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On First Take today, Stephen A. Smith admitted he is ‘concerned’ for the Kansas City Chiefs. Smith believes that one glaring issue is starting to hinder the team’s chances of reaching the Super Bowl.
The Kansas City Chiefs just about held on to beat the New York Jets 23-20 on Sunday. Both the Chiefs and Mahomes put in a subpar performance at MetLife Stadium that almost saw them blow a 17-point lead.
Chiefs do enough to prevent Jets comeback
A frustrated looking Mahomes was intercepted twice in a game where he became the fastest player ever to reach 200 touchdown passes. However, he did just enough down the stretch to get Kansas City across the line with a late field goal.
The Kansas QB was 18 of 30 for 203 yards and a touchdown, and also ran for 51 yards. Mahomes sealed victory when he ran for 9 yards on a third down to the Jets 2 as the clock wound down.
However, it was Mahomes’ first career game with fewer than 250 pass yards.
‘Concerned’ Stephen A. Smith thinks Chiefs Super Bowl ambitions hampered by glaring issue
The defending Super Bowl champions moved to 3-1 for the season. However, on First Take on Monday, Stephen A. Smith admitted he was ‘concerned’ for the Chiefs moving forward.
“I’m concerned”, Smith said in response to Molly Qerim asking him if he was worried for the Chiefs.
He added: “I’m concerned because the receivers can’t get open.
“I’m looking at last night and Patrick Mahomes: tight ends and running backs combined for 11 catches for 138 yards. That what he’s [Mahomes] is having to do – he’s scrambling, he’s relying on tight ends and running backs to come to his rescue.
“Don’t talk about throwing the football because your receivers can’t get open,” he went on. “You look at the 101 points they’ve scored this season… they’re averaging nearly 7 points less per game in the first four games of the season. That to me is a huge concern.”
Smith added that Mahomes is having to overly rely on Travis Kelce, or running backs like Isiah Pacheco, but the reality is the receivers can’t get open.
“You’re gonna’ have to be better offensively if you’re going repeat as Super Bowl champions and I don’t see that right now based on his receivers,” Smith added.
Chiefs’ wide receivers just aren’t cutting it at the moment
Smith is right that the wide receivers didn’t offer much help against the Jets. Through the first 42 minutes of the game, the Chiefs’ receivers had combined for two catches, both by Kadarius Toney.
The Chiefs leading wide receiver through three games is Justin Watson with 163 yards. The likes of Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Rashee Rice, Kadarius Toney, Justyn Ross and Richie James have simply not been up to the required level.
As a result, Mahomes is cutting a frustrated figure and is being forced to rush the football because he doesn’t have faith in his receivers.
That’s pretty much been a storyline in three of the four games this season, and needs to improve if the Chiefs have any ambitions of reaching the Super Bowl.