Kansas City Chiefs WR Skyy Moore is looking to make the absolute most of his second season in the NFL.
He was one of the first players down in Texas working with Patrick Mahomes on his own time this offseason, with a goal of building on the momentum that he created with his performance in Super Bowl LVII. That momentum has since bled into practice sessions at OTAs and during the team’s mandatory minicamp, where he’s taken full advantage of his increase in opportunities.
When Patrick Mahomes spoke to reporters following the conclusion of mandatory minicamp, he said without a shadow of a doubt that he’s seen growth from Moore this offseason.
“Yeah, 100 percent,” Mahomes told reporters on Thursday. “I mean Skyy’s a great player. I think you could see at the end of last year how he was kind of picking the stuff up and making big plays. And I think that just kind of transitioned right into this season.”
As far as what Moore’s role might look like in 2023, he’ll be stepping into a role vacated by one of the receivers the team lost in free agency. Moore was firmly situated behind JuJu Smith-Schuster on the depth chart all year last year, so it only makes sense that he’d help replace what the team lost there. Things like tough catches over the middle of the field in the short and intermediate game, for instance.
Mahomes, however, expects the second-year wideout to put his own spin on the role.
“He’s someone that’s going to be called upon more, kind of in that same role that JuJu (Smith-Schuster) was in last year,” Mahomes explained. “But he can also go over the top and make big plays happen. Then another year in the offense, I think you see with Coach Reid’s offense, it’s hard for those young guys sometimes to have an expanded role and as the season goes on, the role kind of expands. Then that second year is really when they take off.”
The growth that Moore has shown is cause for a lot of excitement for the veteran signal-caller, but he says there is plenty of that excitement to go around. Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Kadarius Toney are also entering their second year with the team and the level of comfort within the system and scheme is on the rise for all the wide receivers in this offense.
“I’m excited for him, but I’m excited for a lot of these dudes,” Mahomes said. “It’s cool to see how comfortable they are with the offense this year, and we’re going to continue to move forward and put more and more on them so we can be the best that we can be.”
