The Patrick Mahomes/Travis Kelce Kansas City Chiefs
How have the Kansas City Chiefs reformed their team to emphasize their own Kelce brother rather than Tyreek Hill?
Earlier this week I described how the Philadelphia Eagles are built around an insanely athletic offensive line. Jalen Hurts’ running ability and the Eagles’ RPO game all serve to try and keep defenders from clustering inside to outnumber their offensive line in the zone running game. If you can’t swarm the box with numbers, they will tear you to pieces with superior size, strength, and athleticism.
The Chiefs have a different construction to their team. Whereas the Eagles live to isolate opposing D-lines against Jason Kelce and the big brutes to his right and left, the Chiefs play this game in space.
Travis Kelce got 152 targets this season which translated into 110 receptions for 1,338 yards at 8.8 yards per target with 12 touchdowns. The leading KC running back Isiah Pachecho ran the ball 170 times whereas Miles Sanders had 259 carries for the Eagles and Hurts added another 165, nearly as many as Pacheco.
The Chiefs used to have a different dimension to their game when Tyreek Hill, the fastest dude in the NFL, was getting 150+ targets a season from Patrick Mahomes. Without that dynamic, the Chiefs are still a space-based team but they’re much more about precision and skill and can’t just blow games open the same way. Here’s how they have adjusted their Mahomes-centric offense to reflect the weapons around him.
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