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The Kansas City Chiefs are currently 3-4 and are 3rd in the AFC West with no clear path to dethroning the 5-2 Raiders. As most things in the NFL, people are overreacting a lot but is it all merely overreaction or is there any truth to the notion that the Chiefs are essentially done?
The playoff aspirations of the team are quickly diminishing by the week and we may very well see the 2021/2022 title race without KC in the playoffs, but should we be too quick to blame Patrick Mahomes?
The quarterback of every team is the most important piece and media and fans typically hail or judge the player for the team’s successes or failures respectively. We are here to tell you that Mahomes isn’t going anywhere and that he is still among the top QB is the league while the rest of the team may actually be the problem.
Has Mahomes really been that bad this year?
Looking at the latest quarterback rankings by QBR, Mahomes takes 8th place. This is pretty good given the fact everyone says that the Chiefs are done. An argument can be made that while the team is vastly underperforming, the quarterback still manages to keep them afloat.
Patrick Mahomes currently has 2093 passing yards after 7 games putting him on pace to go well over 4500 passing yards for the season. The big stain on his game this year is the 9 interceptions which put him on pace to go over 20 for the season which is almost double as many as the 12 picks that he threw in 2018.
Still, Mahomes is 3rd in touchdowns thrown this season with 18 right behind Tom Brady (21) and Matthew Stafford (19). In points per game, the Chiefs are the 8th ranked team with 26.9. averaging 26.9 points per game should be good enough to keep you over .500 so why do we have the feeling that the Chiefs are finished, at least as we know them?
What reasons do we see for the failure of the Chiefs?
First of all, the loss from the Titans was a bad one. It’s still too fresh for us to forget and we give it more significance than it probably deserves. Furthermore, the Chiefs scored just a field goal in this devastating home loss which enhances the sense of misery.
Second of all, that defense is bad. And we really mean bad. KC allows 128 rush yards per game which is 27th in the league, 275.7 passing yards per game (26th), and 29.0 points per game (27th). This is not a playoff-caliber defense and we wouldn’t be surprised if the Super Bowl finalists from last year miss the postseason.
But make no mistake, this shouldn’t be put on Mahomes only. He basically finds himself in a race against his own defense each week. His task is to somehow score more points than his defense will allow and given the fact that KC’s run game is ranked 14th in the league, it’s a very tough ask to throw the ball efficiently and with great success.
The Chiefs may be done the way we know them, but Mahomes isn’t the reason.
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