OC Hints Mahomes, Chiefs Might Join ‘Tush Push World'

Nagy might’ve been joking, or maybe he was serious, but the Chiefs do have their own successful recipe for moving the chains. The ingredients are Pro Bowlers Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith and Kingsley Suamataia, a 6-4, 326-pound presence.

Short-yardage maven

And, obviously, they have Hunt, who carved out a short-yardage niche last year after returning to the Chiefs in September. With respect to converting third or fourth down with 1 or 2 yards to go, Hunt excelled.

In fact, Hunt provided a significant reason for those confounded as to how Kansas City could win 15 games, especially with its glaring issues at tackle and lack of offensive explosiveness. He converted 15 of 18 short-yardage opportunities (83.3 percent). In Cleveland the year prior, he was 15 of 20 (75.0 percent).

“For us, that's a critical part of the game that you got to be great at,” Nagy said Tuesday, “and we're hard on ourselves when we don't do well.

“Schematically, we feel like we have our own ways of kind of getting to that quarterback sneak, even if it's not that play. But then there also is maybe the element of surprise, when that does come, you never know, right? So, I think that that's kind of an advantage to us.”

The left side of the offensive line

A former Bears head coach, Nagy said he’s looking forward to Friday’s preseason finale against Chicago (7:20 p.m. ET, KSHB 41, 96.5 The Fan) because it’s the Chiefs’ first opportunity to see the left side of their offensive line at Arrowhead Stadium.

Head coach Andy Reid said starters will play, including Suamataia at left guard and rookie first-round selection Josh Simmons at left tackle.

“They’ve done well,” Nagy said. “Josh has done great. I think every day he gets a little bit better. He feels more confident, which is natural. So, we want to keep that going. There's still going to be times where some things happen and that's okay. Let's just learn from it and then just try to eliminate those as much as we can.”

Nagy echoed what Simmons said Monday, that the ability to time up the offensive line’s first movement perfectly with the cadence of Patrick Mahomes is vital.

“That's important,” Nagy explained. “Then the young guys on the left side of the line, communicating and hearing the calls that we have. So, all of it is really a great test run in a great environment to be able to help them for Week 1.”