This Kansas City Chiefs expert was asked if the Cheifs are facing a two-year rebuild, and his answer was revealing.
The Kansas City Chiefs are retooling their roster, but they didn’t meet all of their needs in the draft. The trade they made to get cornerback Mansoor Delane kept them from addressing a couple of their other needs, and a reader asked Jesse Newell of The Athletic if the Chiefs were actually on a two-year rebuild given that they didn’t get a receiver or add offensive line help.
Newell shot down that notion in his reply, which makes sense given that he thinks the idea of a rebuild is ridiculous when the Chiefs have quarterback Patrick Mahomes. According to Newell, “the goal should be to keep the roster at a point where a championship remains possible each season.”
He thinks Kansas City accomplished that, especially considering the run of football bad luck that hit the Chiefs last year. He’s not wrong, but there’s another question that needs to be asked here.
What if this turns out to be a different version of Mahomes that we see going forward? His mobility is going to be limited initially, and there’s a good chance we’ll see far fewer of those adventurous scramble that always seemed to produce big plays at the exact right moment.
The Chiefs have already accounted for that possibility with the addition of Kenneth Walker III, assuming Walker can stay healthy and take on the kind of workload he assumed last year with the Seattle Seahawks. This might be the “pocket passer” version of Mahomes going forward, and that’s going to take some retooling that produces a different kind of roster.
Specifically, the Chiefs could need a somewhat different receiver group. Last year’s group underachieved, and while tight end Travis Kelce is still a productive player, he’s no longer one who can carry the Chiefs offense the way he used to.
This is a pivotal year for the Chiefs receivers, and coach Andy Reid knows it. He made an interesting comment during the offseason meetings when Newell asked him about the limited playing time of receiver Tyquan Thornton late last season.
“That’s where the numbers come in,” Reid said. “Sometimes you can have too many guys. You get so many of them … guys get bitter. So if you have younger guys, sometimes they don’t get quite as angry as the older guys when they’re not playing.”
It’s a noteworthy quote, and it speaks to the fact this wasn't a very mature group last year. They played well early on because Mahomes was able to distribute the ball and keep everyone reasonably happy, but might also turn out to be problematic if the quarterback has to change his game and adapt again.