Much to the dismay of the other teams in the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl last season with the worst offense of Patrick Mahomes' tenure as their starting quarterback. That's not to say that Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Rashee Rice, Isiah Pacheco, and head coach Andy Reid didn't play a huge role in winning another Super Bowl last season. However, the offense's production and efficiency were way down from the first five seasons of the Mahomes dynasty.
The Chiefs' drop in offensive production was centered around a clear deficiency in creating explosive plays in the passing game. It's been noted that KC's wide receivers last season (outside of Rashee Rice) limited the offensive options and their overall results. Mahomes did the best he could with what he had, leaning heavily on Rice and Travis Kelce, Fortunately, the defense stepped up and delivered another Super Bowl victory.
Just how much of a drop-off was there last season? Well, in K.C.'s first five seasons with Mahomes as the starting quarterback, they averaged a little over 400 total yards per game with about 295 of those yards through the air. Mahomes averaged 8.1 yards per passing attempt and the offense averaged around 30 points per game. Putting up those kinds of numbers over a five-year span is insane, but last year, the stats dropped to typical NFL levels.
The Chiefs averaged just 351.3 total yards per game with just 246.4 passing yards. Basically, the Chiefs dropped their average passing yards per game last season by almost 50 yards. The team also scored just 21.8 points per game (over 8 points below their previous five-year average) and Mahomes saw his yards per attempt number drop over a yard per attempt down to 7.0.
The Chiefs spent a lot of time and resources on trying to get the offense back on track this offseason. They signed Marquise "Hollywood" Brown in free agency and spent their top draft pick on speedy wideout Xavier Worthy.
Throughout training camp, getting back to being more explosive down the field was a clear emphasis. The debut of this revamped offense against the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday should have the rest of the NFL worried that K.C.'s elite offensive production is about to come roaring back.
The Chiefs put up 27 points and 353 yards, including 281 yards passing, against the Ravens last Thursday night. Patrick Mahomes averaged an impressive 10.4 yards per attempt. Rashee Rice showed the NFL he is poised to be a true #1 wideout and Xavier Worthy turned a lot of heads with an explosive two-touchdown debut.
While 27 points, 353 total yards, and 281 passing yards may not be quite at the elite level of their first five seasons with Mahomes, you also have to take into account who it was against. Last season the Baltimore Ravens allowed the fewest points in the NFL and were the sixth best defense in yards and passing yards allowed. Opposing offenses put up just 191.9 passing yards per game and 16.5 points last year against the Ravens defense.
Even in the Chiefs' win over Baltimore in the AFC Championship Game, the Chiefs only had 230 yards passing, scored 17 points, and Mahomes averaged just 6.2 yards per attempt. So last Thursday the Chiefs scored 10 more points and passed for 51 more yards (on 11 fewer attempts), and they did so without Hollywood Brown and with a quiet night from Travis Kelce.
Now, to be fair, you can't assume too much from just one game and the Baltimore Ravens turned over much of their defensive staff last offseason. However, the Ravens still have talented players at all three levels of their defense and most are still anticipating that by the end of the season, they will still be viewed as one of the better defenses in all the NFL.
While the staff turnover in Baltimore may have contributed some to the difference in results in this game, I would argue that the stats point to it being more about the Chiefs' revamped offense than the Ravens' defense. Last season, with K.C. lacking an explosive downfield threat, the Ravens were able to clog the middle of the field and forced the Chiefs to nickel and dime things all game long. On Thursday, the Ravens had to respect the speed of Worthy with the emphasis on more downfield plays that KC talked about all offseason in the back of their minds. The result was much more space to operate underneath.
Don't believe me? Check out the difference in Rashee Rice's numbers between the AFC Championship Game and the opener on Thursday. In the AFCCG, Rice had 8 receptions for 46 yards. That's just 5.75 yards per reception. He simply had nowhere to go when he caught the ball. On Thursday, Rice had 7 receptions for 103 yards. That's 14.7 yards per reception. Anyone who watched that game will tell you that those 14.7 yards per reception were much more about his yards after the catch than they were about how deep he was targeted. In other words, the defense couldn't crash down to take away Rice (or Kelce's) space to operate because they had to respect the deep ball again.
If the Chiefs were able to throw the ball that effectively and put up 27 points against one of the best scoring/pass defenses from last season without Hollywood Brown, with Xavier Worthy in his very first NFL game, and with minimal contributions from Travis Kelce, then what kind of ceiling does this offense have this season? Could we be looking at a return to 400 yards and 30 points per game like the Chiefs averaged over Patrick Mahomes' first five seasons as a starting quarterback?
Is it possible that the development Mahomes was forced to make over the past couple of seasons without big play receivers at his disposal combined with a quartet of Rice, Worthy, Brown, and Kelce to throw to could make this offense even more dangerous than in previous years? As we stand here today I think you can make a pretty strong argument that Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes have as good of a group of pass-catching weapons as they have at any time during their dynasty. That has to be a terrifying thought for the rest of the NFL who are hoping to prevent the NFL's first-ever Super Bowl "three-peat".
So what do you think Chiefs fans? Do you believe that what we saw in the opener points towards KC's offense returning to their elite ways? Is it even possible that this offense could be the best of the Mahomes era or do you think we should cool our jets because it was just one game and the Ravens were breaking in a new coaching staff? I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments below.
