Patrick Mahomes has been unseated as the Kansas City Chiefs’ reigning “Team MVP” following the 2024 campaign.
On February 21, the Chiefs announced that offensive lineman Joe Thuney was voted the recipient of the “Derrick Thomas MVP Award” — an honor that has been dominated by Mahomes in recent years.
Since taking over as the full-time starter in 2018, Mahomes had been voted team MVP in three out of the six KC seasons prior to 2024. He was also in the midst of a two-year streak from 2022-2023, but that streak will end as the veteran blocker wins the accolade for the first time.
Before Thuney, the last non-Mahomes team MVP was safety Tyrann Mathieu in 2021. Mathieu actually won the award in 2019 as well, with tight end Travis Kelce earning it in 2020 and Mahomes’ first team MVP coming in 2018.
As a reminder, these team awards are voted on by the KC players themselves.
Chiefs’ Joe Thuney Earns Team MVP Honor After Switching Positions & Helping KC Reach Super Bowl
On the Chiefs’ website, team reporter Matt McMullen broke down this year’s batch of team awards in more detail. For Thuney, he wrote the following:
Thuney was the recipient of the ‘Derrick Thomas Award,’ which is annually presented to the Chiefs’ most valuable player. Thuney, who also earned Associated Press ‘First-Team’ All-Pro honors in 2024, ranked second among all offensive guards in terms of pass-blocking last season according to Pro Football Focus, but his late-season efforts at left tackle were perhaps even more impactful. Thuney, despite lining up across from the likes of edge rushers such as T.J. Watt, Danielle Hunter, Von Miller and Myles Garrett, yielded just two sacks in his seven starts at left tackle. Specifically, from Week 16 through the AFC Championship Game, Thuney allowed just seven pressures across 166 pass-blocking snaps.
In other words, Thuney’s contributions were a significant reason behind Kansas City’s run to a third-straight Super Bowl berth.
As McMullen alluded, it’s not a stretch to say that Thuney’s position change from left guard to left tackle saved the Chiefs’ season in 2024. The offense had been struggling switching from rookie LT Kingsley Suamataia to Wanya Morris and then briefly to veteran D.J. Humphries — who immediately suffered an injury.
Who knows what might have happened in the playoffs if the Chiefs were forced to start Humphries or Morris on Mahomes’ blindside. Would they have defeated the Houston Texans? Or the Buffalo Bills? Going one step further, would KC have even secured the first-round bye?
Some might answer yes to all three, but the reality is that we’ll never truly know. And that is why Thuney was named this year’s team MVP.
Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy Earns ‘Mack Lee Hill Award’
In other news, Chiefs’ 2024 first rounder Xavier Worthy took home this year’s Mack Lee Hill Award, which shouldn’t really come as a surprise.
The Mack Lee Hill Award is presented to the “top rookie or first-year player.” In 2024, that was very clearly the talented wide receiver, with few members of the KC rookie class having much of an impact this season.
Having said that, if there was a runner-up, it’d likely be safety Jaden Hicks — who contributed often on both defense and special teams.
“Worthy caught 59 passes for 638 yards and nine total touchdowns last season, trailing only Jacksonville Jaguars’ wide receiver Brian Thomas in terms of total touchdowns among all rookies in 2024,” McMullen recapped. “Worthy tallied at least 40 yards from scrimmage in each of his final 10 games last season (including the playoffs), and his 287 receiving yards during the postseason were the second-most by a rookie all-time.”
