The Kansas City Chiefs are 5-0, but they won’t win a third-straight Super Bowl if the supporting cast doesn’t improve before January.
Monday night’s 26-13 victory over the New Orleans Saints shows that having quarterback Patrick Mahomes covers up a lot of deficiencies. He’s one of the all-time talents at the position for a reason, and he’s got three Super Bowl rings to show for it.
If he wants a fourth, his team is going to have to get him a little more help to withstand an AFC that won’t just bend to Kansas City’s will this season like it typically has in the past.
With Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice reportedly expected to miss the season with an LCL injury, Kansas City officially has all the reason in the world to go out and trade for a meaningful replacement.
As encouraging as it was to see a guy like JuJu Smith-Schuster go off against the Saints (130 yards), the Chiefs can’t depend on that weekly. Tight end Travis Kelce (70 yards) is settling in nicely to the season after a slow start, but he can’t shoulder the passing game by himself in the playoffs if other players go cold.
Wideout Xavier Worthy is an electric playmaker, too, but can this team really trust a rookie without any postseason experience to make the requisite plays on a consistent basis to factor in January? Veteran wide receiver Hollywood Brown reportedly isn’t expected to return in the regular season, and it’s still not a lock he’s back at all.
The rest of the Chiefs’ supporting cast is okay, but none of these guys inspire the kind of confidence to break the game when it matters the most. Mahomes is spectacular, and Kansas City has options to weather the regular season and reach yet another path to Super Bowl glory.
However, AFC heavyweights like the Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills feel more primed to get in Kansas City’s way than ever before.
Heck, who’s to say the Cincinnati Bengals don’t get it going in the second half of the season? Could the Denver Broncos be legitimate? How about the Pittsburgh Steelers or New York Jets? All of those teams have just enough going for them to play spoiler on the right night in January, believe it or not.
While Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams is a pipe dream, veteran trade possibilities like Tennessee Titans’ DeAndre Hopkins, Cleveland Browns’ Amari Cooper and Jacksonville Jaguars’ Christian Kirk are not. A move doesn’t have to be a player at that magnitude, but the bigger, the better for Kansas City.
With about a month to go before the trade deadline, the Chiefs have plenty of time to get Mahomes more help for the rest of the season. The team is undefeated and still the toast of the conference, but they cannot rest on past laurels to get them to a third-straight Lombardi.
How Kansas City deals with injuries and addresses talent acquisition this October might hold a bigger win-loss swing than any other game the team plays this month. Play it right, and it might come up big when it matters the most. Remain static, and you might end up paying for it when it’s too late.
