On Thursday, NFL.com ‘s Gennaro Filice listed what he believes would be the NFL’s high 10 offenses in 2024, specializing in offensive factors per sport — that’s, ignoring touchdowns scored by defenses or particular groups items.
Final 12 months, the San Francisco 49ers led the league in that statistic — and within the coming season, Filice expects them to do it once more. However behind the 49ers, he lists a unit that didn’t even make 2023’s high 10: the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ offense.
2. Kansas Metropolis Chiefs
SIGNATURE STRENGTH: The most effective participant in soccer. Fortune favors the daring, and Kansas Metropolis hit the jackpot with an audacious commerce for Patrick Mahomes within the 2017 NFL Draft. Okay.C. gave up a third-round decide and a future first-rounder to leap up from No. 27 to No. 10 and take the Texas Tech gunslinger. Clearly, that deal turned out to be freeway theft for the Chiefs. In hindsight, the financial worth of that transfer — for the Chiefs and the town of Kansas Metropolis — is one thing akin to the gross home product of a small nation. It was a reputable league-changer. Within the six seasons since Mahomes took the beginning reins, the Chiefs have gone to 6 AFC Championship Video games and 4 Tremendous Bowls, successful three Lombardi Trophies within the course of. Unsurprisingly, Kansas Metropolis has additionally led the NFL in offensive scoring by almost two entire factors throughout this span (27.1 ppg, with Dallas rating second at 25.3). Following an uneven 2023 common season that noticed Mahomes end exterior the highest 5 in passing yards and passing touchdowns — and inherently had the Chiefs rank 14th at 21.0 offensive ppg — I’ve a sense Andy Reid will come out firing in 2024.
WORRYING WEAKNESS: Chemistry questions at vast receiver. Coping with a number of accidents — and doubtlessly simply the results of ageing — Travis Kelce fell wanting 1,000 yards receiving for the primary time since 2015. With out the tight finish taking part in at an All-Professional stage, the burden fell on Kansas Metropolis’s receivers to supply. Most did not reply the bell. The lone vibrant spot was rookie Rashee Rice, who actually got here on within the again half of the 12 months, seemingly setting himself up for a full breakout in 2024. However now Rice’s standing is up within the air following a car-racing crash in April that might end in a suspension underneath the NFL’s private conduct coverage. On the plus facet, the Chiefs added a pair of explosive receivers this offseason: free-agent signee Marquise Brown and first-round decide Xavier Worthy. Although each are small, Brown and Worthy possess the sort of blazing pace that may stretch a protection past its limits, which is one thing the back-to-back Tremendous Bowl champs have struggled to do since buying and selling Tyreek Hill. How rapidly can the 2 newbies acquire a rapport with Mahomes? How a lot might a suspension influence Rice’s sophomore marketing campaign?
Takeaway
Filice has one factor completely proper: Mahomes is the important thing cog within the custom-built machine that head coach Andy Reid operates in Kansas Metropolis.
However as time passes, I’m progressively much less involved about Mahomes’ vast receiver corps.
It’s truthful to notice that Hollywood Brown has by no means lived as much as what everybody perceived his potential to be. But when he can’t attain that potential in Kansas Metropolis, he by no means will.
It’s cheap to remind people who Worthy is a rookie — but additionally truthful to notice he’s a really quick one. That’s precisely what Mecole Hardman was in 2019, when he gained greater than 500 yards by the air and was a second-team All-Professional returner.
With Brown and Worthy becoming a member of Hardman and Justin Watson, the Chiefs will be capable of threaten with downfield pace on each snap — even when Rice is watching the sport on TV. That’s excellent news not just for tight finish Travis Kelce, but additionally for his backups Noah Grey, Irv Smith and rookie Jared Wylie.
I’m not constructive the Chiefs will return to fielding a top-5 offense in 2024. However so long as Mahomes is the quarterback, that’s on the desk — and it’s onerous to think about the unit received’t not less than enhance on its 2023 manufacturing.
