The first week of NFL preseason is officially in the books. For the Kansas City Chiefs, it resulted in a loss to the Rams but there were plenty of positives to take away from the game.
With one week of preseason action in the rearview mirror, power rankings around the league have been updated. Now look, it's hard to really get a true gauge on how good or bad teams are during the preseason but even still, power rankings are going to exist and try their best to predict the good teams and the bad teams.
NFL Spin Zone recently updated their power rankings after the preseason openers and put the Chiefs at No. 17. They fell three spots from their ranking the previous week.
"The Kansas City Chiefs absolutely have to be considered a threat in the AFC with a fully healthy Patrick Mahomes," Sayre Bedinger of NFL Spin Zone wrote. "Although this Chiefs team is still an elite threat in situational football with Mahomes under center, it's also fair to wonder how things are going to work out with the new-look defense and a shaky offensive line. Being on the outside looking in at the rest of the AFC contenders right now should put a big chip on this team's shoulder."
Chiefs have more to prove than fans want to admit after the latest rankings
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I totally understand why Bedinger and the team over at NFL Spin Zone would have the Chiefs where they have them. That being said, Bedinger said it all right in the first sentence of that blurb. With a healthy Mahomes, the Chiefs are a Super Bowl contender and it's looking like they'll have just that when the season kicks off here in a few weeks.
I do understand the rest of what Bedinger is saying though. How healthy is Mahomes? How much better is the offensive line? Is the defense going to take steps forward or continue to regress? What about the receivers? Can they step up and actually make plays?
All of those are mighty big question marks and the Chiefs better hope the answer to them is something positive. As we learned a season ago, Mahomes can't be leaned on for everything anymore and he's likely going to have to learn how to play a different style of ball now that he's coming off the first major injury of his pro career.
At the end of the day though, a Chiefs team with Mahomes taking the snaps deserves the benefit of the doubt. We'll see if NFL Spin Zone comes to regret ranking K.C. this low but for now, time to use it as fuel.
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