Patrick Mahomes: Chiefs’ offense will involve ‘everybody’ this season

The Kansas City Chiefs are banking on having a few tricks up their sleeve for the 2022-23 NFL season.

While speaking with the media Thursday at the conclusion of the Chiefs’ first set of offseason workouts, Patrick Mahomes said “defenses won’t know [where the ball is going]” this upcoming season.

“That’s what you’re going to see with this offense this year,” Mahomes said. “It’s going to be everybody. It’s not all going to be one guy. Obviously [Travis Kelce] is still going to get a lot of completions [and] a lot of yards, but the whole receiving room is going to have big days and that can be something we use to our advantage.

“It’s a very deep receiving room. It’s hard to tell which guys are going to make it because we’ve got so many good receivers. That’s what you want. You want that competition. You want guys competing every single day to make the roster because they’re going to help us in the end.”

“A big part of our offense is having that chemistry on the field, and I think it’s translated,” Mahomes added. “We’ve been on the same page [so far during OTAs], and we’re going to keep building on that.”

In addition to Kelce headlining the Chiefs receiving corps, K.C. signed up two veteran free agents in JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, drafted Skyy Moore (Western Michigan) in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft and picked up undrafted free agent Justyn Ross.

These additions come in the wake of K.C. trading star wideout Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins in one of the biggest blockbuster deals this offseason. Mahomes went to either Kelce or Hill for 45% of his completions and 50% of his yards and touchdowns in his four years as a starter, per ESPN.

Let’s take a closer look at the weapons in Mahomes’ arsenal this season.

Seven-time Pro Bowl tight end Kelce will likely be the centerpiece of the Chiefs’ receiving corps with Hill out of the mix — and for good reason. He boasts 704 receptions for 9,006 yards and 57 touchdowns in his nine-year NFL career. Kelce has the most 100+ yard receiving games (29) in Chiefs franchise history and the most consecutive 1,000+ yard seasons (six) among tight ends in NFL history — no other TE has even five seasons.

Last season, Kelce’s 1,125 receiving yards trailed only Hill (1,239 yards) and was 432 yards more than the next closest player (Mecole Hardman, 693 yards). His nine TDs were tied with Hill for most of any player.

Pro Bowl WR Smith-Schuster, 25, joins the Chiefs after spending the entirety of his five-year career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has posted 323 receptions for 3,855 yards and 26 TDs all-time and is the third player in Steelers franchise history to record at least 100 catches in a season, joining Antonio Brown (six seasons) and Hines Ward (one season). 

He’s also the youngest receiver to get 2,500 receiving yards in NFL history at just 22 years and 227 days old. 

Former Green Bay Packers WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling, 27, comes to K.C. with 123 receptions, 2,153 yards and 13 TDs under his belt since joining the league in 2018. He was tied for the highest yards per reception average (18.4) in the NFL from 2019-21 and led the league in receiving yards per reception (20.9) in 2020.

What’s more, M.V.S. has caught at least one 70+ yard pass in each of the last three seasons, a flashy stat that goes right along with the Chiefs’ go-to style of play.

Twenty-one-year-old rookie receiver Moore reeled in 171 receptions for 2,482 yards and 16 TDs in three years at Western Michigan, where he averaged over 13 yards per reception every year. In 2021, he had the ninth-most receiving yards per game (106.9) in college football for WMU, the 10th most receptions (94) in FBS and was tied for the 11th-most receptions of 20+ yards (22) in CFB. 

Moore, who played quarterback and cornerback in high school, said he brings “versatility” to K.C. when speaking to the media during the Chiefs rookie minicamp.

Ross, 22, found a spot with the Chiefs after falling out of the 2022 NFL Draft last month. He boasts 158 receptions, 2,379 yards (15.1 YPC) and 20 TDs in his three-year career at Clemson, where he missed the 2020 season due to a congenital spine condition.

Kansas City’s voluntary OTA practices will take place over the next two weeks, followed by mandatory minicamp, which begins on June 14.