Chiefs takeaways, Week 17: Mahomes’ promise, Kpassagnon’s growth and more

Week 17 played out much like a preseason game for the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos on Sunday afternoon.

On a severely cold afternoon in Denver, Colorado, the Kansas City Chiefs set out to take on their division rivals the Denver Broncos. The Broncos had zero chances to make the playoffs and the Chiefs were locked in as the number four seed so both teams decided to see what they had in younger talent. Leaving very few starters on either side of the ball, this game felt much like a preseason matchup.

Like any other game, there were some really good takeaways and some more concerning ones. Obviously, most of the game was centered around Chiefs first-round draft pick Patrick Mahomes but there were other highlights as well. Let’s take a look at what stood out the most to me.

Patrick Mahomes looks promising

It’s been 30 years since a quarterback that was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs has won them a game. The last one was Todd Blackledge back in 1987. Fans have been looking forward to watching young rookie quarterback Patrick Mahomes take the field in a regular season game. Even after quarterback Alex Smith had the best regular season of his career, fans still find themselves more excited in their future starter.

We saw what was expected for Mahomes in his first real start with some bad throws alongside some really good throws that few quarterbacks in the league could make. The afternoon started off slightly shaky with Mahomes first two passes being incompletions. Mahomes threw deep inside a tight window on 3rd and 10 to connect with tight end Demetrius Harris for 51 yards. He also overthrew a pass right into the arms of Denver defensive back Darian Stewart.

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Everyone knows that Mahomes can make outstanding plays downfield from any part of the field. The question for him has been whether he can control his gunslinger playstyle and make the shorter throws that every other quarterback can. Can Mahomes play smart football?

While the crazy throws like the one to wide receiver Albert Wilson with under two minutes left in the game where Mahomes threw across his body are absolutely incredible, he needed to show that he can complete smaller plays as well. I think we saw a good amount of that in this game as Mahomes only threw the ball deep (20 or more yards) on four occasions. We saw mostly shorter routes and designed screen plays.

The gunslinger rookie still looks slightly uncomfortable when playing under center which is a big reason we saw almost all of his snaps from the shotgun. However, how about that two-minute offense? Mahomes was taken out of the game with a two-touchdown lead and replaced by third-string quarterback Tyler Bray. The Broncos came back to tie the game with less than three minutes left in the game and Mahomes drove the team down the field to get into field goal position. That’s exactly what we want to see from the rookie.

Mahomes was unable to walk away with a touchdown but it was still a really impressive showing. The stepping out of bounds just shy of the goal line and dropped passes in the end zone really didn’t help his cause. In fact, wide receiver Demarcus Robinson didn’t help Mahomes at all on the day on catching four of his 10 targets.

Albert Wilson was unstoppable

Since this game was like that of a preseason game, I tend to try and hold the excitement on what I see. Players tend to make more plays when they are playing against smaller talent. The way to tell the difference between whether a player is playing well or just going up against minimal talent is raising the bar higher.

Wilson dominated the field on Sunday as he caught 10 for 147 yards. Going up against lesser competition, he showed that he deserves to be playing with the ones by outplaying the Broncos young secondary out of their shorts. Mahomes was throwing to Wilson most of the night and there was nothing the defense could do to slow them down as 7 of his 10 catches went for first downs.

Breaking a career high of 147 yards in a single game, Wilson has continued his emergence into the Kansas City offense as a real threat. Just before the season, most fans wanted him off the team because he showed very little the last couple of seasons. That has not been the case in 2017 as he has taken every opportunity he’s been given and proven to be a reliable target no matter who the quarterback is. Wilson has been very reliable this season hauling in 42 of his 56 targets on the season.

The Broncos still have quarterback problems

The revolving door for quarterbacks starting for the Denver Broncos continued on Sunday as second-year quarterback Paxton Lynch got the start. The first round draft pick made a few plays against the troubling Chiefs secondary of cornerbacks Phillip Gaines and Kenneth Acker but continued to show very little playmaking ability.

Even having his top receiver Demaryius Thomas on the field helped him very little. Lynch was late on multiple throws resulting in two interceptions and had next to nothing for pocket awareness. The Chiefs backups were able to haul in five sacks on the Broncos quarterback and defensive end Chris Jones was able to make a strip sack as well.

It’s not a secret that the Broncos need to find a new quarterback this offseason if they want any chance of breaking their streak of not making the playoffs. Lynch has been hurt just about every starting opportunity he’s been given and between quarterbacks Brock Osweiler and Trevor Siemian, they have very little to work with.

Tanoh Kpassagnon still has work to do

Chiefs fans have been excited about rookie outside linebacker Tanoh Kpassagnon the last couple of weeks. After begging for him to receive significant snaps, they got their wish against the Broncos. The results, however, might not have been what fans wanted to see.

Kpassagnon seemed to really struggle to set the edge during the run game and it resulted in some nice runs for the Broncos offense. While it was exciting to see the former Villanova player get his first two sacks of his career, he failed to get pressure much of the night. Getting hung up on back up tackles most of the time is not something you want to see a guy you want to be your starter.

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Like the take about Albert Wilson dominating the lesser competition, if Kpassagnon was ready to start for the Chiefs, he should have dominated in this game. Instead, we saw a couple flash plays where the Denver offensive line just completely fell on their face, and a lot of non-factor plays by the second rounder.