The Kansas City Chiefs are on a quest to rebound from their abysmal 2025 season. Things are off to a great start for the Chiefs after advancing to an 2-0 record following an overtime win over the Indianapolis Colts Sunday night while scoring a total of 64 points (topping 30 points in both of their games). While the Chiefs still have some issues to address, it's been about as good of a start to the season as KC fans could hope for, especially on offense.
While there are definitely questions about the wide receiver room too, the biggest question by far on offense was how the offensive tackles would hold up, especially with Josh Simmons out. The duo of Kahlil Benson and Jaylon Moore have played well enough to get the job done, and they deserve credit for that, especially Benson, who proved Reid was right for playing him at left tackle. While some might be tempted to say that the Chiefs offense is thriving despite having to protect their tackles from too much pressure, it might be more accurate to say that they are thriving because they are protecting their tackles.
The Emergence of Quick-Draw Mahomes
In recent years, the Chiefs offense has had very little to fear from its run game, and the passing game frequently consisted of Patrick Mahomes taking a bunch of deep passing sets where he often killed time and scrambled around until he could find an open man. This season has been the exact opposite. The offense has revolved around a dominant run game with Kenneth Walker, and when Mahomes has dropped back to throw, it has mostly been on plays where he's designed to get the ball out quickly and minimize exposure, both to him and his rehabbed knee and to his inexperienced tackles.
Pro Football Focus currently has Mahomes' average time to throw through two games at 2.59 seconds. For comparison, his career average is 2.88 seconds, and his lowest time of his career as a starter is just 2.81. Last season, he averaged 2.94. This season, Josh Allen is averaging 3.11 seconds, and Lamar Jackson is at 3.31 seconds. Mahomes is even getting the ball out faster than perceived "scheme quarterbacks" like Brock Purdy (2.87 seconds) and Jared Goff (2.77 seconds). The bottom line here is that Mahomes is getting the ball out faster than at any point in his career through the first two games of the season, and it's working. His 283 yards per game and 7.6 yards per attempt would be the highest he's had since 2022, when he won his second MVP.
Kenneth Walker Has Brought Balance To The Chiefs
The other clear change to the offense is the addition of Kenneth Walker. Frankly, as good as Mahomes has played, Walker has been even better. He's averaging 145 yards rushing per game and 39.5 receiving yards per game on top of that. That's a total of 184.5 yards per game. Last season, Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt combined for 108.8 total yards per game. That added run threat has defenses reeling. As a defensive end, it's hard to pin your ears back and attack the quarterback when you have to constantly worry about holding the edge against the run or having a screen pass dropped in behind you.
That combination of an elite rushing game and Reid designing the passing game around getting the ball out quickly has not only protected KC's offensive tackles but also given the Chiefs offense the charge of fresh energy that it desperately needed after last season. It was clear that the offense had become stale, but that hasn't been the case in this redesigned offense. The points per game are up, the rushing yards are up, the passing yards are up, and the tackle play has been good enough to get by with what the game plan calls for.
Jaylon Moore and Kahlil Benson deserve credit for how they've played, but Andy Reid deserves even more of the credit for finally committing to running the football and designing a passing game that isn't as demanding on the offensive tackles. Gone are the days of ignoring the run game and down after down of deep passing sets where Mahomes drifts back looking for a big play, and it turns out that may be the best thing that could have happened to the KC offense.
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