The offensive struggles have headlined the 2023 regular season for the Kansas City Chiefs, but they are still only one victory away from clinching another AFC West division title. Multiple games have been lost due to inefficiency late in games and a lack of production from players who have a history of doing more by this point of the season.
Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy has been under fire for the unit’s lackluster performance this season. He has remained positive through the criticism of his players, including the often-discussed lack of chemistry between quarterback Patrick Mahomes and veteran wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Nagy addressed this topic to the media during his press conference on Thursday before practice.
“You have different receivers at different times, and there’s going to be some throws here or there that you missed, but they’re working through all that,” Nagy explained. “I know you’d love to hear well; it should be fixed by now. But they’re continuing. They’ve had some big moments together, they really have over the past two years, and they’ve had some ones that they missed.
“So what do we do? Well, Why did we miss on a certain throw? And so we continue to work through that. But MVS (Marquez Valdes-Scantling) has had a phenomenal attitude this entire time; Pat (Patrick Mahomes) has been the same way.”
Valdes-Scantling has only 20 catches for 312 yards and one touchdown through 15 games this season, a far cry from being one of the best deep threats in the league last year.
“From my standpoint of what I witnessed with these players right now as we go through this is a lot of great honesty,” Nagy said. “A lot of great accountability, which I’ve been saying, but also positivity of trying to figure out how we fix it and it’s not okay, this isn’t fixable. It’s hard work in trying to do it. Those guys are part of the crew of eleven. Trying to get that fixed and work better, maybe we see more of that coming up.”