Star receiver Tyreek Hill was traded from the Kansas City Chiefs to the Miami Dolphins this offseason, and how the offensive gap will be filled is a big question surrounding the Chiefs as we get closer to the season. In the absence of Hill, Patrick Mahomes says it will be a combination of everyone on the offense who will fill the hole.
Mahomes explained that while Kansas City does have the star power in a player like Travis Kelce, the offense will look to all its playmakers.
"That's what you're going to see in this offense this year, it's going to be everybody. It's not going to be one guy," he said. "Obviously Travis is still going to get a lot of completions, a lot of yards, but the whole receiving room is going to have big days and that can be something we use to our advantage."
The Super Bowl champion quarterback gave some insight into what he has been noticing in the first practices of the year.
"It's a very deep receiving room," Mahomes said. "It's hard to tell which guys are going to make it because we've got so many good receivers. That's what you want. You want that competition. You want guys competing every single day to make the roster because they're going to help us in the end."
This offseason, the Chiefs signed Marquez Valdes-Scantling and JuJu Smith-Schuster, two players expected to have major roles. Josh Gordon, who has returned to the team, Mecole Hardman, Corey Coleman, undrafted free agent Justyn Ross and second-round draft pick Skyy Moore are other names we could see a lot of this season.
Even though Kansas City will be without Hill's talents, Mahomes says the numerous options they have will be beneficial.
"I think this year we'll be different where you're not going to know where you're gonna get the deep ball from," he said. "You're not gonna know where you're gonna get the short pass from, cause we have a lot of different guys who can do it all."
With new players comes an adjustment period and, knowing this, Mahomes and many receivers practiced this offseason to start understanding how they fit together.
"You kind of build that chemistry," the 26-year-old quarterback said. "And I think a big part of, especially our offense, is having that chemistry on the field. Being able to know what the guy is doing without having to talk about it. I think it's translated. So far, in the practice that we've had, we feel like we're on the same page in having that chemistry and we're gonna keep building on that."
Last season, the Chiefs went 12-5 in the regular season and lost to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship.