Concerned about the Chiefs’ offense? Here’s what national NFL media members are saying
Heading into the “Monday Night Football” game between the Chargers and Cowboys, the Chiefs offense ranks ninth in scoring and fifth in total yards.
While scoring is down from what we’ve seen in Patrick Mahomes’ time as the Chiefs starter, both rankings are solid through the first six weeks of the season.
But some national pundits have weighed in with concerns. Here is a sample of what NFL journalists are saying about the Chiefs.
Charles McDonald of Yahoo Sports wrote a story with the headline, “Chiefs are winning, but their offense is starting to get a little concerning.”
This is an excerpt: “Simply having Mahomes on the roster gives the Chiefs a chance to win every game they play, but the structure around him has deteriorated to a degree. Outside of pressing the Travis Kelce button, the Chiefs are having a hard time getting people open. They don’t really have anyone who can win on the outside and get things moving down the field to jumpstart some of their drives. The combination of Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney hasn’t scared anyone this season. Rookie wide receiver Rashee Rice has begun to develop into a quality option, but as a whole this wide receiver group is fairly docile on the field. ...
“The entirety of the Chiefs’ offense still lends itself to a team that’s going to win a lot of games, and the defense has played well so far, but it’s fair to be concerned about how they’ll match up against the good teams. The Detroit Lions stifled them at the beginning of the season. Three of their four next games are against the Los Angeles Chargers, Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles, so they’ll get to test their offense against some units that can really score in a hurry. Right now, it seems like a tall task for the Chiefs to outscore those teams, but all things are possible through Mahomes.”
NBC Sports’ Peter King and Mike Florio talked about the Chiefs last week.
“The Kansas City offense is right now basically Travis Kelce, Isiah Pacheco and this is really going to age me, Spahn and Sain and pray for rain,” King said. “The old pitching rotation where you have Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain a thousand years ago and then you hope for a rainout.
“It’s almost the same thing with Kansas City right now that Patrick Mahomes is going to have to manufacture every week guys he hopes will get open and just keep working with them.”
King added: “I still believe his relationship with his receivers from all of those practices in the offseason is going to pay off. It paid off last year and I think it will pay off this year but obviously it’s been a struggle.”
Yardbarker’s Adam Gretz wrote a story with the headline, “Chiefs are now defined by defense, not offense.”
This is a snippet from his story: “In this era of ‘offense is everything,’ no team has been at the forefront of creativity, innovation and scoring more than the Chiefs. They have consistently been one of the toughest teams to stop and have always been a threat to score 30 or 40 points in any given game. But since the end of last season, and especially through the first six games of this season, that offense has taken a pretty big step backward. ...
“This is not to say the Chiefs offense has been bad. It just hasn’t been what we have come to expect. Over their past 11 games dating back to last season (including playoffs), the Chiefs have topped the 30-point mark in just three of those games, and in six of those games have failed to score more than 24 points. Their only game with more than 27 points this season was a 41-point outburst against the Chicago Bears.”
On ESPN’s “First Take,” Shannon Sharpe said the Chiefs receivers need to play better.
“What I am concerned about, as great as Andy Reid can scheme and he has scheme receivers, there’s only so many bunches, so many stack formations that you can run,” Sharpe said. “At some point and time it’s going to come down to your guys have got to be boy dogs and get open, go beat man coverage. And right now it’s a struggle for everyone to beat man coverage other than Travis Kelce.
“And at some point and time they’re going to do their best job to take him away and you’re going to have to have MVS, and you’re going to have to have Kadarius Toney and you’re going to have to have Skyy Moore and (Rashee) Rice to go beat man coverage on a consistent basis, and right now it is a struggle for them to beat man coverage on a consistent basis.”
On his show, Rich Eisen asked if what we’re seeing from the Chiefs will be the new norm.
“Is this the Kansas City Chiefs of 2023?” Eisen asked. “Are we just needing to get used to the fact that they don’t have some dynamic receiver to take the top of the defense off? Or somebody outside of Kelce that is going to actually be a big problem for the defense? And it’s just the Chiefs defense that’s going to rule the day. Is this what we’re seeing right now? It may be.”
