The Chiefs find themselves in familiar territory coming off of their 16th straight win over the Broncos. They're 5-1 and have a comfortable lead over the rest of the AFC West. But this year feels a bit different than the previous iterations of this Chiefs team, and their win over the Broncos really why that is — nothing is really easy for them on offense.
Every team that's come across the Broncos this season has experienced an offensive renaissance, from the Dolphins scoring 70 points to Justin Fields having a career day to even the Jets offense being able to go up and down the field. The Chiefs only managed to score 19 points against one of the worst defenses in the history of the league, that's an alarming truth even as they seize control of the AFC West once again.
Let’s start with the quarterback, who is still the best quarterback in the world even if the statistics don’t match that right now. Mahomes has had a quality start to the season, but it’s been a bit below the astronomical standards he’s been able to establish over the course of his career. Mahomes is averaging 265.5 passing yards per game this year, which is down from the 308.8 mark he set last season. His yards per attempt has dropped from 8.1 to 7.1 while his interception percentage has slightly jumped from 1.9% to 2.2%. Mahomes has been uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball, but so far it hasn’t hurt the Chiefs’ chances to win. They’ve just played in more close, tough battles than they usually do.
Simply having Mahomes on the roster gives the Chiefs a chance to win every single game they play, but the structure around him has deteriorated to a degree. Outside of still being able to press the Travis Kelce button, the Chiefs are having a hard time just getting people open. They don’t really have anyone that can win on the outside and get things moving down the field to jumpstart some of their drives. The combination of Marques Valdez-Scantling, Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney hasn’t scared anyone this season. Rookie wide receiver Rashee Rice has begun to develop into a quality option, but as a whole this wide receiver group is fairly docile on the field.
What’s funny about the Chiefs this year is they probably have their most stable backfield situation since Kareem Hunt was their starting running back. Isiah Pacheco has been a true gem as a seventh-round pick, giving their run game a level of physicality they haven’t had in a while. Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Jerick McKinnon have filled in nicely around the development of Pacheco, which really gives the Chiefs something they can lean on at times when the passing game is congested.
The entirety of the Chiefs' offense still lends itself to a team that's going to win a lot of games, and the defense has played well so far, but it's fair to be concerned about how they'll match up against the good teams. The Lions were able to stifle them at the beginning of the season. Three of their four next games are against the Chargers, Dolphins and Eagles, so they'll get to test their own offense against some units that can really score the ball in a hurry. Right now, it seems like a tall task for the Chiefs to outscore those teams, but all things are possible through Mahomes.
The Chiefs’ infrastructure will get them into the playoffs and probably allow them to play a home playoff game, but their quest of repeating as Super Bowl champions looks significantly harder than it was a year ago. It’s hard to complain too much as the wins continue to stack up, but the Chiefs don’t exist on the same plane as the other NFL teams. A small amount of panic is warranted as their goal every year is to win the whole damn thing. That goal certainly is not impossible (Mahomes!), but it is fair to wonder if this setup can get back to being a top offense before the season is over.
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