For a team known for its passing attack, the Kansas City Chiefs had a little trouble throwing the ball in 2024.
The Super Bowl exposed a microcosm of the problems the Chiefs had all season with generating downfield plays. The Chiefs had zero passing first-downs in the first half, and while they finished with 11, the same as the Philadelphia Eagles, it was too late. Those first downs were generated after the game was put out of reach in the third quarter.
Patrick Mahomes was still Jesus in Cleats, but his 3,928 passing yards, 26 touchdowns paper over the fact he only attempted 49 deep balls (20 yards or more) all season, averaging 3.1 per game. His adjusted completion percentage on those throws was only 27.5% in 2024, compared to 47.1% in 2022.
Why Draft a Receiver When You Have Rice and Brown Coming Back?
This dip wasn’t a falloff on Mahomes’ part or even because the Chiefs are less effective than believed; it was caused by a rash of injuries at the receiver position.
The scary part is that the Chiefs had the deadliest part of their offense taken away and still made the Super Bowl. With their receivers getting healthy, they decided to add to their collection of speedsters in the draft.
The Chiefs drafted Utah State wide receiver Jalen Royals in the fourth round and Chiefs director of player personnel Ryne Nutt sat down with Adam Teicher of ESPN to talk about why.
“He’s got big hands, strong hands, and he’s very good after the catch. [Run after the catch] is a big part of our offense,” Teicher said. “That’s something we look for in receivers. We look for speed. The kid had that 4.40 [40-yard dash].
“We look for strength, and he has that. Then we look for route running, and that’s probably an area where Rashee had to kind of develop a little bit, so we kind of thought they were similar in that respect.
“With Rashee coming back from injury and trying to get right, the hopes are this kid can step in and try to get some playing time and help us out,” Nutt added.
Hollywood Brown missed the first 15 weeks of the regular season and Rashee Rice was put out of action in Week 4 with a season-ending knee injury. This was devastating and meant Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy had to lean more on quick throws underneath and YAC-based throws, rather than pushing the ball downfield.
However, it’s not just the Chiefs. There’s been a league-wide regression on deep balls over the last several seasons:
Average Deep Attempts Per Team Per Game (20+ Air Yards):
- 2018: ~10.9
- 2019: ~10.2
- 2021: ~8.8
- 2023: ~8.1
- 2024: ~7.7 (lowest in over a decade)
Teams have been taking away the deep pass by adopting more two-high safety shells and stopped blitzing quarterbacks like Mahomes and Allen, which forces them to work for it instead of allowing wide-open spaces.
However, the way offenses can neutralize these defensive adjustments is with speed and the Chiefs are loading up on plenty of it.
