KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two of the first five plays at a recent Kansas City Chiefs practice session were Patrick Mahomes passes that traveled well down the field. Neither was caught, though, including one that was dropped by rookie wide receiver Jalen Royals, which left Mahomes with his hands on his head in frustration.
More deep throws from Mahomes were to come that day and though not all resulted in completions, it was more the process that interested the Chiefs. They want the long ball back in their offense and believe the offseason practice field is where it will start.
The Chiefs emphasized incorporating big pass plays last year at this time as well, but they rarely materialized in the regular season. They are aware that talking about getting them alone won’t achieve the desired result. They’ll have to work for it as well.
“Talk is cheap, right?” offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said. “You can’t [just] talk about it. You’ve got to be able to do it. So I think it’s a mentality of every day in practice trying to make sure you stress not only the importance of talking about it but then doing it in practice.
“It’s our job as coaches to emphasize it more and then let these guys go out there, and then their mindset, too, is cutting it loose every now and then and not every one is going to be perfect [or] complete, but … so far up to this point it’s been beautiful with the attack mindset.”
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Last season, Mahomes and the Chiefs were next to last in the league in pass completions (12) that traveled downfield at least 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. They had 47 such attempts, the fourth-lowest total in the league. In all, the Chiefs had 42 pass plays of 20 yards or more, the sixth lowest.
The reasons were many. Neither of their two top veteran wide receivers, Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown, played much during the season because of injuries. The Chiefs, who went through four starting tackles, didn’t always protect Mahomes well and when they did, he didn’t always seem to trust it would hold up.
Rice and Brown are back, joining second-year receiver Xavier Worthy at wideout. The Chiefs drafted one left tackle, Josh Simmons, in the first round and signed another, Jaylon Moore, in free agency in the hope of solving their protection problems.
Mahomes, with encouragement from coach Andy Reid and Nagy, has been testing it in practice.
“We’re fast,” Mahomes said of the wide receivers. “I think that’s probably the thing that stands out the most.
“We have guys that can roll. Our job is to test the defenses down the field and we have to get back to doing that if we want to open up other guys underneath. Coach Reid has challenged me this offseason to push the ball down the field, let guys have chances to make plays and then once we get that back to where we want to be in our standard that we believe we should have, then we can come back to the underneath stuff.”
Worthy was drafted in the first round last year because of his ability to make catches down the field. He ran the fastest 40 time (4.21 seconds) in scouting combine history in 2024.
But he caught only three passes last season that traveled in the air more than 20 yards past the line of scrimmage. He led the Chiefs’ wide receivers with 59 receptions, but his 10.8-yard-per-catch average was far less than what the Chiefs hoped it would be.
Worthy progressed as last season went along. He caught 20 passes in the first nine games but 39 over the final eight. He also had 19 catches in three postseason games, including eight for 157 yards and two touchdowns in Super Bowl LIX.
“The end of last year was kind of like a stepping stone for me,” Worthy said. “Just learning and getting a better feel for what Pat likes. I feel that got better at the end of the year. Just continue that and continue that momentum.”
Worthy showed last season he was a versatile player. He was still effective despite getting the ball mostly on shorter passes.
The Chiefs want to open up the deep-reception part of Worthy’s game as well. He caught in the end zone a 50-yard touchdown pass from Mahomes in last year’s Super Bowl, a play they hope serves as a sign of things to come.
“He’s not just fast,” Mahomes said. “He can make plays. You saw that with some of the contested catches that he made kind of towards the end of the season, if you think back to the Bills game or even the last catch he had in the Super Bowl. He’s someone that will go up and make a play on the football and so my job is to give him more opportunities.
“Even when he’s running with someone and it’s one-on-one, throw the ball, let him go up there and make a play. I think adding Hollywood being healthier and then having Rashee back out there is going to give him more and more opportunities to stretch the field.”
As the Chiefs know well from last season’s passing problems, much has to go their way for the downfield game to work. Mahomes needs time and must be willing to trust it, the receivers need to get open and Mahomes has to have the willingness to let it fly.
The rest of the burden falls on Reid and Nagy.
“We have to be able to put the plays in that give [Mahomes the chance for a big play], but then at the same point in time you’ve got to pull the trigger, you’ve got to take that shot downfield,” Nagy said. “We’ve got to try to put in the right plays and then obviously call it at the right time. But it’s a mindset and you’ve got to stick to it and it’s constant, every single day. Not just every week. It’s every single day and then it just becomes reality.”
