Patrick Mahomes, Chris Jones make NFL Under 25 teams for Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs are represented on both offense and defense by two of the biggest young stars in all of football in Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones.

Two media outlets recently released their versions of an NFL All-Under-25 team and the Kansas City Chiefs find themselves fairly well represented.

Both CBS Sports and the NFL’s official site had writers give their take on the league’s brightest young stars and a couple members of the Chiefs were mentioned in each. What is interesting, however, is how one gives love to the team’s best defender while the other leaves him off entirely. More on that in a moment.

The obvious inclusion to these teams on either side of the ball comes at the quarterback position with Patrick Mahomes, and it’s here that the Chiefs are named early and often. Mahomes is a no-brainer pick as the league’s best young quarterback, having secured an MVP award in his first year as a starter. With 50 touchdowns and 5,000 passing yards to his name in 2018, Mahomes is going to be an electric star to watch for years to come.

As NFL.com’s Marc Sessler writes, “No need to get too cute out of the gate: Mahomes is the clear choice under center after an MVP campaign that rewarded fans with more than just bursting box scores.” Over at CBS, Sean Wagner-McGough makes an even more pronounced statement when he writes, “Mahomes isn’t just the best player under the age of 25. He’s the best player in the world — regardless of age.”

From there, Wagner-McGough includes defensive lineman Chris Jones at No. 7 overall in his Top 25 list. Sessler would likely include him, but his own rules preclude him from doing so. Jones will be 25-years-old by the time the season starts, which means Sessler had to leave him completely off of his roster. Instead, Sessler went with Kenny Clark of the Green Bay Packers and Jonathan Allen of the Washington Redskins as his players along the defensive interior.

Fortunately, Sessler includes one more member of the Chiefs with his selection of Harrison Butker as his team’s Under-25 kicker. Butker has been as consistent as anyone could have hoped. Sessler writes, “In an era where a flock of kickers flub extra points left and right, Mr. Butker has pegged 40 of 41 kicks inside 40 yards and nailed 93 of his 97 career PATs.”

It will be interesting to see how the Chiefs fare on this list one year from now. Mecole Hardman is only 21-years-old and should put up enticing numbers as the latest wideout to join the Chiefs passing attack. The Chiefs also have a new developmental tackle in Khalen Saunders who could one day be on this sort of list—that is, if he can make the leap to the NFL level as expected.