The Kansas City Chiefs are back on top of the NFL at 4-0 heading into the bye, and Patrick Mahomes has played a major part in that rebound after last year’s rough 2025 season. The question now is a simple one: is this a real return to his MVP-level peak, or just a strong start by the standards of his recent seasons?
Through four games, Mahomes has thrown for 1,037 yards with 82 completions on 128 attempts, good for a 64.1% completion rate. He’s averaging 259.3 yards per game and 8.1 yards per attempt, and he has already piled up nine touchdowns against just two interceptions.
By any normal measure, that’s a terrific start. He’s been one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and the pairing with Kenneth Walker has given Kansas City an offense that’s tough to game-plan for.
The numbers do show clear progress compared with Mahomes’ recent past. Looking at the first four games of the last three seasons combined - 2023 through 2025 - he averaged 87.3 completions on 135.3 attempts with a 64.5% completion rate, 949.7 yards, 7.0 yards per attempt, seven touchdowns, and 3.3 interceptions per season. This year, even with slightly fewer attempts and a nearly identical completion rate, he’s throwing it deeper and finding more payoff, with more than a yard extra per attempt, two more touchdowns, and fewer picks.
But if the bar is Mahomes at his best, the comparison gets a lot tougher. In his first five seasons as a starter, from 2018 through 2022, he was operating on a different level altogether in those same opening four games. He averaged 99.2 completions on 146.2 attempts, completed 67.8% of his throws, and put up 1,233.6 yards - 308.4 per game - along with 8.4 yards per attempt, 12 touchdowns, and only 1.2 interceptions.
That’s why this season sits somewhere in the middle. Mahomes has clearly been better than he was in the previous three seasons, but he still hasn’t matched the sheer early-season production he delivered when he was at his sharpest. The gap is especially noticeable in the passing explosion: roughly 70 fewer yards per game than those early years, nearly 1.5 fewer yards per attempt, and a lighter touchdown pace.
The Chiefs do have one big difference working in their favor now. Back when Mahomes was posting those early numbers, he didn’t have the kind of prolific backfield presence they have with Kenneth Walker today. That gives Kansas City another way to move the ball and stay dangerous even without Mahomes living in the stratosphere every week.
There is also a concern baked into the recent uptick. A lot of the improvement over the last few seasons has come through the deep passing game, and that was helped by Tyquan Thornton. Now the Chiefs will have to try to keep that part of the offense humming while he works back from a significant injury.
For Kansas City, the bottom line is encouraging. The team is back in the playoff mix and thinking big again, and Mahomes remains the centerpiece of everything they want to do.
He hasn’t quite recaptured those early-career opening four-game numbers, but he has taken a clear step forward from the last few seasons. If he keeps producing at this level while Thornton and Rashee Rice are out, the Chiefs have a real chance to keep rolling.
In Other News...
Chiefs Have A Next-Wave Opportunity Fans Should Be Watching
The Chiefs head into their early bye at 4-0, and a lot of the attention around them is turning from the record to the players who could matter even more once the season restarts. Through the first four games, Kansas City has already gotten useful contributions from several younger pieces, but there is also a sense that a few of them are only beginning to show what they can add as the schedule tightens and roles become clearer.
Jalen Royals is part of that conversation on the offensive side, while Alohi Gilman, Ashton Gillotte and Peter Woods each fit the kind of developmental track Kansas City often leans on over a long season. Their early-season work has given the coaching staff a baseline, but the more interesting question now is which of them can turn that into a bigger impact when the Chiefs come out of the bye. [Read more 🡒]
Chiefs Rookie Cyrus Allen Suddenly Has A Real Chance To Matter
Cyrus Allen arrived in Kansas City with some summer buzz, but the rookie fifth-round pick has mostly been on the fringe through the first month of the 2026 season. The Chiefs have had plenty of mouths to feed in the passing game, and Allens early usage reflected that reality as he waited for a clearer opening behind more established options.
Now the picture looks different. Injuries have thinned the receiver room, and Andy Reid has signaled Allen should work into the mix more moving forward, giving the Chiefs a young pass catcher a chance to move from developmental piece to actual contributor. Allen and Patrick Mahomes have both talked like the opportunity is coming, and for a player who has been easy to overlook so far, the next stretch could decide whether his early hype starts turning into something real. [Read more 🡒]
Chiefs Fans Keep Having The Same Harrison Butker Debate For A Reason
Whenever the Chiefs run into kicking questions, the conversation seems to drift back to Harrison Butker, and for good reason. He has been one of the most reliable specialists of his era, piling up big moments in the playoffs and sitting near the top of the league in field goals made since 2017, which is why his name keeps surfacing whenever Kansas Citys margin for error gets thin.
The debate is never just about one type of kick, either. Butkers overall track record has been strong enough to keep him in the center of the discussion, even if his extra point work has not always matched the same standard, and the Chiefs have just seen how quickly a kicker can lose his footing after the latest roster move at the position. For a team that has lived through plenty of close games, that kind of consistency is exactly why this conversation refuses to go away. [Read more 🡒]