The K.C. Chiefs are who we thought they were

The Kansas City Chiefs won a roller coaster of a game against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday by the final score of 33-29. The game was both exciting and exhausting as the Chiefs defense looked lifeless early, but the team turned it on late to pull out a close win. While the old saying “a win is a win” is absolutely true, the fact is that the first game of the season is the first real look at the team, meaning there is plenty that we can take away from this win.

For me the bottom line is that the Chiefs are who we originally thought that they were. When you are as obsessed with a team as we all are in Chiefs Kingdom, we tend to overthink things during the offseason. We talk about things so much and overanalyze every minute tidbit of information that comes out of training camp that we can start to lose sight of what we originally thought of the team.

After free agency and the draft were over, most fans felt like this team had questions at defensive end/pass rusher, cornerback, and number two wide receiver, but they had an improved offensive line and that as long as they had the trio of Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelce they would be a Super Bowl contender.

Then the summer came along and many of us convinced ourselves that the defensive tackles were so dominant that we wouldn’t really need great edge rushers. We believed the cornerback play was better than we thought it would be, and that Mecole Hardman was ready to take a bigger role in the offense. Turns out that maybe those gut reactions after the draft and free agency may have been correct.

So let’s look at the five big assessments we made about the Chiefs and how those look now after one week of the season. And let’s start with the assumption that KC had improved their offensive line.