The Kansas City Chiefs are ditching their dink-and-dunk offense.
On Thursday, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes revealed head coach Andy Reid has encouraged him to let it fly in the team's offseason program.
"If I don't [throw deep], he throws little jabs at me like, 'Oh, you want to throw the checkdown here?''' Mahomes said after Thursday's practice, via ESPN's Adam Teicher. "I'm like, 'I got you, coach; we're going to push it.' It has been fun."
The Chiefs won their third Super Bowl in five years last season, but struggled to push the ball downfield. They tied for 19th in the league in yards per passing attempt (6.9) and Mahomes' numbers dipped. In 16 games, he completed 67.2% of his passes for 27 touchdowns, 14 interceptions and a career-low 63.1 QBR, still above the league average.
To solve the problem, K.C. added two speedy wide receivers, signing Marquise "Hollywood" Brown to a one-year, $7M deal and drafting Texas' Xavier Worthy in the first round (pick No. 28). Worthy, of course, broke the 40-yard-dash record at the NFL scouting combine (4.21), and Brown runs a 4.27 40-yard dash.
According to Teicher, a sore hamstring has limited Worthy, but it appears Mahomes and Brown already have chemistry, as the 28-year-old QB threw a long TD pass to the pass-catcher in Wednesday's practice. The passing attack should be even more explosive when both wideouts are in the lineup.
Hollywood put on a show today pic.twitter.com/Amy0fPXWjr
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) June 12, 2024
"Those guys are blazers,'' Kansas City wide receiver Justin Watson said of Worthy and Brown in a Wednesday news conference. "They're at a different level of speed and defenses are going to have to back up."
With an improved receiving corps, bank on Mahomes reestablishing himself as an MVP candidate this season. As of Thursday, FanDuel gives him the best odds (+500) to win the award for the third time in his career, ahead of Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen (+800) and Houston Texans QB C.J. Stroud (+1000).
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