Author: Max Greenberg
Let’s state the obvious, the Kansas City Chiefs are undoubtedly among the biggest disappointments in the 2021 NFL season so far. Everyone looks at this team and just says “oh, it’s the Chiefs, they have Patrick Mahomes, that offense, they are a contender automatically.” It is not that easy after all, is it?
The Chiefs have come out of the gate in 2021 and have looked sloppy, out of sync, and overall just abysmal. They have stumbled to a 3-4 record and are tied with the Denver Broncos for dead last in the AFC South -- a division they have dominated over the past few seasons.
The offense has looked nowhere near like its old self, as their home run nature has caught up with them hard. Ever since opposing defenses have started playing against the deep ball, they have had to run significantly more plays that are passes close to the line of scrimmage, which has severely limited them.
Their offensive line play has been poor, their run game is virtually nonexistent, and Mahomes is being extremely careless with the football and turning it over. I do not know what it is, but he is trying so hard to play hero ball this year, and has committed several turnovers due to trying to make something happen when the play is clearly dead.
It also does not help that their defense has been able to provide little to no resistance against opposing offenses.
If you are still a believer in the Chiefs at this point in the year, you are basing that entirely off of name value. If they cannot improve their current play, they will struggle to even make the playoffs, let alone make another Super Bowl run.
Things do not look good at all for them right now, but at the same time, it is the Chiefs, and you can never count them out. Keep in mind that this is not the first time that they have looked disappointing with high expectations on their shoulders.
Remember how they had four losses in the 2019 season the year after Mahomes won MVP and were looking flawed on both sides of the ball? They won the rest of their games that year and won the Super Bowl.
Last season, they were slowing down hard at the end of the regular season and people were thinking that they might not even win a game in the playoffs. They still made the Super Bowl.
No, none of those instances have been as bad as what they are currently going through, but they go to show that they have turned themselves around in the past, and they can do it now.
There is a reason that they have had so much success with this group. Their key members are some of the best at their respective roles and know how to win. What is going on with the Chiefs right now is that they may just need to dig deep and make some adjustments.
Now, not all of their problems are fixable, but some of their main ones are. Mahomes could be more careful with the football and stop costing his team possession and momentum. The offense could learn to implicate more plays of ten to twenty yards and make themselves a little less predictable.
Both of those are hypotheticals, but with one of the best head coaches in the game and one of the best quarterbacks, there are few teams more capable of making those adjustments than the Chiefs. That is not to say that you should expect them to make a turnaround later in the season, but you absolutely can never count them out.
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