The odds are stacked against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Missing the playoffs for the first time since he became a full-time starter, Mahomes’s injury has raised significant concerns about the state of the offense.
Kansas City failed to blow people away last season, and the wide receiving corps hasn’t received a significant upgrade this time around either. As a result, one former quarterback believes the organization could be in for a rude awakening.
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Once firmly regarded as among the most prolific offenses in the entire NFL, that trend has taken a complete U-turn in recent years. Over the last three seasons, the Chiefs haven’t finished inside the top-10 of PFSN’s Offense Impact Metrics even once.
A big part of that problem has been the wide receiver corps, which has been anywhere between disappointing and downright bad. In the same three-year sample, outside of a rookie Rashee Rice finishing at 15, no Chiefs wide receiver has been inside the top 25 of PFN’s WR Impact Metrics during a particular season.
Unfortunately, they haven’t made any major moves to address such a glaring weakness on the roster. Instead, the fan base is tying its hopes to fifth-round rookie Cyrus Allen, and their other wide receivers finally finding their rhythm.
Dan Orlovsky believes that plan isn’t going to get them too far. The former Detroit Lions quarterback-turned-ESPN mainstay directly called out the issues with the receiving corps on social media.
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“10 teams in the AFC have a better WR core than the Chiefs. Maybe that will change throughout the season, but right now that’s reality for them,” he wrote on X. He believes there’s only one way to salvage the season. “Patrick and Andy will have to work magic again.”
But the Chiefs haven’t left the offense completely untouched. One of the biggest moves of the summer came in the form of reigning Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III, who signed a three-year, $43.05 million contract with the franchise.
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For a team that hasn’t had a single running back tally over 750 rushing yards in either of the last two seasons, adding Walker, who has two 1,000-yard seasons under his belt, is a major upgrade. The other comes in the form of offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.
He was the OC for Kansas City from 2018-2022, a five-year stretch where they finished inside the top-5 of PFN’s Offensive Impact metric in each of those seasons, and at number one on two separate occasions as well.
The hope is that his return can inject some life into the offense and help them take a significant step forward. It remains to be seen if these moves turn out to be enough, but Orlovsky remains convinced that the Chiefs needed to do more, with the burden now falling on their quarterback and head coach combo.
