that spreading teams out and attacking all areas of the field was now stupid. It's pretty much been fundamental to how Andy has done things his entire career -- attack EVERY blade of grass, laterally AND horizontally.

Personnel issues make all the sense in the world. And, again, Patrick. He's going to have a bigger influence over whether the ball goes down the field than the coaching staff would. They're never gonna call All-Verts and just not give him underneath options. If the reason the ball wasn't going downfield is that PM wouldn't throw it - that's NOT on the coaching staff, that's on the QB.

WR, LT and QB are all culprits I'd be looking at w/r/t the downfield passing game before I'd look at coaching. Because again, there's just nothing remotely complicated about drawing up a downfield passing attack. Executing it is where the problems come in and execution is going to be personnel 9 times out of 10.

[FloridaMan88]

Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19

If I’m being too simplistic feel free to call me out on it, I just think it’s as simple as this guys

If the Chiefs crush the draft this year, they’ll be winning the Super Bowl again next February. If they don’t, they won’t.

LT, no LT, whatever they do there I think will be good enough. But if they add another 3-4 really quality pieces in the draft that start, and let’s say two at least that have a major positive impact, they won’t be caught.

Agreed… if Veach is able to replicate the success of the 2022 draft with an emphasis this year on replenishing the offense, then another Super Bowl run is likely.

[MahomesMagic]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Downfield passing concepts, schematically, are about as easy as it gets.

There's nothing new under the sun with them. You need space, time and speed. They're pretty easy to put together because you have a lot of room to work with down the field and fewer bodies to navigate. The ball's in the air longer allowing for more adjustments by pass catchers. The timing doesn't have to be as precise because there's too much that happens in the route for those to really be strict timing routes.

Downfield passing is pretty basic shit if you have the manpower to do it.
They didn't FORGET how to draw up those concepts. There's a reason they weren't using them.

I don't think it's because they wanted to neuter Mahomes. I don't think it's because, after years of believing otherwise, they decided that spreading teams out and attacking all areas of the field was now stupid. It's pretty much been fundamental to how Andy has done things his entire career -- attack EVERY blade of grass, laterally AND horizontally.

Personnel issues make all the sense in the world. And, again, Patrick. He's going to have a bigger influence over whether the ball goes down the field than the coaching staff would. They're never gonna call All-Verts and just not give him underneath options. If the reason the ball wasn't going downfield is that PM wouldn't throw it - that's NOT on the coaching staff, that's on the QB.

WR, LT and QB are all culprits I'd be looking at w/r/t the downfield passing game before I'd look at coaching. Because again, there's just nothing remotely complicated about drawing up a downfield passing attack. Executing it is where the problems come in and execution is going to be personnel 9 times out of 10.

Where did I say it was complicated?

You say they want to attack but the numbers don't bear that out.


This can't be all weapons as I demonstrated with Rice and Worthy and Kelce on the field they were throwing for 6 YPA or less right after the season opener.

[Sassy Squatch]

Originally Posted by staylor26

Hopkins too. I don't know how much they thought he had left in the tank, but it had to be more than we got. You would think everybody talking about how slow the offense was outside of Worthy would make it easy to make the connection.

I don't know what the hell happened to Hopkins. He looked fine for a little bit then got to the point he was barely even playing. Wondering if that knee injury got reaggravated.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

And they can say whatever they want, I think the Chiefs were probably surprised by how little Kelce had left in the tank.

I know they weren't exactly leaning into him much early on, but I think they always kinda thought they could. And then when the bullets started flying and he was really struggling to raise his level of play, that knocked ANOTHER leg out from under PM's stool.

The burst was waning a bit in 2023 but you still saw it. What I noticed with Kelce was mostly that he moved in straight lines more than he had in years past. And got tired more often. But there was still burst there.

This year it was just never there at all.

They had to build the plane while they were flying it and it just never had the engines to go supersonic. I don't really know how that's at all difficult for some people to grasp.

Did they not WATCH this season?

No, no. See, what actually happened was that Andy Reid decided that throwing the ball all over the yard and scoring 60 yd. Touchdowns was boring and that it would be better to just get 5 yards at a time instead, see.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

Where did I say it was complicated?

You say they want to attack but the numbers don't bear that out.


This can't be all weapons as I demonstrated with Rice and Worthy and Kelce on the field they were throwing for 6 YPA or less right after the season opener.

It's not ALL any one thing. It's several things piled together and you do the best you can. I really don't understand why people don't get it.

[FloridaMan88]

Originally Posted by Sassy Squatch

I don't know what the hell happened to Hopkins. He looked fine for a little bit then got to the point he was barely even playing. Wondering if that knee injury got reaggravated.

A combination of decline in his physical skills with age and also the fact he has been a volume WR for most of his career, used to getting a lot of targets in a game.

Seems like he struggled to get in a rhythm, with more limited targets.

[MahomesMagic]

Originally Posted by Chris Meck

It's not ALL any one thing. It's several things piled together and you do the best you can. I really don't understand why people don't get it.

Teams took away the verticals in 2021.

Reid came back with a strong 2022 using MVS as mostly a decoy with an offense that would go through Kelce, JuJu, and the backs.

It worked quite well as teams still played us as the Super Chiefs and we ate up the shell coverages.


Problem is we haven't done anything great since.

In 2023 teams started to walk up as they saw how terrible the weapons were. And now the easy short gains weren't so easy.


Since 2023 we look like a stale version of 2022. Dink and dunk offense that isn't that effective as teams realized we aren't actually explosive or dangerous.

[RunKC]

Andy’s Achilles heal is being used against him as well. We tried to run the ball only 1 time in the first 12 plays before Patrick’s pick 6 to put the game out of reach.

Even with the problems we had, you can’t make your team one dimensional. The Eagles didn’t even care to defend the run and simply pinned their ears back which just exacerbate s the struggling QB and OL.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Even with the problems we had, you can’t make your team one dimensional. The Eagles didn’t even care to defend the run and simply pinned their ears back which just exacerbate s the struggling QB and OL.

Being predictable is what kills teams.

Which is why our performance vs. the Eagles D was such a head scratcher. Pat had all the answers - it was his performance that was piss poor. There's a number of vids out there suggesting Pat may have been concussed during the very first drive. I doubt it but it sure would explain a lot.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

Teams took away the verticals in 2021.

Reid came back with a strong 2022 using MVS as mostly a decoy with an offense that would go through Kelce, JuJu, and the backs.

It worked quite well as teams still played us as the Super Chiefs and we ate up the shell coverages.


Problem is we haven't done anything great since.

In 2023 teams started to walk up as they saw how terrible the weapons were. And now the easy short gains weren't so easy.


Since 2023 we look like a stale version of 2022. Dink and dunk offense that isn't that effective as teams realized we aren't actually explosive or dangerous.

Well, again, We lost Hollywood before the season started and Rice in game 4. So we had a rookie in Worthy and then Juju one knee and Dhop who appears to be cooked.

What happened was NOT the plan. It's pretty amazing what they were able to accomplish considering everything that went wrong.

Show me ANY team that made it to the super bowl after losing it's top two receivers and started 5 left tackles.

It is what it is. There's no massive failing here. We just didn't quite have the horses to get over the line.

[lcarus]

Nobody loves Kareem Hunt more than I do. I really believe without him we wouldn't have gotten as far as we did this season. But we need a bigger threat at RB next year. I'm fine with Pacheco and/or Hunt having a role but we need someone defenses have to be at least a little concerned about.