The Kansas City Chiefs are still processing the meaning of yesterday’s 16-13 to the Los Angeles Chargers and the devastating knee injury to quarterback Patrick Mahomes that came with it. There’s a lot to process, and Bill Barnwell of ESPN took on the task of doing some interpretations today.
The first was about how the Chiefs continued to survive despite the struggles of the offense. Mahomes typically scrambles more in the postseason when it means more, but this year he began doing it earlier and more often. Specifically, Mahomes went from 2.5 scrambles per game during the regular season last year to 3.8 this season.
That’s a big jump, and it finally caught up to Mahomes, largely because his battered offensive line was even more likely to put him in harms way for high-risk scrambles like the one that took out Mahomes yesterday.
Mahomes has also taken a lot more hits this year. He’s taken 153 this year, which is second only to Justin Herbert of the Chargers, and the common thread there is that both quarterbacks have often needed every yard of those scrambles to get a first down or keep drives alive.
The other point Barnwell made was about the Chiefs’ beat-up offensive line. On the play when Mahomes was hurt, Chiefs lineman Chukwuebuka Godrick was called for holding, and the rookie was making his NFL debut. He was forced onto the field after Jaylon Moore suffered a knee injury on the second snap of the game, and as Barnwell stated, the Chiefs were stuck with tackles they couldn’t have possibly wanted to play meaningful football this season.
Left tackle has been a revolving door for the Chiefs for a while now, and it’s starting to look like this problem might not just be bad injury luck. The Chiefs have had plenty of that, but the old adage about availability and ability may apply here to some extent.
Another point is that when Mahomes returns, he may not be able to play the style of football to which he’s become accustomed. He’s 30 now, and while the occasional acrobatics are still impressive, it’s not a sustainable way to play going forward, regardless of how much he may want to be.
The end result is that Mahomes may not be a one-man band when he comes back. This would be a shame for those of us who love his style of quarterback play, but for the Chiefs, a shift of sorts might end up being the best way to win games going forward.