Ahhh the preseason…..a time when every fan believes their team can win it all. The most speculative time of the year, it is all in front of us. The expectations run rampant about everything from starting line-ups, rookie production, win-loss records, and all from short practice session clips and some vanilla preseason games. Chiefs fans are no different, ready to jump on anything positive or negative that might lend some insight to how the season will play out. What a great time of year. In the spirit of the season, it’s time to get back to overreacting in the Kingdom, let’s jump in with both feet.
That Fateful Day in the Chiefs Kingdom
There are most likely few diehard Chiefs who can’t remember exactly where they were on that late March day when the news broke. In a stunning twist, the Chiefs shipped off a certain All-Pro wide receiver to the warm shores of South Beach. Many in the Kingdom probably also recall the shock of the trade as well. No one could have predicted that move, right? Patrick Mahomes’s speedy little buddy no longer a Chief? The man who hauled in Wasp and subsequently provided the turning point of the Super Bowl victory was gone?
However, that trade and its haul of draft picks was the right move and the Chiefs offense will be much, much better without Tyreek Hill. Oh, and Hill will be much better off in South Beach because he will now be catching passes from a QB more accurate than Patrick Mahomes.
As I had written on more than one occasion last season the NFL had caught up with the Chiefs’ offense. Andy Reid, Eric Bieniemy, and Patrick Mahomes were too reluctant (and too stubborn) to change and the early part of last season was the result. The Ravens, Chargers, and Bills were all tough losses, yes, but then the Titans game happened. All of those teams were teeming to slay the giant and had sights on post-season aspirations. All four put the clamps on the Chiefs to some degree, but the Titans game, 3-points. Things were looking bleak.
Sure, the defense played a role, certainly against Baltimore, but gone were the days of Mahomes running buckshot through the league. Even into the latter part of the season, Mahomes was stuck on two targets, Kelce and Hill. Who can blame him for keying on two All-Pro pass catchers who are dependable as it gets, the problem was without a running game that other teams should respect, things had become way too predictable.
A Time for Change
The only way things were going to change and Mahomes was going to grow into PM15 2.0 was to shake things up. So, as the Kingdom faithful can agree, they were quite shaken up when Hill was traded to the Miami Dolphins for five draft picks. A fan base was rocked and the future of the offense was in question. However, with the Chief’s offense stalling at points the last two seasons, something drastic had to be done.
But, Chiefs fans rejoice, the Kansas City Chiefs are going to be a better team and have a better offensive than any time under the Mahomes/Reid tenure as the Kingdom will now bear witness to a whole new offense along with a whole new appreciation for the genius of the Reid-Mahomes connection.
Hill had to go and the Kingdom should be feeling good about that trade, some might go as far as to say delighted. The money alone that Hill was expected to get would be problematic, to say the least, but without that trade, the stagnation would have continued. Now the NFL will behold the Chiefs completely overhauled and revamped offense this season that will be void of the previous predictability.
A New Era
The Chiefs’ offense sans Kelce, Hardman, and CEH will be a whole new animal. The Kingdom needs to look no further than the first team’s brief appearance in their preseason game against Chicago. Mahomes stats, six for seven for 70 yards and a touchdown, he shouldn’t play another down in the preseason. Although the stats for Mahomes are something we have come to expect, the interesting part is in the “six” part of the stats. Each one of those six throws was a catch by a different receiver. That should prove to all those concerned that this offense will be better than we have seen since Mahomes took the NFL by surprise in his first full season as a starter.
All of this will have been made possible by shipping off Hill to what may very well be a warm and humid NFL purgatory. All this is without factoring in the potential for an improved run game. If somehow the run game becomes a viable threat, which it may very likely if Reid can commit to it, then we could see a much better statistical season for this offensive. That would be downright scary.
Even before the apparent leap the rest of the AFC West may have taken this off-season, the Chiefs needed to make a move to usher in a new era for Mahomes to embrace. That wasn’t going to happen without forcing PM15 out of his predictable nature to look primarily to Hill and Kelce. Now Mahomes has a whole new crop of competent receivers to look towards, potentially the most exciting might be the rookie, Skyy Moore.
Without a doubt, this team will improve with the absences of Tyreek Hill more so than they ever would have had they paid him the huge extension he was seeking. This trade was needed and quite genius again by Brett Veach. Now watch as the Mahomes, Reid, and Bieniemy take all the hype around those other AFC West teams personally and unleash the Hill-less 2.0 version of Patrick and the Chiefs offense on an unsuspecting NFL. Go Chiefs.!
