Patrick Mahomes never had a chance to operate the Chiefs' offense with Travis Kelce, Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown and Rashee Rice all on the field at the same time, until now.
Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs' offense better than ever with Rashee Rice return originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Give Patrick Mahomes one top receiver and it's already tough enough to stop the Kansas City Chiefs' offense. Now that he has four, it's not fair to the rest of the NFL.
Pour one out for the Chiefs' "what's wrong with the passing game" narratives from the 2022 and 2023 seasons. After a two-year lull of not averaging more than 28 points per game, that version of Kansas City's explosive offense with Mahomes is back in full force.
The Chiefs were expected to rout the Raiders at home in their Week 7 game. They did just that, 31-0, to improve to 4-3. But it's the way they did it that was downright scary, timed with the return of wide receiver Rashee Rice from his six-game suspension.
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Chiefs offense dominant at full health
Mahomes has never had Rice on the field healthy with future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce and speedy wideouts Xavier Worthy and Hollywood Brown. The first game with them all operating as his weapons looked better than all the great things he did with the 1-2 punch of Kelce and former go-to field-stretcher Tyreek Hill.
With the blowout victory well in hand, the Chiefs could afford to rest Mahomes for the entire fourth quarter. Before he left, he continued his march back into the NFL MVP race by going 26-of-35 for 286 yards and 3 TDs. He completed 74.3 percent of his pass attempts at 7.9 yards per attempt and a ho-hum stellar 126.6 passer rating.
When looking at a whole what Kelce (3 catches, 54 yards), Rice (7 catches, 42 yards), Brown (2 catches, 14 yards) and Worthy (3 catches, 35 yards) did, the numbers don't look eye popping. But Rice (2 TDs) and Brown (TD) helped the Chiefs dominate in the red zone.
Five other Chiefs had catches, with rookie running back Brashard Smith, backup tight end Noah Gray and demoted wide receivers Tyquan Thornton and JuJu Smith-Schuster all making big plays at different points of the game.
Mahomes has made it work with a makeshift group with various injuries and that Rice suspension. He had the luxury of leaning on a top defense to not press and force the issue.
Now Mahomes can dictate to defenses again. They have to account for all those weapons vertically and horizontally all over the field with their route-running, speed, quickness and after-the-catch ability.
Who knows who would have scored for Mahomes had he stayed in for a final quarter of work? The methodical domination from the first three quarters would suggest at least two more TDs.
Mahomes has longed to have fun in "pick his poison" mode for a while. He's heard enough of "why do the Chiefs lack good wide receivers". With Rice back, no one is suggesting that typical midseason trade for a veteran anymore.
For fantasy players, it might be annoying for Mahomes to be so giving to all of his targets together without one blowing up with monster stats. For NFL defenses ahead on the Chiefs' schedule, they will have bigger nightmares trying to cover short, intermediate and deep vs. Mahomes. Through that passing, it opened up the running through the fourth quarter for 155 rushing yards.
The Lions got a taste of "Everybody Gotta Eat" in Kansas City in Week 6. The Raiders got it shoved down their throats. Good luck to the Commanders and all the opponents to try to either stop or outscore this best-ever version of the Mahomes-led Chiefs offense.
Category: Football
