Chiefs OC Matt Nagy expresses his feelings on WR room heading into 2023
The Kansas City Chiefs new offensive coordinator told us that they are excited about the wide receiver room in 2023.The Chiefs lost their best receiver in free agency as JuJu Smith-Schuster took his one-year prove-it deal with the Chiefs, and turned it into a three-year deal with the New England Patriots, in which he is […]
The Kansas City Chiefs new offensive coordinator told us that they are excited about the wide receiver room in 2023.
The Chiefs lost their best receiver in free agency as JuJu Smith-Schuster took his one-year prove-it deal with the Chiefs, and turned it into a three-year deal with the New England Patriots, in which he is getting paid big time.
That's good for him. There will always be love for a guy who comes in, embraces the city, the culture, and the fans, and wins a ton of games, even if it's just for one year. Not to mention Smith-Schuster did win a Super Bowl too.
But, even though the Chiefs lost him in free agency, there is no worry or anxiety about the room he left behind. In fact, the Chiefs love what they currently have.
"Yeah, JuJu did such a great job last year coming in learning the system," Nagy started telling the media on Thursday. "In general, those new guys last year, just working through the timing element of the routes. And I think he did such a great job that you can see it click with Pat, really towards the end of training camp and taking it into the season, he had a great feel and in different zones and just kind of understanding the offense.
"He has some good experience. We wish him the best. But at the same time, we love our wide receiver room right now, the guys are competing. And it's at a point right now that is always fun, when there's new guys that come in from other places or rookies for them to learn who Pat is, and the other quarterbacks and work through that. That cohesion that they have, but JuJu great player and you know, but we got a lot of great guys here."
The Chiefs kind of failed this offseason when it came to finding that number-one guy they wanted. They went after Odell Beckham Jr., and missed, as he and the Baltimore Ravens agreed to a base salary of $15 million the Chiefs just weren't willing to pay.
Then it was DeAndre Hopkins, and when he saw what OBJ got, he thought he should at least have that considering OBJ didn't play last season due to injury, and he should feel that way. However, after the Chiefs gave $9 million to Donovan Smith, that type of money just wasn't available any longer.
Now, that doesn't mean they can't still land Hopkins, though. The chances just get more and more slim every day, it seems.
Nagy seems to be fine with what he has so far though. The Chiefs think Kadarius Toney can be that number-one receiver. They are confident in everything they have, and they should be. Mahomes just won the MVP and Super Bowl MVP throwing to an entirely new group of receivers in 2022 that looks very similar to the group they have now.
I wouldn't be too worried about it, especially if Nagy and company aren't.
