As more than a handful of NFL coaches elected to rest their starting quarterbacks throughout the preseason — to guard against the risk of injury — Patrick Mahomes did something against the grain.
He played.
Same he did the year before. And same as the year before that.
You know, this guy might be on to something.
There are few quarterbacks — or teams for that matter — that look as prepared for season openers as Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. More evidence came Sunday.
The Chiefs destroyed the Cardinals 44-21 in Week 1 in Arizona, their eighth straight season-opening win.
And we should probably take a peek at Mahomes’ numbers. He finished 30 of 39 for 360 yards and five touchdowns.
Mahomes has played in five season openers in the NFL. He has thrown for at least three touchdowns in each of those games.
He’s a good place to start the five observations from Sunday afternoon’s game.
1. That offense is (more than) fine
So how did the offense change without Tyreek Hill?
Not much in results.
Quite a bit in process.
True to the words they repeated ad nauseam this offseason, the Chiefs didn’t look for one player to fill the void vacated by Hill’s trade to Miami. And it doesn’t need to be receivers replacing him, either.
Five different players caught at least three passes Sunday. On the other end of Mahomes’ initial four touchdown throws? A tight end. A running back. A running back again. And a different tight end. (Mecole Hardman caught the fifth TD pass.)
The Chiefs rolled from the get-go — which, to be fair, is nothing new. A year ago, they led the NFL with 68 points on their opening drives. The initial march Sunday required only one third down.
The script worked beautifully, and the one time it didn’t, when Mahomes faced an incoming blitz, he spun to his left, sidestepped the blitzer and nailed JuJu Smith-Schuster for a first down.
Speaking of which, it would be hard to envision anyone other than Smith-Schuster leading the Chiefs’ receivers in catches. While he won’t represent the big-play threat that Marquez Valdes-Scantlinlg and Mecole Hardman can more consistently provide, he is already a comfortable outlet.
For now. He did fumble twice — one before the end of the half that too quickly supplied flashbacks of a troubling stretch of turnovers a year ago.
2. Can we talk about the defense?
Mahomes played like a man angry about how the last season finished.
But, jeez, the defense deserves to be part of this conversation. The Chiefs had allowed only 258 yards of offense before punting the ball back to the Cardinals with fewer than two minutes to play.
After an eventful summer, Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray never looked comfortable in Week 1. L’Jarius Sneed and Carlos Dunlap sacked him. The Cardinals’ running game was non-existent, with starter James Conner gaining just 26 yards and 10 carries.
A year ago, the Chiefs’ best defensive effort of the regular season came against the Cowboys, when they surrendered 276 total yards.
3. The wrist/thumb
Look, I don’t want to damper a season-opening win, but much of what awaits this year’s Chiefs will depend on what awaits the left thumb and left wrist of Mahomes.
Emphasis on left. It’s not his throwing hand, but Mahomes landed awkwardly on his left wrist after his touchdown pass to Travis Kelce to end of the first drive, bracing himself with his hand.
Mahomes completed the game with tape around his thumb and wrist. It quite clearly won’t affect his throwing motion —but it certainly could affect some other movements within the game if he just naturally guards against a part of his body that is sore.
4. The running back committee is interesting
With a couple of additions to the running back room this offseason, you couldn’t help but wonder if Clyde Edwards-Helaire might slide down the Chiefs’ depth chart — or at least relinquish a chunk of his work.
Not quite.
But the roles became a bit clearer in the opening half of Week 1 — Edwards-Helaire still atop the list, with a whole lot of Jerick McKinnon on third downs and two-minute drills and Isaiah Pacheco in mop-up duty.
(Ronald Jones was among the players the Chiefs declared inactive before kickoff.)
And you know what? Worked out nicely. For all three. Edwards-Helaire was a focal point of the opening script, when he turned four carries into 34 yards. He twice hit cutback routes rather than smashing the intended lanes. Oh, and he caught a pair of receiving touchdowns.
McKinnon totaled 49 yards. And Pacheco rushed for 62 yards, 60 after halftime as the Chiefs iced the game. That led the team.
5. L’Jarius Sneed, man
The defense had a good day.
L’Jarius Sneed had a really good day.
I’ve thought for awhile now that Sneed is the best cornerback on the roster, and if I’m running a defense, I’d prefer my best cornerback to line up outside the numbers, where the opposition tends to deploy its top wide receivers.
But there’s a reason he continues to play in the slot — evidence that required all of one defensive series to present itself. Sneed stormed a third-down blitz and sacked Kyler Murray to conclude the Cardinals’ first possession. Sneed was everywhere Sunday: He added two other quarterback hits and deflected a pass.
