Two reasons why Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs are hitting their stride ahead of NFL playoffs
Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce strutted into the Chiefs’ locker room in what I could best describe as Santa jackets that looked suited for some sort of outer space wardrobe.
“Cashmere,” Mahomes joked while running his hands along the shiny material of the coat provided by Netflix.
But before he could even spit out the full word, in walked a real Santa costume, the rich-red velvet jacket and pants.
“How ‘bout those Chiefs?” the Chiefs’ head coach bellowed.
Here’s how: The Chiefs crushed the Steelers 29-10, the onset of a Christmas Day celebration in Pittsburgh. They clinched the AFC’s No. 1 seed and reached 15 wins for the first time in the franchise’s history.
It fostered just a bit of a different vibe than the helmet-toss, player-coach confrontations of a year ago. You remember that, right? Mahomes did. He has talked about this game — or this date — since the moment the schedule came out.
It’s a cute story.
But a blowout in Pittsburgh is not the product of revenge.
It is the product of growth.
It is the product of a one-two wide receiver punch the Chiefs have not enjoyed this season.
It is Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy.
The Chiefs’ offense cooked on Christmas Day, tossing aside the frustrations of a one-loss season. Seriously, read those last six words again to remind yourself of this pinch-me era of Kansas City football, because you might miss the days of critiquing a 15-1 team when they’re gone.
At one point Wednesday, after throwing his third touchdown pass, Mahomes turned his back on the play, stretched his arms outward and tilted his palms skyward, as if to pantomime, “How you like me now?”
We had turned his name into a different part of speech to describe days like these. They were routine. They were, well, Mahomesian.
But we didn’t invent the regression. We didn’t invent the frustrations. The Chiefs have averaged 5.08 yards per play in 2024, the lowest mark of Mahomes’ tenure in KC. And it’s not even close, nearly a full yard lower than any other year. The frustrations were real.
Were.
Two weeks shy of the playoffs, in what will be the starters’ final appearance before the march for a three-peat, the Chiefs look like a completely different team.
Because they are.
It’s not coincidence that the offense has lined up its stride with Brown’s return from a clavicle injury. Or that its best football runs step for step with the late-season emergence of the fastest NFL player to run a 40-yard dash.
There are plenty of ways to illustrate the late-season impact of Brown and Worthy, or plenty of numbers to support it. I’ll offer just a few.
But the best illustration? One play.
And neither of them even touched the football as it was executed.
The Chiefs, at long last, completed a go-route, believe it or not, Mahomes dropping a 49-yard bomb into the lap of Justin Watson. It marked Watson’s first catch on a downfield shot all season.
But guess what? That pass was never intended to come his way.
Mahomes has two primary reads on that play: Brown and Worthy.
But the Steelers also had two primary reads on that play: Brown and Worthy.
The Pittsburgh safeties keyed toward the two receivers, just fine with leaving Watson single-covered on the outside. He stacked the cornerback — ran outside him on the sideline — and got open.
“I just kind of gave a peek to J-Wat,” Mahomes said. “I put it out there and let him make a play.”
If it seems like that play would have unfolded similarly regardless of the group of receivers on the field — if it seems as though the Steelers would have shaded their coverage the same — there’s something Watson shared that would dispute that.
He’s run that particular route a lot during his three-year Chiefs tenure. As many as 50 times, he estimated.
Know how many times he believes he’s been targeted on it?
Zero.
In fact, the very coaching point for his route consists of two words: Stay alive.
It can be hard to run a route over and over again when you know the ball isn’t coming your way. And for three years now, on that very route, Watson believes the ball has never come his way.
The difference Wednesday: Worthy and Brown were the guys running the other two routes.
“A hundred percent,” Mahomes said when I asked him about that difference.
“It’s a call we have almost every week,” Watson said. “Just cool to always be ready and get rewarded for it on that one.”
That’s one play.
I did promise some numbers, too.
With Brown: Since returning from injury to make his season (and Chiefs) debut on Saturday against the Texans, he has averaged 3.00 and 2.47 yards per route run in two games. There isn’t a Chiefs receiver on the roster who has two games this year with better than 2.47 yards per route run. Brown has done it in his first two appearances.
With Worthy: After setting a career-high with seven catches against Houston, he topped it with eight receptions just four days later. And it’s not just the result of straight-line speed. It’s his short and intermediate game. His catches are the result of a diverse route tree that he’s running with different purpose than he did in September ... or even November, for that matter.
The sum is the best Chiefs offense we’ve seen in four months. They were at 6.71 yards per play. They hadn’t topped 5.75 since the season opener. It would have been even higher if not for a peculiar fourth-down flag on offensive lineman Jawaan Taylor.
Imagine what the rest of the league must have been thinking watching the Chiefs on Wednesday.
Uh oh.
It’s not that it’s coming together. It’s how. It’s why. There’s staying power at work here. And that is what might return the Chiefs to being the team to beat in the AFC — even more than the path the No. 1 seed can offer.
Their offense is back.
Even Santa was back.
Reid kept the red velvet pants on, by the way, for his post-game news conference. And what’s most noteworthy here is that he packed them at all. That’s some confidence, right? Or, as he said with a wink to his wife, an elf packed the pants for him.
“For all you non-believers out there, doggone it,” he quipped.
A reference to Santa.
Better suited for the Chiefs.