One of the biggest storylines surrounding the Kansas City Chiefs this offseason has been the evolution of the wide receiver position.
The team said goodbye to Tyreek Hill, Demarcus Robinson and Byron Pringle during the offseason, but welcomed JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore, Justin Watson and others. The biggest concern about the new players was how quickly they would be able to adapt to the scheme and build chemistry with the star QB Patrick Mahomes.
Asked about the growth he’s seen from his new receivers this offseason, Mahomes believes they’ve come a long way since he gave his initial impressions.
“I’ve seen a ton of growth,” Mahomes said. “Those receivers in training camp and OTA’s, I mean there’s a lot of routes ran. We practice fast, we keep things rolling in the time period. And they kind of have to be in and out and we run a lot of deep routes. You can see in OTA’s, that it was really getting after them. They were pushing through, pushing through. Then you got to the mid part of camp you saw that they had their legs under them, they were running these routes, getting back in the huddle and running them again. They were recognizing coverages as they were doing them. I think it was very good for them to get down here and see how we do things and now, as we get back to Kansas City and get closer to the season, we’ll refine that and make sure they are ready to go then.”
From the offseason throwing sessions in Texas through the end of training camp, Mahomes has seen necessary improvements from the group. Now that training camp is complete, they’ll be refining things at team facilities over the next few weeks. They also still have a few preseason games to get their chemistry in the right place.
With injuries to JuJu Smith-Schuster and Mecole Hardman, some receivers who haven’t had as much opportunity to play with the first team during training camp should get their chances to shine in preseason Week 2. Mahomes is excited to see what those receivers can do with the opportunity.
“Yeah, it’s going to be an exciting opportunity for them,” Mahomes said. “You saw guys like Skyy (Moore) and Justin Watson who kind of made plays when they came in this first preseason with Shane (Buechele) and Chad (Henne). For them to make plays there, they’re obviously going to get more reps with me in this game. I’m interested to see how they maximize that opportunity, but I mean they’ve been doing it at practice, making the plays at practice and doing everything the right way. For them to get in there and get some opportunity to run with the ones, I think it’ll help us out in the long run whenever we do get those guys back, having a good group of guys that can go in at any time.”
Hopefully, the receivers who get chances with the first team will be able to capitalize on the opportunity against the Commanders in preseason Week 2. Either way, it’s clear that the receiver position is in a good place as far as Mahomes is concerned.
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