The Kansas City Chiefs finished the 2023 season with an 11-6 record and won the Super Bowl for the third time in 5 years. Despite winning the Super Bowl – it was anything but a swift ride throughout the regular season. Yes they started out 7-2 through 9 games, but there was a point in the year where the Chiefs looked like anything but future Super Bowl champions – and the lowlight was during a home Christmas Day loss to the Raiders in which they lost 20-14 and Patrick Mahomes threw a pick 6 to put the Chiefs down double digits. But as we know – the Chiefs would overcome the adversity and for the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era – Kansas City would have to go on the road to win not just one – but multiple playoff games just to get the chance to win back to back super bowls. And with wins over Josh Allen and the Bills, and Lamar Jackson and the Ravens – Kansas City eventually beat the 49ers after being double digits in the first half of Super Bowl 58. It was a very up and down year for the Chiefs last year and what I think is particularly frightening for the rest of the AFC – is – 2023 was in a lot of ways – a down year for Kansas City. Patrick Mahomes threw by far the fewest amount of touchdowns in a full season – excluding 2019 in which he missed a few games – and he also had a career high in interceptions. And this team finished 15th in offensive points per game last year – and still won the Super Bowl – and got better this offseason. And make no mistake about it – the NFL runs through Kansas City. But can they do what no other team has done in the history of the NFL? Can they 3 peat? Well, we’re going to break it down in today’s video. Now let’s begin
And we are starting today’s video by breaking down who the Chiefs lost in free agency and who they brought in. And with this team being clear Super Bowl contenders – and with most of the roster already being taken care of – it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Chiefs didn’t spend al that much in free agency. They have 3 players alone with a cap hit north of $24 million dollars this year and they are Patrick Mahomes with a cap hit of $37 million dollars, guard Joe Thuney with a cap hit of $26.9 million dollars, and right tackle Jawaan Taylor with a cap hit of $24.7 million dollars. Travis Kelce and Chris Jones are a little further down the list but the point is – this team focused more on retaining players than going out and spending big money on free agents. Their biggest signing was bringing back pass rusher Mike Danna and obviously when you think of the Chiefs – there’s several players you think of right away – but Danna has been a very good contributor for Kansas City since being a 5th round pick back in 2020 – and he has gradually gotten better over the years. He finished the 2023 season with a career high in pressures and sacks – and bringing him back at just 8 million dollars per year while being a solid starter was a great signing by the Chiefs. They also brought in Marquise Brown from the Cardinals and the Chiefs only had two players have 500 or more receiving yards last year – which of course was Travis Kelce and a rookie Rashee Rice. And while I don’t think – nor anyone for that matter – thinks Hollywood is an elite true number one receiver – he is an upgrade from what they previously had and they only signed him to a 1 year deal – so there is very very little risk here with the Hollywood signing. They also brought in Carson Wentz – in a backup role to be clear as I don’t think he’s going to be competing for a starting job, and tight end Ira Smith. That was it for the Chiefs and naturally when you are contending for not just a year or two – but for several years – you’re going to have talent taken from your roster – it’s how every cycle goes in today’s era and we saw that with Tyreek Hill a few offseason ago, but we also saw that this past offseason when the Chiefs sent corner L’Jarius Sneed to the Titans for a 2025 3rd round pick.
In terms of free agency – the Chiefs didn’t have many true big losses – but losing Ljarius Sneed was a big loss from the 2023 season – to the 2024 season. They also lost veteran guard Nick Allegretti to the Commanders, Punter Tommy Townsend to the Texans, and linebacker WIllie Gay Jr who quietly started 47 games for this team over the past few years. That’s the one big thing to remember with a team contending like this – is – you’re going to keep most of the true big name players – and Kansas City has in Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Chris Jones – while having to draft good players on rookie scale contracts – which KC was able to through the Tyreek Hill trade for example. Overall – it wasn’t the busiest offseason for the Chiefs in terms of player addition and subtraction – but it didn’t need to be because of how good this roster already was.
