Arrowhead Pride
Ranking Every NFL Offense for 2025 | The Ringer
8. Chiefs
I believe that we have seen the floor for a Patrick Mahomes–led offense. The Chiefs were tough to watch last year. (Yes, I know that they went 15-2 and made it to the Super Bowl.) It was clear that they had an offensive tackle problem and a wide receiver problem. As a result, Mahomes’s average pass went just 6.4 yards downfield—that ranked 34th out of 35 quarterbacks, ahead of only Gardner Minshew. The Chiefs produced an explosive play rate of just 8.9 percent, which ranked 29th. This was a sad, sad development. Mahomes’s talents used to be on full display every week when he was chucking the ball downfield and making those 1 percent throws. Now, he has been relegated to a checkdown, quick game, run-pass option robot.
This, of course, is not Mahomes’s fault. He is doing what’s asked of him, given the constraints of his supporting cast. The question is: Will 2025 be different? The case for answering yes is that the Chiefs could have an answer at left tackle in first-round pick Josh Simmons, and while wide receiver Rashee Rice will likely be facing a suspension at some point after pleading guilty for his role in a serious car crash in 2024, they should have him for most of the season. It’s also reasonable to expect wide receiver Xavier Worthy to be better in year two.
But those things are not a given. With Simmons, we have to acknowledge that rookie performance is unpredictable, and it’s unwise to declare a draft pick to be a success based on what we see in training camp and the preseason. It’s also worth noting that the Chiefs traded away one of their best offensive linemen, Joe Thuney. I’m not convinced that the net result will be an improved offensive line. Meanwhile, the Chiefs got a productive season from Rice in 2023, but even then, they still had many of the same issues with a lack of explosive plays that we saw last year. The Chiefs have ranked eighth in offensive efficiency in back-to-back years, and I’m not sure that their proposed solutions will result in much of a change in 2025.
Predicting when each NFL team will lose its first game: Steelers outlast almost everyone, Eagles fall early | CBS Sports
Chiefs (vs. Ravens). The Chiefs have a brutal schedule to start the season with three of their first four games against teams that made the playoffs last season (Chargers, Eagles, Ravens). It won’t be surprising if they slip up in one of those games and we’ll say it happens in this one.
NFL picks: Predicting every game, final 2025 record for each AFC team | NFL.com
Ali explains his picks …
High point: Week 17 vs. Broncos.
After enduring a slog of a season and the tightest AFC West race in years, the Chiefs...
