Analysts Suggest Short-Term and Long-Term Moves for Chiefs to Stabilize Dynasty

The back-to-back champions are still in good shape after suffering their first loss of the 2024 NFL season, but what could they do to stabilize their roster in the short-term and long-term?

Nov 17, 2024; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) leaves the field after warm ups before a game against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images / Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

The sky isn't falling in Kansas City, but the Chiefs have suffered their first loss of the 2024 NFL season. Even though KC still boasts the best record in football, the Chiefs clearly still have room for growth as they seek to become the first team in NFL history to win three consecutive Super Bowls.

In the meantime, Bleacher Report's BR NFL Scouting Department took a look at every team's biggest weaknesses ahead of Week 12, and the Chiefs' suggestions are interesting for a variety of different reasons.

Starting with a "move to make now," the BR crew suggests that KC should "scale back Travis Kelce's workload."

"The Bills did a really nice job of keeping Travis Kelce in check," the story reads. "He ended the game with just two receptions for eight yards on four targets. Last year, Kelce only played 77 percent of the team's snaps and missed two games with injury. It ended up working out, as he played his best football in the playoffs.

"This year, he's back to playing 82 percent of the team's snaps—his highest share since 2021. Now that the undefeated season is out of reach, the Chiefs should look to rest their 35-year-old tight end a bit more to ensure he's at his best when it matters."

There's some merit to this suggestion, though I don't think the Chiefs have been riding Kelce into the ground for the sake of a theoretical undefeated season. (To be clear: I don't think the undefeated talk has had any impact on Kelce's workload.) It's also worth noting that Kelce's playoff resurgence came after he took off Week 18 before seemingly de-aging for the postseason.

The Chiefs don't have as many other offensive options as they'd like, noting the preseason and early-season losses of wide receivers Marquise "Hollywood" Brown and Rashee Rice, but with the addition of DeAndre Hopkins and the return of JuJu Smith-Schuster, KC could be wise to bring Kelce's workload down a bit for the rest of the regular season, though he'll be out there for a significant portion of the snaps even if he has a light reduction.

Next, the BR writers suggested a 2025 free agent target for each team, and the Chiefs got veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner. Here's why Bleacher Report thinks Wagner would be a fit in KC:

"It's going to be harder and harder for the Chiefs to put an elite team around their current core," the story continues. "The nature of the salary cap and rookie contracts makes it harder to retain top homegrown topics. It's why keeping a player like Nick Bolton next season could be a real challenge.

"The shortcut to dealing with that kind of potential loss is that the Chiefs are going to continue to be a destination for aging veterans who want to chase a ring. Bobby Wagner, if he wants to play his age-35 season, could be a great example. He's shown he can still be an impact player in Washington this season, but he might be willing to take a slightly smaller deal to join the Chiefs pursuit of a Lombardi in 2025."

I've long been lukewarm-at-best regarding a potential Bolton contract extension in Kansas City, fearing that KC would pay an elite price for a good-but-not-elite linebacker. Wagner, in his mid-30s, would be an interesting way for KC to cost-cut. He'd be joining Drue Tranquill, in the second year of a three-year contract that's really a two-year deal, and Leo Chenal, who would be entering the final year of his rookie contract in '25.

It's hard to be terribly excited about a 35-year-old addition at a position as physically demanding as linebacker, but defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo loves a fast-processing cerebral backer, so perhaps he could find himself making it work with a player a full decade older than Bolton.

The last category from BR's breakdown looks ahead to the 2025 NFL Draft where they have the Chiefs targeting Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka.

"Ever since the Chiefs made the bold decision to trade away Tyreek Hill it has felt like their receiver room is under constant construction," the BR crew writes. "Fortunately, the Chiefs have the infrastructure in place so that they can afford to do that. However, building a receiver room that will be mostly the same for multiple seasons could make the offense more consistent.

"The best way to do that would be for the Chiefs to hit on a few draft picks. Emeka Egbuka might not ever become the team's No. 1 receiver, but his hands, route-running and timing drew comparisons to Jaxon Smith-Njigba or Amon-Ra St. Brown in Dame Parson's scouting report."

There's only one issue I'd point out in this section, which I otherwise agree with: the Chiefs have tried to build a consistent receiver room, using a first- or second-round pick on a wide receiver in each of the last three drafts. Rice's season-ending knee injury, suffered in a freak collision with Patrick Mahomes, derailed a breakout year in progress. Then they added a first-rounder when they traded up for Xavier Worthy in the 2024 NFL Draft. Worthy has had some growing pains at the NFL level, but nothing overwhelmingly discouraging in terms of his overall professional future.

Even though Brown, also injured, was another one-year build-on-the-fly piece, I think Rice and Brown's presence would have completely changed the narrative regarding how KC has maneuvered its wide receiver room after a disastrous (and somehow Super Bowl-winning) performance from the unit last season. Still, I'd love to see the Chiefs continue to double- and triple-down with rookie wide receivers. If a player doesn't perform, that's a setback, but sometimes draft picks fail. (They attempted to draft a second-round long-term answer when they selected Skyy Moore in 2022.) However, if a wide receiver becomes a cost-controlled top-level weapon during the course of his rookie contract, the payoff is worth far more than the risk.

Overall, the BR NFL team put out a series of interesting suggestions that have some merit, if not total perfection. Especially since the Chiefs are no longer undefeated, it's OK — nobody's perfect.

Read More: Chiefs Signing Former Second-Round Wide Receiver Tyquan Thornton