While the Kansas City Chiefs offseason will mainly be focused on how the team will address the left tackle position—and rightfully so, as it was once again the biggest reason for an embarrassing Super Bowl loss—there will be several other needs on the offensive side of the ball that the Chiefs will need to look at.
There’s also been a huge lack of explosive plays over the last couple of years in Kansas City’s offense, which can also be attributed to a lack of weapons at the wide receiver position. To be fair to the front office, injuries to Hollywood Brown and Rashee Rice over the course of the 2024 season did not help, but 2023 proved Kansas City must invest more into the position going forward, especially given Travis Kelce’s gradual decline and the fact he’s currently mulling retirement. Kansas City will have to look to other options to make up for the production and the attention a presence like Travis Kelce consistently brings.
Furthermore, Hollywood Brown, DeAndre Hopkins, and JuJu Smith-Schuster are going to be free agents, and Rashee Rice is very likely to miss time to begin next season due to a suspension, which makes wide receiver a big need heading into this offseason. Xavier Worthy obviously gives you a lot of optimism going into year two, but Kansas City still needs more than that.
A lack of weapons for Patrick Mahomes
When Brett Veach initially took over the role of general manager, he promised to continually surround Patrick Mahomes with weapons, but that hasn’t exactly been the case the last few years. The Chiefs have had a pedestrian passing attack and an average ground attack for a minute now. Patrick Mahomes finished this past season with the lowest aDOT (average depth of target) in his career and his lowest passing yards in a season in his career. Those are pretty direct indicators that the deep ball and the explosive plays are gone from Kansas City’s offense.
For whatever reason, the Chiefs’ front office and coaching staff have seemingly gone away from what Mahomes does best. They have taken an instinctual gunslinger coming out of college and early in his NFL career and effectively turned him into Alex Smith. The Chiefs’ offense for over two years has been almost exclusively quick passes and West Coast offense concepts that are best catered to an offense that feels like it doesn’t have the horses. Granted, some of that has been to neutralize left tackle play, but Kansas City’s receivers have also struggled to beat man coverage consistently for years now.
Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy are a good start toward getting back to what the Chiefs’ offense was about prior to trading Tyreek Hill, but it feels like they need their Sammy Watkins of this era of Chiefs football. Worthy was brought in to provide the deep ball, and Rice was beginning to look like the first option in Kansas City’s offense and the one to make plays over the middle before going down. That said, Kansas City would be wise to bring in another big-name wide receiver to form an explosive trio and truly threaten defenses vertically again.
Chiefs need a WR who can really move the needle
What reason is there not to throw money at a free agent like Tee Higgins or Chris Godwin and be aggressive in filling a very obvious need the way Brett Veach typically has? Moves like Hollywood Brown are good value money-wise, but there was a reason he was so cheap to begin with. DeAndre Hopkins, albeit a necessary move in the wake of injury, isn’t nearly what he once was and hardly did anything in the postseason. Kansas City needs to attack this need with someone who matters.
Of course, left tackle will be the priority if the Chiefs even decide to go the free-agent route, but it’s not like they won’t have cap space for a big addition elsewhere. They can easily afford a big-name wide receiver by moving some money around with restructures, and if Clark Hunt is willing to spend a little more cash to manipulate the cap.
This would be the perfect time to grab a top free-agent wide receiver because the Chiefs’ defense doesn’t need much fixing or resources spent on it. Kansas City will continue to add pieces here and there, so the big-money moves should really go toward making this offense great again and providing Patrick Mahomes with elite weapons.
Tee Higgins would be a coup if he were to leave the Bengals for Kansas City, but Chris Godwin doesn’t seem like an out-of-this-world possibility. Stefon Diggs on a one-year deal may also make a lot of sense. An acquisition for a big-name wide receiver doesn’t necessarily have to come through free agency, though. D.K. Metcalf of the Seattle Seahawks could also be available in a trade, and we know Kansas City isn’t afraid to make big trades in order to fill holes—they nearly traded for former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson last year.
Brett Veach will have his work cut out for him this offseason, but it is clear that Kansas City’s offense has been lacking for some time and needs more investment. Other than the fact that Kansas City’s offensive line was terrible, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl because of the sheer amount of weapons they had, and it feels important that Kansas City tries to close that talent gap this offseason. This offense was previously built on big plays with Mahomes slinging the deep ball. An offense led by Mahomes should never struggle to put up 30 points the way they have for the better part of the last two years.
Mahomes has worked his magic long enough with a subpar group of pass-catchers, and now it’s time for Brett Veach to work his magic to make Mahomes’ life easier and make Kansas City’s offense feared once again by targeting a big-name wide receiver this offseason. If Kansas City wishes to continue contending for Super Bowls, adding an explosive big-play threat is a necessity.
