The Kansas City Chiefs used to be must-see TV, with a high-flying offense that featured quarterback Patrick Mahomes, receiver Tyreek Hill and an offense that was a non-stop scoring machine.
Those days are gone, though, and Ben Solak of ESPN rated the Chiefs 22nd in a piece rating each team according to what he called their “watchability.” It’s a shocking rating that says a lot about how much things have changed in Kansas City as Solak backed up his rating with some solid points.
Start with the fact that the Chiefs don’t create explosive plays anymore, as they only did this 9.3 percent of the time, per Solak, which puts them at 26th in the league last year. They also don’t give them up, which speaks to how much the Chiefs have shifted to become a defensive team since the Hill trade as Mahomes’ cap hit has continued to grow.
The Chiefs do play in a lot of close games, which is a point in their favor, and usually those games are entertaining. They were anything but for Chiefs fans last season, as they went just 1-9 last season, and by the end of the year Kansas City was nearly unwatchable without Mahomes.
The Chiefs are trying to remedy all this, of course, but their solution may not be all that entertaining, either. They’re putting Mahomes under center more and featuring new free agent running back Kenneth Walker III, with the goal of trying to take some of the heat off Mahomes as he continues to recover from knee surgery.
Kansas City believes Walker can break off some big runs, and there is some big-play capability oif the Chiefs can keep receiver Xavier Worthy on the field. Like many things, though, the Chiefs watchabilty factor will really be all about Mahomes.
The networks haven’t given up on the Chiefs, however. Kansas City will be featured early and often, starting with their opener, which will be on Monday Night Football on Sept. 14.
What could redeem the Chiefs last year is those close games. Coach Andy Reid kept hoping Kansas City’s luck would turn in those, as the Chiefs did have to deal with some tough breaks. Winning those games would make the Chiefs a lot more entertaining, altthough we’ll miss the good old days of Mahomes running around making crazy plays.
But the Chiefs don’t care about any of that, as they just want to win games in any way possible after last year’s embarrassing 6-11 season.
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