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NFL Draft

Kansas City Chiefs’ 2020 Season Will Be Successful If…

  • The Draft Network
  • July 28, 2020
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What is the best way to say this? The Kansas City Chiefs need to return to the Super Bowl and win. It can’t get any more simple than that. 

The last Super Bowl repeat happened in the early 2000s with the New England Patriots and no teams, other than Patriots (2003-04) and the Seattle Seahawks (2013-14), have had back-to-back Super Bowl appearances this century. Neither team—no matter how magical Russell Wilson is or how G.O.A.T-ed Tom Brady is—has had a generational talent like quarterback Patrick Mahomes working in tandem with head coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. 

There have been plenty of Super Bowl-or-bust tags given to teams when mapping their 2020 success, but none more pressing than the Chiefs. They cannot have a quarterback of that caliber with an offense that dangerous and do anything less than hoist another Vince Lombardi Trophy this season.

Mahomes is seemingly unstoppable, and even when he is—only missing action due to injury—Kansas City managed to stay afloat with their loaded offense. The Chiefs split Weeks 8 and 9 in Mahomes’ absence with a dislocated kneecap; it was one of a few blemishes on their record. For the past two seasons, Kansas City has gone 12-4. The team advanced to the AFC Championship Game in 2018, only to lose in overtime to the Patriots, and then, obviously, won the Super Bowl last season. In the two years Mahomes has been a full-time starter, Kansas City has had one of the NFL’s top offenses. While it’s been extremely unbalanced, it has still been extremely successful due to a handful of key playmakers.  

Tight end Travis Kelce is in very rare company with only San Francisco 49ers’ George Kittle and Philadelphia Eagles’ Zach Ertz coming close to matching his efficiency, but still, Kelce surpasses all of his peers. Since 2016, Kelce has led all tight ends in targets (525), receptions (368), receiving yards (4,728), and receiving touchdowns (27). Mahomes’ other targets include wide receivers Tyreek Hill, the speedster who caught 58 receptions for 860 yards last season, Sammy Watkins, who helps fill out the reliable receiver room, and Mecole Hardman, who’s entering his sophomore season and poised to build off a breakout rookie campaign with 538 yards and six touchdowns on just 26 catches; in this offense, that’s pretty darn good. 

If there’s one area of weakness for the Chiefs it’s their rushing attack. Kansas City bolstered its backfield with first-round pick Clyde Edwards-Helaire after the run game fell toward the bottom of the NFL—I guess no one can be good at everything. Since Mahomes has taken over as starting quarterback, the run-to-pass ratio has been significantly disproportionate. In 2018, the offense averaged 115.9 rushing yards to 309.7 passing yards, and in 2019, 98.1 rushing yards to 281.1 passing yards per game. Edwards-Helaire is a welcome addition and can punish opposing defenses as the team’s projected starter. 

The Chiefs addressed their few needs on offense via the draft but focused most of their attention on defense. The saying, “defense wins championships,” doesn’t apply to Kansas City. There were notable improvements in this unit with the hiring of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, but Kansas City needs to be more efficient at stopping the run. In the past two seasons, the defense has ranked 27th. Both defensive end Frank Clark and defensive tackle Chris Jones received contract extensions. Kansas City also returned safety Tyrann Mathieu and added second-round pick Willie Gay Jr. to the middle of the defense. The team will need to fill the void Kendall Fuller left.

Any of this team’s shortcomings are masked by Mahomes. While some teams with perennial quarterbacks are stunted by a lackluster defense or poor play-calling, the Chiefs have everything working in their favor to win many more Super Bowls—but arguably none will be as important as repeating in 2020.

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