Kansas City’s rebuilt wide receiver corps can make Chiefs unstoppable

The Kansas City Chiefs offense dominated the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday in large part because of the production of their wide receivers.

The Kansas City Chiefs offense went off against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. After a slow start to the game, an offensive explosion propelled them to a dominant 44-23 win. While it certainly isn’t the first time a Patrick Mahomes-led offense has scored a lot of points, it was the first time the Chiefs have had a massive day from their wide receivers since Tyreek Hill left town. This game showed just how unstoppable this offense can be if they get great production at the receiver position.

Unlike the Tyreek Hill era, the production in this game was spread pretty evenly between three different receivers. JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and Mecole Hardman all made huge plays and put up big numbers. The fact that Travis Kelce put up six catches for 98 yards was almost an afterthought in this game.

Before we look a little closer at the wide receiver production so far this season, let’s look at what the receivers did in this game that made the Chiefs so difficult to stop. After all, this wasn’t a bad defense they were facing. The 49ers are widely viewed as one of the better defenses in all of the NFL.

Here’s the production KC got from the wide receiver position on Sunday.

• JuJu Smith-Schuster: 7 receptions, 124 yards, 1 touchdown
• Marquez Valdes-Scantling: 3 receptions, 111 yards
• Mecole Hardman: 6 total touches, 60 yards, 3 touchdowns
• Justin Watson: 1 reception, 4 yards, 1 touchdown

In all, the Chiefs wideouts totaled 15 receptions for 271 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus the 28 yards and 2 touchdowns that Hardman added on the ground. That’s 17 touches for 299 yards and 5 touchdowns. There isn’t a team in the NFL that can stop the Kansas City Chiefs if they get that kind of production from their receivers. Smith-Schuster was a reliable go-to target, MVS was a huge weapon down the field, and Hardman (after a slow start to his contract year) was explosive in both the passing and rushing game on his way to three total touchdowns.

So was this game just a one-hit wonder for the wideouts or is this something that the Chiefs can continue? To try and answer that, let’s take a look at how the receiver production has gone this season and see if we can see any trends or patterns.