The back-to-back Super Bowl champs were winding down a challenging two-week start to training camp with a spirited Wednesday practice ahead of the preseason opener. Here’s what I saw through my morning with the Kansas City Chiefs in St. Joseph, Mo. …
• The offense is going to look a lot different. Patrick Mahomes has spent the summer trying to hone his unit’s ability to bring the deep ball back in a very big way, and for good reason. Free-agent pickup Marquise “Hollywood” Brown and first-rounder Xavier Worthy add that element back into what had become a bigger, more physical, but slower receiver group post-Tyreek Hill. And, ideally, Worthy and Brown will create space for guys such as Travis Kelce and Rashee Rice (who showed up to camp in tremendous shape after a tumultuous offseason) to make big plays after the catch underneath, in a Randy Moss–Wes Welker kind of way.
• One of the biggest questions facing the Chiefs is who’ll play left tackle, and rookie Kingsley Suamataia is trending toward becoming the answer. Talent has never been the question with the second-round pick—he arrived at Oregon out of high school as a five-star recruit, only to transfer home to BYU after a redshirt year. The questions were why the tape didn’t always match the talent, and whether there was an entitlement/maturity issue with the big man. Fortunately for the Chiefs, their head coach is a BYU alum. And as such, Andy Reid had connections to the family (Suamataia counts a raft of NFL players past and present as relatives, with Penei Sewell and Puka Nacua among them). That, in turn, has helped the Chiefs get the most from Suamataia, who’s shown no such problems since joining the team. Which is to say the 63rd pick in April’s NFL draft might end up being a steal.
• On defense, the biggest question is probably what’s next at corner after L’Jarius Sneed was traded to Tennessee in the offseason. Trent McDuffie gives the team an All-Pro anchor to the position group. Beyond that, a lot still needs to be hashed out. Jaylen Watson and Joshua Williams, 2022 rookies, have played a lot for the Chiefs, and the two were on the field for 42 combined snaps in the Super Bowl. But their draft classmate Nazeeh Johnson—a converted safety who was on the practice squad, then the active roster as a rookie before losing last year to a torn ACL—won’t go quietly in that competition.
• One thing a team with few questions might address in the coming weeks is the pass rush. Charles Omenihu, who tore his ACL in the AFC championship game, isn’t expected back until November, which leaves a bit of a void opposite George Karlaftis that could be filled—via a signing or trade—by some of the interesting names out there on the veteran edge-rusher market. The other business that could be done would be to take care of some of the 2021 draftees who are coming up for contracts like Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith and Nick Bolton. Since Kansas City drafted really well the past few years, it might be tough to hang on to everyone, which is a pretty good problem to have.
• Finally, here’s some appreciation for Kelce, and what he’s brought to the team. Last year, he had his ups and downs. He’s been beat up. He’s accomplished everything a guy at his position can. And yet, at 34 years old, he hasn’t missed a single day of practice in St. Joe, when he could easily go to Reid and the coaches and ask for veteran days here and there to recharge. That, in turn, sets a tone for everyone else in camp on the importance of being on the field each day as the season nears. And given that the Chiefs run one of the NFL’s most demanding camps, and Reid believes deeply in callousing his team, Kelce setting that tone is invaluable to having everyone locked in, as the team prepares for a run at becoming the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Chiefs Training Camp Takeaways: Patrick Mahomes’s New-Look Offense.
