Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are perched atop the AFC West as usual.
However, the offense isn't glistening as per usual, and Mahomes is shouldering the blame for that, in particular the lack of production from his wide receiver corps.
"I just haven't played very good to start the season," Mahomes said on Wednesday, via team transcript, "so I think if I start playing better, everybody will start playing better."
Mahomes has thrown for 1,006 yards (10th in the NFL) and eight touchdowns (tied for fifth) with a career-low 251.5 yards per game through four contests. The Chiefs' usually sterling offense is still third in yards and ninth in points scored, though, so there's really not much reason to panic about at 3-1 and in first place in the AFC West.
Nonetheless, the Chiefs' offense hasn't appeared to be in vintage form and is averaging only 20 points per game when not playing the winless Chicago Bears.
Tight end Travis Kelce, despite missing a game, is the team's leading receiver with 17 catches.
Rookie Rashee Rice is the only wide receiver with double-digit catches, having posted 10 for 90 yards. There's potential to be sure with Kadarius Toney (nine receptions for 57 yards), Skyy Moore (7/112), Justin Watson (8/163) and Marquez Valdes-Scantling (6/104), but nothing's truly clicked since a Week 1 loss to the Detroit Lions mired by dropped passes, notably by Toney.
Nonetheless, there's no panic for the Chiefs, just patience.
"We have a couple young guys we're kind of bringing along, but I think they're doing a pretty good job, yeah," head coach Andy Reid said on Wednesday when asked if there was concern with the wide receivers.
In this past Sunday's win over the New York Jets, Mahomes completed 18 of 30 passes for 203 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. His counterpart, the Jets' Zach Wilson, was 28-of-39 passing for 245 passing yards, two TDs and no interceptions. It marked the first time in Mahomes' NFL (or college) career that an opposing QB had more completions, passing yards and passing TDs while having fewer INTs than Mahomes, according to NFL Research.
Still, Mahomes found a way to lead the Chiefs to a victory, thanks in large part to his legs.
On Sunday, Mahomes will be facing fellow Netflix Quarterback alum Kirk Cousins (1,214 yards, 11 touchdowns) for the first time. It will be just the third game in Mahomes' career that he will have fewer passing yards and passing TDs than the opposing starting QB heading into the game.
The Chiefs-Vikings matchup will be a Super Bowl IV rematch of a game played long before any of the current players were born. The game has long been remembered for Chiefs Hall of Fame coach Hank Stram's 65 toss power trap call that produced a Mike Garrett touchdown. With the 2023 Chiefs finding new ways to win, perhaps Reid will dust off that play call.
Likely not, but so far the struggles in the receiving game haven't held back the Chiefs all that much.
And Mahomes is not one to let any struggles dissuade him from playing his game.
"You just have to go out there and keep shooting it down the field," he said on Wednesday. "That's how I've always been wired. You just come in every single day and work and try to continue to get better and usually that stuff kind of figures itself out. I've had spots like this in my career where I haven't had the best few weeks in a row and so I have to make sure that I can go back to the fundamentals and try to be better for the team and then rely on other guys to make plays. I think that's somewhere where I can be better, is just getting the ball out of my hands and let these other guys make plays."
