Mahomes Explains How Restoring Old Ways Benefits Chiefs

Where Kelce thrives

That means opening up Kelce for how he can best help his team, something he’s trained all offseason to improve. Kelce is best when he can use his quickness and agility to get open for tough yards, not when he needs to serve as the Chiefs’ primary target like 2024.

But that doesn’t happen, obviously, without someone else emerging as the Chiefs’ leading receiver. To get there, Mahomes sees more aggressive, tight-window attempts in 2025, short passes with big yards after the catch and deep completions.

“If you look back at a lot of our successful offenses,” Mahomes told Green on Friday, “we obviously had the big play. And then it kind of led us to kind of come down to where we're starting to work on stuff underneath.

“The defenses are forcing us now to get back to the big play again, and so you just got to be versatile in this league. You can't stay stagnant with one way or the other. You got to keep evolving, keep making the offense go and progress even better. Defenses have forced us to push the ball back down the field.”

Get your hamstrings ready

Pushing the ball down the field is something the Chiefs have talked about since their Super Bowl loss. Reid is a man of few words in team meetings, but he devoted some of his index card during the offseason program to telling his receivers to get their hamstrings ready.

Xavier Worthy is ready to step up. So is Rashee Rice, now that he’s no longer likely to begin the season on suspension. And having two receivers with more catches than Kelce is important.

There’s no mystery why Kelce seemed to have a down year in 2024, despite leading the Chiefs in both receptions (97) and receiving yards (823). Defenses neutralized him in the red zone and didn’t allow him to hurt them after the catch.

According to analyst Scott Kacsmar, Kelce’s 97 catches last year were the most in NFL history for any pass-catcher in his age-35 season or later. Plus, only two NFL teams in the Super Bowl era (1966-present) had tight ends in their age-34 seasons lead the club in receiving yards: The Chiefs with Kelce in 2023 and the Chiefs with Kelce in 2024.

Like Kelce, former Kansas City tight end Tony Gonzalez enjoyed later-career production with the Falcons. But unlike the Chiefs, Atlanta routinely enjoyed high offensive rankings because Gonzalez had complementary support from Roddy White and Julio Jones.