Now for the Kansas City Chiefs defense – this is going to be one of the best defenses in all of football. They are of course led by the 5 time all pro Chris Jones. Not only is Chris Jones now arguably the best defensive tackle in all of football – but there are several great players on this defense. Trent McDuffie is a stud at corner and he was a first team all pro last year. I also think George Karlaftis is one of the more under appreciated players in all of football and when you’re on a team like this – it’s easy to go unnoticed or to simply be looked over. But this team has good players at all 3 levels of the defense whether it be Jones, linebackers Nick Bolton and Leo Chenal – who I think takes a big step this year, or of course – Trent McDuffie. There’s not a lot of weaknesses on this roster and especially the defense. Obviously Baltimore had a great defense last year and will again in 2024 too – but Kansas City’s defense was very good too and they finished 2nd in points allowed per game, averaging just 17.3 points allowed per game. It doesn’t always equate like this – but the Cheifs also allowed the 2nd fewest yards out of any defense last year and even despite the loss of L’Jarius Sneeed – I still think this defense is going to be great this year for a few reasons – well aside from the players of course.
This team allowed 400 yards of opposing offense in a grand total of zero games last year. Whether it was the regular season or the postseason – nobody had 400 yards on this defense. And as we know – the Chiefs played everybody. Whether it was the Lions in the season opener, or the Bills twice, or the Packers as they were starting to heat up, or the Ravens and Niners in a span of 3 weeks – nobody had 400 yards on the Chiefs defense last year. And a quick side note – I do think defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is underrated in the all time discussion for defensive coordinators as he is now a 4 time Super Bowl champion – but one thing that I don’t think will happen again for the Chiefs – that unfortunately happened last year was a brutal 8 game stretch where they looked bad offensively – and in turn – set up the defense to – not fail per se – but certainly not succeed. And from the week 8 game against the Broncos through the Christmas Day game against the Raiders – Kansas City turned the ball over 15 times in a span of 8 games with 5 alone coming against the Broncos. The Chiefs defense on the other hand – only forced 5 turnovers in these 8 games and the Chiefs went just 3-5 with a -10 turnover margin during this span. Miraculously, the Chiefs never allowed more than 30 points in any of these games and they had a -11 turnover margin on the year. And whether it was a ball off Kadarius Toney’s hands into Brian Branch’s for a pick 6 in week 1, or an MVS drop against the Eagles on Monday night – the Chiefs nearly won a lot of these games where they had irregular things happen to them. I know every team has drops, but how often does a player tip a pass directly to a defender that goes for a pick 6 in a game you lose by one point? And that’s my point. Is the Chiefs 2023 regular season at times – was bad. And why I am so high on the Chiefs entering the 2024 season – I mean aside from the obvious is – all of these things happened last year and they still won the Super Bowl. And the Chiefs defense last year – even for as good as it was – only forced 17 turnovers over the course of the regular season which ranked 27th in the league. Now I don’t expect it to be all sunshine and rainbows for the Chiefs this year. And I do have some concern at the corner position outside of McDuffie. 2022 4th round pick Joshua Williams is stepping up this year at the second outside corner position and 2023 4th rounder Chamarri Conner is stepping up at nickel. After those guys the Chiefs corners are guys like Jaylen Watson, Nazeeh Johnson, and Keith Taylor Jr and that’s my one true concern with the Chiefs defense this year. I think they have really good pass rushing depth, and I think their linebacking unit is one of the best in football. I also like Justin Reid and Bryan Cook at safety and I really like Bryan Cook – and I would be pretty surprised if this defense finishes outside of the top 7 in points allowed this year. The Chiefs defense deserves as much credit as the offense receives in regards to their 3rd Super Bowl. Because without this unit led by Spags – I don’t think this team would’ve got past Baltimore. They’re a very good and very well coached unit.
