Patrick Mahomes Issues Strong Warning to Broncos' Defense

Mahomes' bullish declaration is only to be expected, but it should also put Broncos' defensive coordinator Vance Joseph on notice. In addition to losing Singleton, the Broncos' defense is without the elite abilities of Surtain, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, in the secondary, so Mahomes will be aware of the matchups he hopes to exploit. 

Chiefs' OC Sounds Off

In equal measure, Chiefs' offensive coordinator Matt Nagy knows that staying out of the debilitating third-and-long situations that derailed their offensive game plan against the Buffalo Bills will suffice, especially when presented with the Broncos' defensive swarm. 

"Well, that's the very first thing that jumps out on tape, is you go back to some of the statistics and you see the one thing that jumps out to me is red zone wise, their (Broncos)—it's not just this year that they're number one, they're good every year. I think Vance Joseph does a great job schematically," Nagy said via Easton. "He has great players that jump out. Making sure we're efficient there. And then you look at that front, they lead the league in sacks. They make game-changing plays, which I think is very important, that if—that's the other thing in the Buffalo game, we had a ton of third and eight, nine (and) 10 pluses in that game. Stay out of those. They know that, but we know it too and we got to figure out ways to do it. They're really good across the board. They've lost some valuable players too, and they're still good; that's a credit to them." 

Getting after opposing quarterbacks is the unabashed M.O. of Joseph's defense, but Mahomes knows how to push boundaries to turn the odds back in his favor. Defending Mahomes while the Broncos are significantly undermanned is far from ideal, so it's going to take everyone on defense unselfishly picking up the slack and winning their assignments. 

That's something that Joseph does not doubt that his unit can accomplish, even though it's the imperious Mahomes they're facing. 

“That makes me smile because it’s a unit of unselfish people. To watch these guys on gameday, especially when their buddy makes a play and to see his teammates joy, it’s really special. That makes the unit go," Joseph said on Thursday. "It’s a bunch of guys in that room that are kind of self-made, outside of Patrick [Surtain II], he’s a Top-10 pick, and he’s special. It’s a bunch of guys who are self-made guys who have grinded, who have gotten better each year, who played to the team concept. With our sack numbers, a bunch of guys get sacks, and a bunch of guys kind of force sacks. But you watch when a guy gets the sack, they are celebrating like it was their sack. That’s the best trait of this unit. It’s so unselfish, and such team-first guys and they want success for their teammates. So that makes me smile.” 

The Takeaway

Meeting the rising levels of adversity can only be fuel to stoke the Broncos' competitive fires right now, but when you're defending Mahomes, sometimes it's not enough. After all, the Broncos are trying to break a nearly decade-long dominance of the AFC West by Mahomes and the Chiefs.

But nothing lasts forever, and at some point, there will be a divisional changing of the guard. The Broncos worked hard to get to 8-2, so why not now? Why not the Broncos?

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