Arrowhead Pride
For the third straight year, I’m considering the 10 biggest questions I have about the Kansas City Chiefs in 2025.
If you’ve been following this series, we’re in familiar territory: the Chiefs need more explosive plays.
At left tackle, Josh Simmons could give quarterback Patrick Mahomes more time in the pocket to launch the ball downfield. Having wide receiver Rashee Rice back could help generate more explosive plays from the quick throws on which he thrives. Rice’s presence should also allow fellow wideout Xavier Worthy to specialize in downfield routes more often.
In short: we’ve already covered a lot of things that can help Kansas City become more explosive this season.
But we haven’t yet addressed the elephant in the room: Mahomes himself.
I don’t write about Mahomes very often, because there aren’t usually a lot of new things to say about him. He’s the greatest quarterback I’ve ever seen. He plays at an incredible level every week. He’s one of the smartest quarterbacks I’ve ever witnessed. He’s tremendous both in and out of the pocket.
It comes down to this: I like to cover the other areas of the team — because I know Mahomes is going to be great.
But Mahomes does contribute to some of the problems the Chiefs have had with explosive plays.
That’s because ever since the team traded Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins, Mahomes’ biggest weakness has been a lack of downfield accuracy. Without Hill, Kansas City’s vertical passing game has become significantly worse.
Why has this been the case? It’s complicated.
First, the play of the offensive tackles over the last few seasons has hurt Mahomes’ ability to launch passes downfield. When he took over the offense in 2018, Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz were protecting him on the outside. He could take long dropbacks, drift and create a big launching platform.
But since their departure, the pocket has been condensed. Mahomes can no longer drop 10-11 yards back. Instead, he’s limited to seven or eight yards. While the Chiefs do have a fantastic interior offensive line, it’s still a congested space from which it is difficult to throw deep passes. It can also affect a quarterback’s footwork — and thus, the throwing platform from which they pass.
Second, the Chiefs have lacked wide receivers who can win downfield. While Kansas City has never built its wide receiver group to succeed with contested catches, this skill has been sorely lacking during the past three seasons — and right now, none of the team’s wideouts are good at catching in traffic. There’s not much margin for error if a quarterback can’t trust his receivers to make a play.
That’s exactly what made Hill so special. While he stood only 5 feet 10, he was very strong, could jump 40 inches into the air and was very good at tracking the ball. The Chiefs don’t have anyone who can even come close to replicating that.
Finally… in the last two seasons, Kansas City didn’t...
