Important takeaways From the Kansas City Chiefs first preseason game

Spreading The Ball Around

When the Kansas City Chiefs traded away Tyreek Hill we all knew that this offense wouldn’t be the same this season. We also knew that there was no one receiver that the Chiefs could sign to replace Hill one for one. The Chiefs were going to have to rely on a larger group of targets to get the job done and that’s exactly what we saw on display against the Bears.

On the lone drive with the first string offense Patrick Mahomes completed six passes to six different receivers. It wasn’t the first time in his NFL career that he’s completed passes to six different guys in a drive, but that used to be an outlier drive. This season that is what the offense is designed to do. In fact, Mahomes hit six different targets and didn’t even use Juju Smith-Schuster, Skyy Moore, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, or Jody Fortson (who sat out this game) and those are all guys I expect to be involved in the passing game this season. It wouldn’t shock me at all if the Chiefs had multiple games this season where nine or ten players catch passes.

After the game Patrick Mahomes was asked about this new approach to the offense.

Tyreek Hill is an absolute unicorn of a player, but KC’s reliance on his elite abilities became a bit of a crutch. What we saw from this offense on Saturday is that without that crutch the Chiefs will be much more unpredictable on where the ball is going. Granted, the Bears defense isn’t elite, but this was about as good of first showing as KC could have hoped for.

While this new approach might not make KC’s pass catchers top fantasy football targets it should be very beneficial in real football. There were times last season where the offense just seemed to be spinning its wheels a little and this fresh approach will hopefully jump start things again and help them return to their place as one of the (if not THEE) top offenses in all the NFL.

Now let’s talk about the biggest takeaway from the defense.