KC Chiefs' Uninspired Offense May Need New Direction

Penalties, drops and lack of talent have certainly hurt the Chiefs' offense, but it's also been diminished because of the stale concepts they continue to run.

From an offensive perspective, the Christmas game was possibly the worst viewing experience of the Patrick Mahomes era. The Kansas City Chiefs squandered an opportunity to clinch the AFC West for an eighth straight season by allowing the Las Vegas Raiders' defense to score as many points as the Chiefs' offense. It was indeed a new low for Kansas City’s attack. After some encouraging signs in previous weeks, there seems to be a regression back to a stale and uninspiring state this season.

The lack of talent on the offensive side of the ball has clearly been an issue throughout the season and has been a central talking point. However, it’s more than that. The ingenuity and answers have also been missing. The concepts are stale, with the same ideas being used repeatedly. For example, on first-and-goal in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs ran a “wide receiver” screen with Travis Kelce on the right. On the following play, they flipped it to the left. Neither play worked, and it was a pitiful effort to put the ball in the end zone when trailing late.

It shows up in the stats as well. Mahomes had an average depth of target (aDOT) of four yards on Monday and now has the lowest aDOT among starting quarterbacks this season at 6.9 yards. To have the best quarterback in the world and use him as a glorified check-down artist is shameful. It’s not like the defense covers the shots downfield, forcing Mahomes to throw it short. It’s quite the opposite. Opposing defenses used to be terrified of the Chiefs beating them over the top. This year, they're sitting on everything short and squeezing down toward the line of scrimmage.

This is what happened on the pick-six on Monday. It was a poor decision from Mahomes and Justin Watson did him no favors with the route and fight, but Jack Jones could jump the route because he had no fear of the Chiefs taking a shot over the top. As soon as Watson got to the top of his route, Jones was already breaking back to the line of scrimmage due to not being worried about the pass going over his head.

Andy Reid is an all-time great offensive mind and play designer, but he deserves a large share of the blame for these issues. Reid has generally been creative and innovative throughout his career but when things get tough, he goes to what he’s comfortable with. Coming from a traditional West Coast system, he leans even more into it when he’s faced with a challenge such as a lack of talent or a slumping offense. This has come to the surface for the Chiefs, especially since the bye. There have been a lot of basic, day-one install concepts that they've run.

The problem with this is that at some point, you need to be able to throw a changeup so you aren’t predictable. The Chiefs haven’t had a changeup answer to their struggles, and defenses can sit on what they know Kansas City will most likely resort to. A reason for their predictability is the lack of non-Reid folks on their offensive coaching staff. When you look at the offensive staff, most (if not all) coaches either started their coaching career under Reid, played for Reid or have a personal relationship with Reid.

Reid has tried to help many people in their careers, which is very admirable. However, the downside is that when presented with a challenge, all suggested solutions are the same because everyone was brought up under the same system. Having people who learned under other systems or experienced different offenses helps have multiple answers when problems arise. With the prolonged struggles the Chiefs have had without having a solution to mitigate it, it may be time for Reid to step outside of his comfort zone and hire multiple voices that don’t come from his coaching tree.

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