'Those are three guys on our team that we believe can make plays' – Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes on expanding the offense
The Kansas City Chiefs were able to defeat the Houston Texans during the divisional playoff round despite not having their A-game offensively. One player who was extremely sharp was tight end Travis Kelce, who caught seven passes for 117 yards and one touchdown. However, only three other players caught a pass in that game, combining […]
The Kansas City Chiefs were able to defeat the Houston Texans during the divisional playoff round despite not having their A-game offensively.
One player who was extremely sharp was tight end Travis Kelce, who caught seven passes for 117 yards and one touchdown. However, only three other players caught a pass in that game, combining for just 60 receiving yards.
Of those three, Xavier Worthy was the only wide receiver to record a reception (five for 45 yards). Others such as DeAndre Hopkins, Hollywood Brown, and JuJu Smith-Schuster, who are expected to be solid contributors to Kansas City's offense, were shut out on just four combined targets.
While joining The Drive with Carrington Harrison and Sean Levine on Tuesday, quarterback Patrick Mahomes talked about the importance of getting Hopkins, Brown, and Smith-Schuster more involved in the offense as the Chiefs prepare for their AFC Championship Game matchup against the Buffalo Bills.
"I think you just continue to go about the process," Mahomes said. "I know in coach Reid's offense, it's about spreading the football around and obviously we weren't able to do that to the extent that we wanted to. Other guys stepped up and made plays happen, but you never know how playoff football is going to go and you want to make sure that you get your best players the football and let them make plays. Those are three guys on our team that we believe can make plays that can change the outcome of the game and get us to win some of these big football games, which we'll need playing the great Buffalo team that we are playing."
Keep in mind that it is entirely possible that Hopkins, Brown, and Smith-Schuster were simply just not a big part of the gameplan last week. The Chiefs played a lot of multiple tight ends sets, with Kelce, Noah Gray and Peyton Hendershot combining for 82 snaps offensive snaps against the Texans.
It's also worth noting that Brown almost hauled in a deep pass during the second quarter, but the ball was knocked out by a Houston defender at the last second. As the Chiefs prepare for Buffalo, it's safe to assume that they'll have a fresh gameplan that features different players contributing.
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