The Chiefs are headed into Week 10 with a little less to worry about on the Atlanta side.
Kansas City got back in the win column Sunday and sits at 6-2, while the Falcons fell to 3-6 after losing in Spain to the Bengals. That result pushed Atlanta into a move that changes the matchup: the Falcons traded safety Jessie Bates to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a 2027 second-round pick and a 2028 fifth-round selection.
For Chiefs fans, Bates is a familiar name from his time with the Bengals during the short-lived Chiefs-Bengals rivalry. He joined the Falcons in 2023 and is now in the final year of his contract.
Atlanta’s record made the decision easier, even with the Falcons sitting just one game out of first in the NFC South. For Kansas City, though, the timing is ideal. The Chiefs now face a Falcons defense that will be without one of its most accomplished playmakers when the teams meet Sunday in Atlanta.
Bates has been a steady ball hawk throughout his career, recording at least one interception in every season. His absence leaves a noticeable hole in the secondary, even if Atlanta still has promising young talent back there.
Second-year safety Xavier Watts now steps into a bigger role for the Falcons. Watts finished fourth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting last season, but this year he has allowed 22 catches on 29 targets, a 76% completion rate for opposing quarterbacks. With Bates gone, Sydney Brown or DeMarcco Hellams should see more snaps, and it may take a few weeks for Atlanta to settle that rotation.
The Falcons still have plenty to offer on offense. Drake London, Kyle Pitts and Bijan Robinson give third-year quarterback Michael Penix Jr. a dangerous group to work with. Atlanta has been wildly inconsistent, looking dominant in some games and flat in others, so the Chiefs won’t know which version is coming until Sunday.
Even so, Kansas City can’t complain about the way this one has lined up. Instead of facing a defense that just added help, Patrick Mahomes will go up against an Atlanta secondary that suddenly lost one of its top veterans.
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What makes this latest milestone stand out is how long the connection has lasted and how little it has faded. Mahomes and Kelce are into their ninth season together, and the chemistry between them has become such a fixture in Kansas City that it now sits alongside the leagues all-time marks for a quarterback-tight end tandem, a reminder that their story is still being written even as the records keep falling. [Read more 🡒]