Kansas City Chiefs WRs JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling accomplished something in Week 7 that hadn’t been done by the team’s receivers in over 20 years.
In the 44-23 win over the San Francisco 49ers, Smith-Schuster caught seven passes for 124 yards and Valdes-Scantling caught three passes for 111 yards. In doing so, they became the first two players at the wide receiver position for the Chiefs since the year 2000 to each record 100+ receiving yards in a single game.
You have to go back to Week 10 of the 2000 NFL season to find the team’s last receiver duo who each had 100 or more receiving yards. Gunther Cunningham’s Chiefs squad faced Jon Gruden’s Oakland Raiders in an AFC West showdown. Elvis Grbac was the quarterback for the Chiefs, facing off against Charles Woodson. He threw for 504 yards in that game, which is still the franchise record for a single-game passing performance.
Two of Grbac’s receivers, Sylvester Morris and Derrick Alexander, both went over 100 receiving yards. That included a 48-yard touchdown pass from Grbac to Alexander. Tony Gonzalez also had 134 receiving yards in the 49-31 loss for Kansas City.
This was the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era that the #Chiefs had 2 players with 100+ rec yds and neither of them was Travis Kelce or Tyreek Hill
– Smith-Schuster & Valdes-Scantling are the first Chiefs WR duo with 100+ rec yds in the same game since Week 10, 2000— James Palmer (@JamesPalmerTV) October 24, 2022
Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill had plenty of games where each went over 100 yards receiving, but Kelce plays the tight end position. Hill and Sammy Watkins never went over 100 yards in the same game either. This is the first time that Patrick Mahomes has seen two players at the wide receiver position turn in such a performance.
With the newfound chemistry and communication that Smith-Schuster spoke about after the game, it’s possible that there will be more of these performances for the Chiefs in the not-so-distant future.
