Football 301 Playbook: Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense isn’t what it used to be, but it’s still a tough matchup for 49ers

Much has been made about the Kansas City Chiefs’ pass catchers: The Hollywood Brown signing (and injury), the Xavier Worthy draft pick, Rashee Rice’s emergence (and then unfortunate injury), Travis Kelce’s usage arguments and JuJu Smith-Schuster partying like it’s 2018. Despite cruising to a 5-0 record and sitting firmly in the top 10 in whatever metric you want to look at, there have been a lot of words yelled and written about “what’s wrong with the Chiefs’ offense?”

I’m here to tell you that there’s nothing wrong with the Chiefs’ offense or quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Sure, the statistics are more middling and there have been only a smattering of those long bombs, which seems to run counter to this offseason’s speed injection. This is just the next stage and version of the Chiefs that has — and will continue to — evolve based on the personnel surrounding their all-world quarterback and Hall of Fame play-caller.

And this version of the Chiefs will be put to the test in Sunday’s anticipated Super Bowl rematch at the San Francisco 49ers.

The speed of Worthy and the threat of Mahomes launching downfield has instead opened up different areas for the Chiefs to attack. This Chiefs’ offense isn’t the high-flying version when Mahomes first started. It’s something more aligned with what Andy Reid was doing in Philadelphia when Donovan McNabb was his quarterback, or even his early Chiefs tenure with Alex Smith. This offense thrives on being efficient. Super efficient. Hyper efficient. Constantly jabbing defenses with 4- and 5-yard gains, on the ground and through the air, until Mahomes gives a defense the sweet release of a haymaker or Reid has his players execute one of his fever dream red-zone plays.

The Chiefs’ run game has taken over as the primary driver of this offense. It’s not explosive as the Chiefs’ running backs haven’t had a single explosive run (a gain of 12 or more yards) this season. It’s a startling stat (the league average is…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-17 13:00:58

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