Arrowhead Pride
It’s entirely reasonable to expect the Kansas City Chiefs to fall in NFL power rankings after losing their season opener to the Los Angeles Chargers. Still, I can’t recall any week during Andy Reid’s tenure that the Chiefs received a double-digit ranking from any outlet.
Here’s this week’s sampling:
(down from 4)
One pass attempt into the season, Patrick Mahomes lost Xavier Worthy indefinitely to a shoulder injury. Rashee Rice is only one week into a six-game suspension. Rookie Jalen Royals is dealing with knee pain. Hollywood Brown played his role in the opener, Travis Kelce caught a schemed-up TD and JuJu Smith-Schuster made a few plays. But we’re almost right back where Kansas City has been a few times in the recent past, and we know how this movie goes. The Chiefs really labored offensively for much of the loss in Brazil before catching a little fire late against the Chargers. But with the defense really struggling to get stops, it introduced a relatively new storyline to watch. I was hopeful the offense could regain some of its mojo, but I truly thought the D would be stout. With Philly on tap, Kansas City could be in some early heat.
— Eric Edholm
(down from 2)
Best newcomer performance: OT Josh Simmons
The Chiefs received a solid performance from their first-round pick in his debut. As the new blindside protector for quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Simmons didn’t surrender a sack despite at times battling Khalil Mack, the Chargers’ best edge rusher. The biggest issue is that Simmons committed two false start penalties. Moving forward, the Chiefs would be wise to use him more often in running plays, as he showed his athleticism in a few snaps last week.
— Nate Taylor
(down from 5)
Their streak of 17 straight wins in one-score games is over, and their margin for error just seems smaller than it used to be. The Chiefs did notch three sacks, but for the most part, they gave Herbert way too much time to throw. They need more from Charles Omenihu, Mike Danna and Derrick Nnadi. And their top pass rusher, Chris Jones, offered an easy escape from the pocket on a crucial, late first-down scramble.
— Josh Kendall
(down from 4)
It was notable how flat the Chiefs seemed to come out on Friday. That is maybe more of a reflection of the NFL shipping one of its most valuable commodities to Brazil of all places for the season opener, but if the most valuable arm in the NFL hurling itself into a defender’s shoulder doesn’t get a team jacked up, I’m not quite sure what will. I’m not ready to call it related to the Super Bowl blowout until I see the rematch this weekend.
— Conor Orr
(down from 2)
Mahomes is still Mahomes, but something seems to be missing....
