Patrick Mahomes has already built a résumé that puts him in rare company, but the Chiefs’ current offense is giving Brett Veach a clear job ahead of the trade deadline: fix the pieces around him before the season slips into wasted territory again.
Mahomes is in his tenth NFL season and his ninth as Kansas City’s starting quarterback, and through those nine years he has done what only Tom Brady can match over the same span. He has been to five Super Bowls, won three of them, and picked up a couple of MVPs along the way.
The résumé is not the issue. The issue is what’s happening around him.
Last season, those gifts were wasted on a lost year. And even with Kansas City sitting at 5-1, that same problem can show up again if Veach doesn’t get the quarterback some real help. The trade deadline is now about two weeks away, and the pressure is on.
The biggest concern starts up front. The Chiefs’ offensive tackle situation has been battered by injuries, and those absences have exposed how thin the room really is. Tyquan Thornton’s injury took away the field-stretching presence that forced defenses to respect the deep ball, while Josh Simmons has been unavailable because of what the source describes as some mix of a back injury and personal issues.
That has left the Chiefs leaning on undrafted rookie Kahlil Benson at left tackle, and he has been respectable. Considering he played right tackle in college, that’s no small thing. But he is not a top-tier pass protector yet, and Kansas City has had to work around the fact that it does not want him isolated against elite rushers very often.
On the right side, Jaylon Moore had been doing an adequate job before a concussion sent him out of the lineup. His replacement, Joshua Ezeudu, struggled badly against the Seahawks on Sunday and simply was not reliable in pass protection. The reality is blunt: Veach did not do enough at tackle this offseason, and without Benson landing in their lap, the situation would look completely hopeless without Simmons.
The receiving group isn’t giving Mahomes enough stability either. The Chiefs still don’t have a wideout room they can trust to run the right routes, separate consistently, and finish catches. Thornton had been the best of the bunch before his injury, but with him likely out for most, if not all, of the season, the team has to look elsewhere.
Rashee Rice will help, but he looks more like a yards-after-catch weapon the Chiefs need to scheme into short throws than a true No. 1 receiver who can win across a full route tree. Xavier Worthy hasn’t become that player either. His speed is obvious, but it has not yet turned into meaningful production with pads on, and right now he looks more like a WR3 or WR4.
Cyrus Allen offered some buzz in training camp and the preseason, but through the first six games the Chiefs have not trusted him with many snaps. Maybe that’s because of inexperience.
Maybe he doesn’t yet know the playbook or route details well enough. Either way, the trust just isn’t there yet, even though he appears to have some of the tools Kansas City badly needs.
That is why the deadline looms so large. On Monday, Adam Schefter said on Pat McAfee that the Chiefs were making calls about wide receivers, though he wasn’t sure a deal would come together. Veach needs to make that happen, and it needs to be a real swing - not another WR3 or WR4 who only patches the problem for a week or two.
Kansas City needs a true starting-caliber receiver who can help right away. A top offensive tackle would also make sense, though those may be even harder to pry loose. The idea of moving next year’s first-round pick for a legitimate top receiver makes sense here, especially given Veach’s rough track record with late first-round choices.
The Chiefs can still make noise in the AFC, which remains wide open, and they still have the ingredients to chase another Super Bowl. Kenneth Walker has been a major addition, and an above-average defense can still tilt the whole picture. But the offense is too shaky to ignore.
If defenses can slow Walker down and force the ball into the air, the cracks show quickly. That is the danger for Kansas City. Mahomes can carry a lot, but not everything, and he should not have to keep doing it behind shaky tackle play and one of the league’s weakest receiver groups.
He is too special to let another prime season go to waste. The Chiefs are still in position to contend, but they need Veach to act before the November 10 trade deadline. A real move for protection or a true receiving weapon could be the difference between another frustrating year and a team with enough firepower to finish the job.
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