Five things that stood out in the Chiefs’ preseason loss to the Saints
The Chiefs are back playing football again, so Patrick Mahomes is back playing football again.
But only a little.
The Chiefs lost 26-24 to the Saints in New Orleans on Sunday afternoon. Some of the best moments came from the backups, not the starters — not that the final result matters much anyway.
Mahomes threw two passes — both to his running backs, none to his new collection of receivers — not that much matters, either.
So what’s that leave us?
Here are five observations from immediately after the game:
1. Short yardage
Just consider it a blanket statement that this was the preseason, and you can slide down a slippery slope making a big deal out of a single play or two. Or a quarter or two. Or even a preseason game or two.
So this criticism comes as a result of the entire 2022 season before its repetition in New Orleans.
The Chiefs were football’s third-worst team at converting 3rd- or 4th-and-1 rushing plays last year, successful on just 58.8% of them.
It’s not a bad thing, then, that the starters were offered the opportunity to work on it Sunday.
It did not go well.
The Chiefs went back to the Blake Bell quarterback sneak, a familiar play to anyone who has ever scouted the offense, and he was stuffed — with former Chiefs defensive lineman Khalen Saunders blowing up the play.
Even if we shouldn’t make too much out of the result, short yardage is indeed a spot in which the Chiefs could stand to improve this season.
2. The kickoff returns
The NFL has offered teams a lifeline on kickoff returns this season — allowing teams to fair catch the kickoff and place the ball at the 25-yard line.
A mountain of evidence suggests teams ought to take that lifeline, but the Chiefs are apparently ready to paddle their way through deep waters all alone instead.
The evidence keeps building, by the way.
The Chiefs returned kickoffs to their own 24-, 6-, 28- and 11-yard line. Wasn’t a great day.
Look, it makes all the sense in the world to return preseason kickoffs — you can practice a fair catch on your own time — but if the point of returning them is to provide something to evaluate, they ought to evaluate the point of the process too.
And that evaluation, including last season, would reach one conclusion:
Just take the fair catch.
3. The wide receivers
Well, we have to single out the Justyn Ross story.
It’s been a long journey back from multiple injuries, but in his first competitive game in 21 months, he caught a third-quarter touchdown.
But there’s a key phrase in that sentence: third quarter.
While Ross has occasionally mixed in with the starters during training camp, I still think he’s on the outside of the roster bubble as it stands. That’s unless the Chiefs really are inclined to keep seven wide receivers, which still doesn’t compute for me.
Elsewhere on that depth chart, Richie James impressed, wide open on three targets in a Blaine Gabbert drive. Skyy Moore, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Rashee Rice saw the bulk of the snaps with Mahomes.
Keep that in mind as cutdown day arrives in two weeks.
4. The defensive highlight
The best catch — heck, the best play — of the game belonged to Kahlef Hailassie.
Not one of those receivers.
A cornerback.
Hailassie read quarterback Jake Haener and made a leaping grab near the sideline for a third-quarter interception.
It’s pretty good timing — the Chiefs are hoping another cornerback emerges after the training camp injury to Nazeeh Johnson. Hailassie, an undrafted free agent from Western Kentucky, still has some work to do to get on the right side of the bubble, but the Chiefs prefer to stash at least one cornerback on their practice squad, and this certainly won’t hurt his chances there.
5. The Chris Jones clock
The Chiefs might be back on the field, but their most intriguing storyline of camp remains the man who is not.
Or at least not yet.
Now is the time to pay a little closer attention.
Once defensive tackle Chris Jones skipped the onset of training camp as he pursues a new long-term contract, it was predictable we wouldn’t see him at all in St. Joseph. But the Chiefs’ stay up north comes to a close this week, and on the back end we’ll find out just how far Jones wants to take this.
The point has been made either way — and it shouldn’t be in the deck to sit out actual games — which means any time Jones skips after the return to Kansas City would run closer to a display of anger than some sort of negotiation stance.
To be determined, but to be determined sooner than later.
This story was originally published August 13, 2023 at 3:12 PM.