The Kansas City Chiefs opened training camp this week, meaning the quest to three-peat is officially underway. The Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII earlier this year despite putting together their weakest regular season of the Patrick Mahomes era.
While the Chiefs still won double-digit games in 2023, they lost six games in the regular season, the most in the Mahomes era, and the race to the AFC West title was closer than anyone would have liked for it to be. Ultimately, the Chiefs won their eighth straight division title and went on to win their second straight Super Bowl, but it didn't feel like either of those things were guaranteed after an embarrassing blowout loss to the Broncos in late October or losing to the Raiders on Christmas Day.
Mahomes spoke about the 2023 season and said "Even though won the Super Bowl last year, we felt like we didn’t play our best football, especially offensively. So it’s our goal to be better that way — and we have to come with that mentality every single day.”
“Even though we won the Super Bowl last year, we didn’t feel like we played our best football... it wasn’t fun.”
— KC Sports Network (@KCSportsNetwork) July 16, 2024
Patrick Mahomes on working to improve as a team offensively in 2024.
Mahomes admits that the Chiefs struggled offensively in 2023
When discussing the Chiefs' struggles in the 2023 regular season, the blame fell squarely on the offense. With Tyreek Hill now two years removed from donning the red and gold and Travis Kelce often double and even sometimes triple-covered, Mahomes was leaning heavily on the likes of rookie Rashee Rice, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Kadarius Toney, Skyy Moore, and Justin Watson. As fans know, it didn't go well, with the receivers struggling to secure passes and leaving Mahomes out to dry.
The good news is that the 2023 season saw the Chiefs defense absolutely ball out and that's what ultimately got them a third Super Bowl title in five years. Many times during the regular season, fans would say something to the effect of, "The Chiefs are wasting this great defense" because the offense could not get out of its own way.
Well, the Chiefs didn't waste the great defense because that defense played a huge hand in getting this team another Super Bowl title. Brett Veach made sure to add more help to the offense this offseason as well, signing Hollywood Brown in free agency and drafting Xavier Worthy in the first round, which should ensure that last year's offensive woes don't carry over into this season.
Other fanbases will roll their eyes at Mahomes starting this statement with "Even though we won the Super Bowl..." but he's right. The Chiefs offense did not play their best ball in 2023 and they likely won't be able to get away with another year of lackluster offense, not with how competitive the rest of the AFC continues to get, hoping to dethrone the Chiefs.
The most fun part about this quote is that Mahomes said the 2023 season wasn't fun. I mentioned how opposing fanbases are going to be annoyed by this quote and that part might be what ticks them off the most. Even though the 2023 season ended in the Chiefs winning a Super Bowl, Mahomes still wasn't having a good time.
Let's hope he has a better time in 2024 with the offense firing on all cylinders and the Chiefs winning another championship.