The 2022 NFL season will be different for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Star wide receiver Tyreek Hill was traded to the Miami Dolphins, which means they’ve lost a great offensive weapon.
The Chiefs did keep tight endTravis Kelce, the other favorite target of Pat. Besides, the Chiefs did their homeworkby adding new names to the wide receiver room such as JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Even so, many fans are worriedthat the team’s offense will not be the same without Cheetah, a threat to all rivals who also had an incredible chemistry with Mahomes. However, the Chiefs quarterback believes that Hill’s exit couldactually be a good thingfor the team this year.
Patrick Mahomes reveals how Chiefs can benefit fromTyrek Hill’s exit
Even after landing JuJu from the Steelers and Valdes-Scantling from the Packers, many believe that they haven’t doneenough to replace a talent like Hill. But Mahomes takes a positive thing out of this, and he may have a point.
“[Valdes-Scantling], JuJu some of those guys were down there every day, pretty much. And I think the first day [of OTAs], JuJu had a big day — he got a lot of big catches down the sideline. And then the second day Marquez got a big day. And so, I think that’s what you’re going to see from this offense this year, is it’s going to be everybody. It’s not going to be one guy,” Mahomes said, via ProFootballTalk. “And, obviously, Travis [Kelce] is still going to get a lot of completions, 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.”
What Mahomes points out is interesting, Hill’s departure will make them less dependable on one guy, and therefore, a less predictable team for the opponents. And that was not the case last season.
“I think you saw last year, defenses had started to formulate a good game plan — at least at the beginning of the season — of trying to kind of maintain stopping Tyreek and stopping ‘Trav’,” Mahomes said.“And we had to find ways to have success other ways so we could get those guys open.I think this year, we’ll become different where you’re not going to know where you’re going to get the deep ball from, you’re not going to know where you’re going to get the short pass from because we have a lot of different guys that can do it all.“
While trying to take something positiveout of such a big loss is usually hard, Mahomes has a very fair point. Besides, with him under center, the Chiefs will always have reasons to believe in their offense.