Arrowhead Pride
Here are the Chiefs’ three weakest positions entering the 2026 NFL offseason | The Kansas City Star
1) Safety
Over the last decade or so, the Chiefs have kept the “safety train” moving, going from names like Tyrann Mathieu to Juan Thornhill to Justin Reid and now Bryan Cook. When one player moves along, the next tandem up seems ready and capable.
But this doesn’t feel like a back-end build that’s ready to move on without Cook.
Spagnuolo is known for designing a complex defense with rules and assignments that help disguise looks and confuse the opposing quarterback. In doing so, he asks his safeties to do a lot, and he trusts them to adjust depending on what they see.
Right or wrong, Spagnuolo likes Conner, who actually edged out Bolton for the team lead in defensive snaps. Conner plays everywhere, from the box to the nickel to dropping back as a free safety. When he was on the field in a limited role, Hicks was mostly used in the box.
And that indomitable mindset we’ve seen play out over and over in Mahomes is both reassuring and the crux of any concern about his ambition to be on the field — “with no restrictions,” as he put it — to start the season.
Because there’s an emotional challenge between the urgency of returning vs. his long-term health, between being diligent and over-extending himself — as he could be apt to do, being the voracious competitor he is.
As he spoke about following the directions and protocols from surgeon Daniel Cooper through rehabilitation largely with Chiefs VP of sports medicine and performance Rick Burkholder, assistant athletic trainer Julie Frymyer and longtime personal trainer Bobby Stroupe, Mahomes used terms such as “they hold me back, because I always want to go a little further” and “as much as they’ll let me.”
When at his best in 2025, Mahomes didn’t hesitate. He had the quickest average time to throw of his career per Next Gen Stats (2.79 seconds), and many of his best performances lined up directly with the games he held onto it the shortest.
It was especially noticeable early. According to Pro Football Focus’ data, Mahomes passed to his first read on 83 percent, 79 percent, 83 percent and 82 percent of his throws in his first four games.
Over the rest of the season — his final 11 weeks — Mahomes surpassed 71 percent on his first-read throw percentage in just three other games.
Part of getting back to fast-fire offense, though, will be what Mahomes referenced earlier. Can the offense add more unpredictability and break tendencies enough to keep defenses...
