June 30, 2024, 9:40 PM ET
Kansas City’s offense has lost verticality over the past couple of seasons, and now they’re hoping to get it back.
KANSAS CITY — In what seemed like a sign of things to come, or at least the Kansas City Chiefs hope so, one of the final plays of their recent minicamp was a long touchdown pass. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes got rid of the ball in time to beat the blitz and threw long for a touchdown to Marquise Brown.
Such plays weren’t common for Mahomes and the Chiefs last season. Some of their biggest offseason moves, including the signing of Brown and drafting Xavier Worthy, were focused on bringing those types of plays back to the Chiefs’ offense.
“I think we’ve done a great job of dominating the short and intermediate stuff, but I want to get that part of the offense back, too,” Mahomes said. “The [head] coach [Andy] Reid is really pushing us to push downfield. It’s tough to do that against our defense, but we try to make it happen.”
Kansas City is confident it can have Xavier Worthy ready for the start of training camp after he suffered a hamstring injury. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
Mahomes was the NFL MVP in his first season as a starter in 2018, when he threw 50 touchdown passes and passed for more than 5,000 yards with plenty of deep balls in his repertoire. But last year, with the Chiefs’ wide receivers becoming a huge disappointment, his passes averaged the shortest of his career (7.0 yards).
On more than half of Mahomes’ throws, the intended wide receiver was within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. His throws averaged just over 6 yards from scrimmage. As a result, just 13 percent of his completions went for 20 yards or more, the lowest percentage of his career.
That’s why Brown and Worthy were two of the Chiefs’ offseason priorities. Brown was once clocked at 4.27 seconds in the 40-yard dash. Worthy set a mark for him NFL Scouting Combine this year, with a time of 4.21 seconds.
“They can both run well and I think they both love to play the game and are good football players, so I think that’s going to help us,” Reid said. “It doesn’t hurt to have speed. We’ve functioned without great downfield speed and we’ve done well, but if you have the opportunity to add someone that you think is a good player, not just a speed guy, but a good football player, I think you probably need to take advantage of that.”
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The Chiefs have had speedy receivers since Mahomes became their starter. Tyreek Hill He ran a 4.24 second 40-yard dash when he was coming out of college for the draft. Mecole Hardman, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Sammy Watkins y Justin Watson are not in the category of Hillbut they are fast.
But, they haven’t had two speedy wide receivers with the kind of speed that Brown and Worthy bring playing together.
“Those guys are sprinters,” he noted. Watson“They’re at a different speed level, and defenses are going to have to back off.
“We had a lot of debates and conversations, I would say the last couple of years, about who is the fastest [entre los receptores de los Chiefs] and I always put my name forward. Now I’m going to defer to one of those two. Those two guys can fly.”
Brown averaged 12.3 yards downfield each time the ball was thrown to him last season while playing for the Arizona CardinalsHe averaged 11.8 yards in his career, and has never been held below 10.7 yards for a season.
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“I’ve seen him all offseason, from working out in Texas to here,” Mahomes said before the Chiefs finished their offseason practices. “He tracks the ball really well and he can really run. … I’m going to give him opportunities downfield and he’ll make plays happen. The more plays he makes, the more we’ll continue to give him those opportunities. He’s a good addition to our offense.”
Worthy didn’t practice much after being drafted by the Chiefs because of a hamstring issue, but Kansas City hopes to have him ready for the start of training camp.
Even without him, Mahomes still connected on a good number of deep passes. He spread the ball around to Brown, Watson, Rashee Rice and others.
“They’re definitely taking advantage of us playing against some coverages, learning some things, and testing some things,” the linebacker admitted. Nick Bolton“We’ve got a lot of speed and Pat trusts those guys to go out there and make plays… We’re definitely going to try to go long early in the season.”
Reid has always wanted Mahomes to find his receivers downfield, but he’s encouraged him to do so more this year. Mahomes said Reid even asked him at one point why he threw to the relief valves so much.
Not every pass this offseason went to the drainpipe, and certainly not the one near the close of minicamp, for Brown.
“Watching the blitz, I basically put my head down, trusting he was going to throw it,” Brown said. “I looked up and saw the ball in the air, and I just made a play.
“We’re fast. Definitely fast. We’re going to put a lot of pressure on people, that’s for sure. I just think it’s going to be exciting. I think everyone should be excited about it.”
2024-07-01 01:40:00
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