Matt Nagy reveals the offense will live and die by an attribute that’s on pace to be the best ever in this era of Chiefs football
Matt Nagy has the Kansas City Chiefs offense firing on all cylinders on fourth downs.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ offense in 2025 may be the scariest offense they have had in the Patrick Mahomes era. Of course, we have to look at the offense – starting with their second half against the New York Giants – when something really clicked for them. Plus, they’ve got Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy, and Hollywood Brown healthy at the same time for the first time ever. Not to mention, Travis Kelce looks to be in his prime, again.
This offense is dangerous, to the point where it’s acceptable to get into third-and-long situations and turn them into fourth-and-short situations. Kansas City has been elite on fourth down, and it will live and die with that type of aggressiveness this season.
Chiefs OC Matt Nagy talks fourth down aggressiveness
“I like what you just said about the aggressiveness. You just used it twice in there, and we got to keep that going,” offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said in a presser this week. “Making sure we’re aggressive is important. I know we’ve talked about it all the time. We talk about it internally.
“We have to stay that way, and if you don’t get it, that’s okay, at least everybody knows this is how we’re going to do it, and we’re going to go down this way, and then when you do get it, it’s just contagious. So, we want to keep that going, and that’s the positivity and the power of speaking it into existence.”
When you have Mahomes as your quarterback and Andy Reid as the play-caller, for the most part, you will usually feel good about your chances on fourth down. But this team, especially the last few years, has been pretty mid, if not bad at times, on third and even fourth down and short situations.
In the past, some of the play-calling and decision-making have been a bit iffy. Additionally, the execution has just not been there. This year is different, as the Chiefs are the best they have been on fourth down in this era. Kansas City is converting 1.8 fourth downs per game.
Chiefs’ fourth down conversions per game by season, via Team Rankings
- 2025: 1.8 per game, 1st in the league
- 2024: 0.7 per game, 18th in the league
- 2023: 0.6 per game, 24th in the league
- 2022: 0.5 per game, 26th in the league
- 2021: 0.6 per game, 28th in the league
- 2020: 0.7 per game, 15th in the league
- 2019: 0.5 per game, 16th in the league
- 2018: 0.8 per game, 3rd in the league
Obviously, these numbers could go down, but they are certainly on pace to be better than 0.8, their best per-game average since 2018. Per Sports Info Solutions, anytime the Chiefs have gotten in 11 personnel on fourth down this season, they have converted. Granted, that’s only eight snaps, but that’s certainly something. Their five snaps of 12 personnel have a 60% success rate.
Kansas City is most effective on fourth down when using pre-snap motion, as nine of those snaps have converted into a first down, five of which were pass plays, and four of which were run plays. This team is being ultra-aggressive on fourth down, and they’re sticking with what works.
When a team is confident in itself, no matter how many downs it has, it becomes dangerous. They have the most conversions in the NFL with 14, and the third highest conversion percentage at 82% behind the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots. That’s what we are seeing with the Chiefs, and that’s likely what we will see against the Buffalo Bills this week as Mahomes and Josh Allen battle it out again.