Breaking News: Why the Chiefs must prioritize a top wide receiver in free agency for Patrick Mahomes…..Read More

While the Kansas City Chiefs offseason will mainly be focused on how the team will address the left tackle position—and rightfully so, as it was once again the biggest reason for an embarrassing Super Bowl loss—there will be several other needs on the offensive side of the ball that the Chiefs will need to look at.

There’s also been a huge lack of explosive plays over the last couple of years in Kansas City’s offense, which can also be attributed to a lack of weapons at the wide receiver position. To be fair to the front office, injuries to Hollywood Brown and Rashee Rice over the course of the 2024 season did not help, but 2023 proved Kansas City must invest more into the position going forward, especially given Travis Kelce’s gradual decline and the fact he’s currently mulling retirement. Kansas City will have to look to other options to make up for the production and the attention a presence like Travis Kelce consistently brings.

Furthermore, Hollywood Brown, DeAndre Hopkins, and JuJu Smith-Schuster are going to be free agents, and Rashee Rice is very likely to miss time to begin next season due to a suspension, which makes wide receiver a big need heading into this offseason. Xavier Worthy obviously gives you a lot of optimism going into year two, but Kansas City still needs more than that.

A lack of weapons for Patrick Mahomes

When Brett Veach initially took over the role of general manager, he promised to continually surround Patrick Mahomes with weapons, but that hasn’t exactly been the case the last few years. The Chiefs have had a pedestrian passing attack and an average ground attack for a minute now. Patrick Mahomes finished this past season with the lowest aDOT (average depth of target) in his career and his lowest passing yards in a season in his career. Those are pretty direct indicators that the deep ball and the explosive plays are gone from Kansas City’s offense.

For whatever reason, the Chiefs’ front office and coaching staff have seemingly gone away from what Mahomes does best. They have taken an instinctual gunslinger coming out of college and early in his NFL career and effectively turned him into Alex Smith. The Chiefs’ offense for over two years has been almost exclusively quick passes and West Coast offense concepts that are best catered to an offense that feels like it doesn’t have the horses. Granted, some of that has been to neutralize left tackle play, but Kansas City’s receivers have also struggled to beat man coverage consistently for years now.

Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy are a good start toward getting back to what the Chiefs’ offense was about prior to trading Tyreek Hill, but it feels like they need their Sammy Watkins of this era of Chiefs football. Worthy was brought in to provide the deep ball, and Rice was beginning to look like the first option in Kansas City’s offense and the one to make plays over the middle before going down. That said, Kansas City would be wise to bring in another big-name wide receiver to form an explosive trio and truly threaten defenses vertically again.