The Kansas City Chiefs have committed significant resources to rebuilding Patrick Mahomes‘ wide receiver corps this offseason, but might not have done enough to elevate the offense in the franchise’s quest for a third consecutive Lombardi Trophy.
There’s certainly an argument to be made that the Chiefs will be far more explosive with Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, Xavier Worthy, and Rashee Rice manning the top of the receiver depth chart.
Did Kansas City Chiefs do Enough Up Front?
However, if Mahomes continues to have to run for his life — after being sacked 27 times in 2023, all of the investment in speed and reliable hands on the perimeter could be for naught.
As the 2024 regular season looms, Pro Football Focus suggests Kansas City’s offensive line is
“The Chiefs added two new tackles last offseason to try and shore up their offensive line,” Jim Wyman and Dalton Wasserman write for PFF. “And neither paid major dividends. Donovan Smith manned the left side to the tune of a career-low 57.8 grade while Jawaan Taylor was even worse on the right side with a 49.8 grade that was 72nd out of 81 qualifying tackles. Taylor was also the most heavily penalized player in the league last season with 23. The next closest player on either side of the ball had 18 flags thrown against him.
Smith is currently a free agent, and Taylor projects to continue to man the right side of Kansas City’s line. While the Chiefs didn’t address tackle in free agency, they did select BYU’s Kingsley Suamataia with their second-round selection to compete with Wanya Morris and Lucas Niang for the left tackle spot.”
Last season, it was a receiving corps that dropped more passes than any other unit in the NFL that proved to be the Chiefs’ undoing. This season, it remains to be seen if the Chiefs did enough up front to help keep Mahomes upright to make the receiver upgrades make a difference.
