Bill Belichick sees two areas where Chiefs could improve as they go for three-peat
Before the Chiefs, the last team to win consecutive Super Bowl titles was the New England Patriots.
They won Super Bowl XXXVIII and XXXIX, then won the AFC East title the following year. In the playoffs, New England routed the Jaguars 28-3, then lost the Broncos in the divisional round, ending their quest for a three-peat.
No team has ever won three straight Super Bowl titles, and former Patriots coach Bill Belichick knows the challenges facing the Chiefs. While on “The Pat McAfee” show, Belichick was asked Monday about the Chiefs’ three-peat quest.
Belichick noted how the Chiefs tried to get rookie receiver Xavier Worthy more work with quarterback Patrick Mahomes in Saturday’s 24-23 preseason loss to the Detroit Lions.
“I think it’s a really interesting question,” Belichick said of the three-peat attempt. “Let’s start on offense. It looked to me like they wanted to play Worthy with Mahomes. And Mahomes gave him a bunch of targets. Got him on that first flag route and then an under route. They ran a reverse to him, things like that. So it looked like it was, let’s get some timing with the receivers, with (Rashee) Rice, with Worthy, (Travis) Kelce for a little while in there. And I think that was for the quarterback and receivers, just to get work under game conditions, not just practice. And so I think that was the purpose of it.
“Then Andy let the rest of the guys play throughout the game. But I thought offensively it looks like it’s just going to be an effort to get the young guy’s timing with Pat so they’re ready to go, and ready to go early against Baltimore, obviously, the big opener there.”
For Belichick, there are two key areas for improvement on defense. The Chiefs had the No. 2 scoring defense in the 2023 season. However, the defense ranked 24th in rushing yards per attempt (4.5 per carry) and were 28th in turnovers created (17).
But Belichick stopped short of saying it was a quixotic quest for the Chiefs.
“I think the bigger issues are going to be on defense they couldn’t turn the ball over,” Belichick said. “Look, they played very, very well in the playoffs. So that’s where it counts, and that’s the most important thing. But overall, as a team, run defense, turnovers, I think that’s an area that they’re going to want to improve in. And I just think it’s going to be tough this year.
“They’re a good team, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that. I just think this third year for it all to fall into place three years in a row, is tough. I think if anybody can do it, it’s probably Kansas City. But it won’t be easy. It won’t be easy.”
The Chiefs and 49ers have the best odds to win the Super Bowl, per Fox Sports. Among the next six teams on that list, four are in the AFC.
“I’m not sure how tough the AFC West is going to be, but I think in the end, they’re going to have some tough opponents, through the course of the season and playoffs,” Belichick said. “But, you know, Andy will have him ready to go and I think they’ll maybe score more than they did last year.
“We’ll see if they can hold them defensively. They lost a couple good coverage players, obviously (cornerback L’Jarius) Sneed. We’ll see how all that comes together.”
Here is Belichick on the Chiefs.
This story was originally published August 20, 2024 at 9:37 AM.
