Here’s why Chiefs are primed to unleash a ‘track team’ against defenses in 2025
Optimism is high for the deep ball to make a consistent return to the offense
The third play on the Chiefs’ second possession in the preseason finale against the Chicago Bears started off innocently.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes took the snap out of the shotgun formation on a first-and-10 situation at the Chiefs’ 24-yard line, then went play-action by faking a handoff to running back Kareem Hunt before settling in the pocket.
Mahome briefly scanned the field, and then spotted wide receiver Tyquan Thornton, who streaked past Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright down the left sideline.
Excitement followed.
Thornton’s blazing speed allowed him to open at least a 3-yard lead over the trailing Wright, who played off the line of scrimmage before the snap. Mahomes let it fly with a perfectly placed pass, which Thornton hauled in for a 58-yard gain.
Could the play represent a sign of things to come, starting with Week 1’s matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers, after the deep ball was missing for the most part last season?
Definitely so, if the Chiefs have their way.
“If they’re going to be one-on-one on the outsides and we can make plays, it puts them into the shell coverages,” Mahomes said after the preseason game. “And then Trav (Travis Kelce) starts getting going and stuff like that.
“In order to be the best version of ourselves, we have to be able to prove game-by-game that we can hit these deep passes. And if we do that, it opens the rest of the offense and everybody can get going.”
NEED FOR SPEED
Mahomes comes off a season where he posted career-low numbers in yards passing (3,928) and yards gained per pass attempt (6.8).
The Chiefs also ranked 14th in the league in net yards passing in 2024, a figure representing the lowest since Mahomes became the fulltime starter in 2018.
But the production dip arguably falls on the Chiefs dealing with multiple injuries to the wide receiver corps, specifically Rashee Rice’s knee and Marquise “Hollywood” Brown’s shoulder.
With last season in the books and Xavier Worthy entering his second professional campaign, the Chiefs are confident the offense can bring back the deep ball in 2025.
Accomplishing the mission proved a point of emphasis throughout the offseason and training camp.
“That has been a focus for us,” Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said during camp. “I think we all talk about last year and how it went as far as the lack of explosives (plays). Being able to figure out where does that start at? What are we doing, making sure we’re doing our jobs as coaches. What are the players doing, putting it all together?
“Without a doubt that has been an emphasis, and we want to speak it into existence, and it starts with teaching it. Making sure the guys understand it, and then when we get out there in practice, we execute it.”
So, how do the Chiefs go about turning the vision into reality?
It starts with one key factor – speed.
Lots of it.
The Chiefs’ receiver group consists of Rice, Brown, Worthy, Thornton, rookie Jalen Royals, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Nikko Remigio and Jason Brownlee.
Kansas City is without Rice, the team’s most complete wideout, to start the season while he serves a six-game suspension. But there’s still firepower to unleash before he returns in Week 7.
Worthy (4.21), Brown (4.27) and Thornton (4.28), possess sub-4.3 times in the 40-yard dash, while Royals, the Chiefs’ fourth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, has been clocked at 4.42.
Meanwhile, Smith-Schuster (4.54), Remigio (4.56) and Brownlee (4.59) won’t turn heads with an ability to stretch the field. The trio, however, balances out the receiver group with underneath routes.
“It’s like a track team out there, a 4 x1 team,” Chiefs wide receivers coach Connor Embree said. “It’s next man up; they all can run.
“That’s kind of what our offense is based off is just speed, speed, speed, speed. And then just like you said, we got a lot of guys that can run. So, I like the depth of our room and the speed of it.”
‘WARM UP YOUR HAMMIES’
It’s no secret the deep ball has been absent from the Chiefs’ offense since the trading of Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins in 2021.
Sure, there have been a handful of big plays through the air over the past few seasons. But the consistent threat of an explosive gain down the field on any given play from recent Chiefs wide receivers didn’t exactly produce fear in opponents.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling, whom the Chiefs signed shortly after trading Hill, and his career 17.4 yards per catch never panned out in Kansas City. Justin Watson could get deep, but he was more of a role player, not an every-down threat. Additionally, the Mecole Hardman and Skyy Moore experiments fizzled.
There’s a different feeling to the wide receiver group this time around, though.
“From top down, we have a lot of speed,” Nagy said. “The guys have knowledge, they’re smart, they play fast and tough. Now, it is just the timing of Pat (Mahomes) and we’re excited to take this aggressive mentality every day into practice and then take it into the season. We are ready and we are locked in.”
Still, don’t just take the word of the coaching staff.
Here’s what a couple of the players responsible for defending the wide receivers during practice had to say about this year’s group.
“Oh, they’re fast,” cornerback Nazeeh Johnson said. “I mean, every time you see somebody going deep, we’re always in somewhat a trail position because they’re just so fast, they get off the line. And one thing about our receivers, they catch those deep balls down the field.”
Johnson, a speedster in his own right with an impressive 4.35 time in the 40-yard dash, even went so far to offer advice to upcoming defensive opponents.
“They’re going to give a lot of people headaches because they got speed all over the place from Worthy, Hollywood, and then you got Thornton is going just crazy right now, so it’s just speed,” Johnson said. “So, I say everybody just warm up your hammies.”
Defensive back Chris Roland-Wallace emphatically agreed.
“It’s fast,” Roland-Wallace said. “Everything that Nazeeh kind of hit on as far as getting your hamstrings ready, like we got some runners, for sure.”
“Each of them individually got their own skillset, but one thing that they do, and, like, all of them have in common is that blazing speed.”
OPEN IT UP
Thornton’s preseason play didn’t come as a surprise to his teammates.
Not only did Thornton emerge in training camp, but the downfield play was also a result of what the Chiefs’ offense emphasized during the offseason.
“That’s something we were doing all through camp,” Worthy said. “That’s what we worked on and that kind of didn’t surprise me that it happened in a game. Tyquan has been catching those all camp and he’s really been showing up. It just shows the work we’ve been putting in.”
Worthy further believes all the receivers on the roster can apply stress on opposing defenses when it comes to the threat of getting deep.
Moreover, he reinforced Mahomes’ comments on what the speed will do for the entire offense by making opponents account for every receiver – whether it’s a wideout, tight end or running back out of the backfield – on any given play.
And with a passing attack equipped with speed, the upcoming season brings high expectations of consistent plays down the field.
“I feel like it can open a lot of things up,” Worthy said. “I mean, we got Trav (Kelce) running all the underneath routes, whatever he needs to run, and we got guys like me, Hollywood, Rashee, Tyquan to take the top off. We got the intermediate game.
“You have to play the whole field with all of us on the field.”
