KC Chiefs showcase the ultimate ‘spread offense’ vs the Rams

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Los Angeles Rams 26-10 on Sunday. The win may not have been pretty or flashy, but it never felt in doubt as K.C.’s defense clamped down on the Rams struggling offense. Meanwhile, the Chiefs offense did just enough to keep the game out of reach.

While the red zone offense struggled, the one real bright spot on offense was K.C.’s continued ability to spread the ball around to a bunch of different weapons.

Normally when you talk about a “spread offense” you are referring to how the offense spreads out the formation to create space to operate. While Andy Reid definitely uses spread concepts in KC’s offense, when you talk about their “spread offense” this season it is really about how they are spreading the ball around to so many different players, and this game against the Rams may have been the best example of that to date.

Take a look at the breakdown of receptions and yards in this game below.

• Travis Kelce – 4 for 57
• Marquez Valdes-Scantling – 4 for 56
• JuJu Smith-Schuster – 3 for 38
• Skyy Moore – 5 for 36
• Jerick McKinnon – 3 for 26
• Justin Watson – 2 for 26
• Jody Fortson – 2 for 26
• Ronald Jones – 1 for 22
• Isiah Pacheco – 1 for 17
• Noah Gray – 2 for 16

That’s ten different players that caught passes. That’s eight players that caught at least two passes. That’s eight players that had at least 20 yards receiving. That’s an unbelievable distribution of passes. Honestly, I don’t remember the last time I saw a quarterback throw for 320 yards in a game, but not have a single player top 60 yards and only two players top 40 yards. I’m sure it’s happened, but it certainly isn’t the normal distribution you see in today’s NFL.

The crazy part is the Chiefs were without two key pass catchers in Mecole Hardman and Kadarius Toney (who looks like he could be a big-time weapon when healthy). The hope is that both of those players are healthy for the playoffs and the spread attack will be even harder to defend. Travis Kelce is obviously a dominant force of nature that is the main weapon for Patrick Mahomes, but after that opposing defenses simply have no way of knowing where the ball is going to go on any given play.

This isn’t something that was new this week either. This has been the approach of the offense all season. Here is the breakdown of receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns for the Chiefs this season.

• Travis Kelce: 73 – 912 – 12
• JuJu Smith-Schuster: 49 – 653 – 2
• Marquez Valdes-Scantling: 31 – 515- 1
• Mecole Hardman: 25 – 297 – 4
• Jerick McKinnon: 29 – 238 – 1
• Justin Watson: 12 – 206 – 2
• Skyy Moore: 17 – 205 – 0
• Noah Gray: 18 – 174 – 1
• Clyde Edwards-Helaire: 17 – 151 -3
• Jody Fortson: 8 – 102 – 2
• Kadarius Toney: 6 – 69 – 1
• Isiah Pacheco: 4 – 30 – 0
• Ronald Jones: 1 – 22 – 0
• Michael Burton: 2 – 11 – 0

That’s 14 different players that have caught passes this season. A staggering ten different players have caught touchdown passes this season. Nine different players have caught double-digit passes this season. Ten different players are already over 100 yards receiving this season and seven players are already over 200 yards receiving. So how big of a difference is that from previous seasons?

In 2021 the Chiefs had nine players go over 100 yards receiving and in 2020 it was only eight players. The Chiefs are already at ten players and are only through 11 games. In 2021 and 2020 the Chiefs only had six players go over 200 yards receiving. They already have seven that have done it this season through 11 games and I think Noah Gray, Jody Fortson, and Kadarius Toney could all realistically go over that number by season’s end.

The bottom line here is that the Chiefs are spreading the ball around more than ever before. On any given play, there are five players who really have to be considered pass-catching options on that play. Those five players could include as many as four wide receivers or as many as three tight ends. The fact that they have three tight ends that have to be factored in as receiving targets makes the offense especially hard to defend because a three tight end set could be a passing play with five different targets or a power run play with three tight ends run blocking.

Next week, the Chiefs will have a much greater test when they go head-to-head with Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. There’s no doubt that the offense will have to put up bigger numbers and produce better in the red zone to beat them. Lucky for K.C. they will have plenty of players to target in order to make that happen.