During Patrick Mahomes’ tenure as quarterback of the Chiefs there has always been two constants: Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce.
But after Hill was traded to Miami, the offense changed immediately. The Chiefs, however, wasted little time and brought in free agent receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, giving Mahomes more options.
“I think we’re going to be different,” Mahomes said recently at Chiefs OTAs. “I think you saw last year defenses had started to formulate a good game plan, at least in the beginning of the season trying to maintain ways of stopping Tyreek and stopping Travis.
“And we had to find other ways to get those guys open, and I think this year will be different where you’re not gonna know where you’re gonna get the deep ball from. You’re not gonna know where you get the short pass from because we have a lot of different guys that can do it all. So I think having all those guys I think it’ll help us get more of those deep throws that we’ve been accustomed to.”
Mahomes also wasted little time getting acclimated to some of his new teammates. Early in the offseason, he held a series of workouts in his native Texas, and Smith-Schuster and Valdes-Scantling were among the attendees.
“I found out a ton,” Mahomes said. “These guys are smart and that’s a big thing for me. Marquez, Juju, Corey Coleman, all these new guys that we have in the building. They’re all smart and they want to compete.
“It’s a very deep receiving room and it’s hard to tell which guys are going to make it because there’s so many good receivers and that’s what you want.”
At 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds, Smith-Schuster and the 6-4, 206-pound Valdes-Scantling also give Mahomes bigger targets to throw to. Last year Smith-Schuster played in just five games because of a shoulder injury but was a key member of the Steelers throughout his five seasons there.
Valdes-Scantling also battled injuries last season and missed six games but still had 430 yards receiving and scored three touchdowns. In 2020, Valdes-Scantling had 690 yards receiving and six touchdowns. He also led the NFL in yards per catch at 20.9.
Their additions have also made Chiefs coach Andy Reid dust off the old playbook.
“We’ve got a lot that we’ve shown over the years here,” Reid said. “We’ve covered a lot of the basics with the volume of the plays that we’ve had. And we were able to dust a few things off and put them back in that maybe are more conducive to a bigger player.
“These guys have fit right in doing it. One thing you notice is that these guys got size, but they can run also. There’s good speed out there, which helps.”
And, of course, there’s Kelce, the reliable tight end Mahomes has leaned on for years.
“I think you’re going to see the offense this year it’s going to be everybody,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, Travis will still get a lot of completions and a lot of yards. But I think the whole receiving room is going to have big days and I think that’s something we can use to our advantage.”
