Kansas City’s receivers have become a clear weakness for the team, with several drops on Monday night contributing to the loss — most notably Marquez Valdes-Scantling’s deep down the field with 1:50 left in the contest.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes did not throw any of the receivers under the bus when he was asked about them after the game. On Tuesday, offensive coordinator Matt Nagy struck an encouraging tone when talking about his unit’s issues.
“We want to be able to, No. 1, score points, eliminate turnovers, eliminate penalties as an offense in general,” Nagy said in his press conference. “Then when the plays are there to be made, make the plays, that’s everybody. … We’ve been dealing with a good amount of guys here that are all great players that want to do well and succeed, and when you have a game like we did last night where there might be a little bit of a magnifying glass — whether it’s some of the drops, whether it’s a specific play it can be a little bit bigger than others it can definitely be a big deal, we understand that and the players understand that.
“In the end, we have a lot of trust in these guys, and we believe in them. I think that’s very very important. You hear that, and you see that from Pat. It’s something [where] we continue to stick together and keep working through — we know it’s not going to be easy. Honestly, the biggest thing is it goes back to, let’s not beat ourselves with turnovers and penalties in the end — and drops, that can be a part of it as well.”
Nagy noted that’s a long way of saying the team just needs to be better.
“When you lose a game, it gets magnified, when you win a game sometimes it gets deodorized, and I think we need to understand that we have good things ahead of us, let’s just stay positive and work through these and we’ll be alright.”
But the Chiefs lead the league in drops, which is an issue the team must solve to properly contend in the AFC. Nagy said the issue is “more physical than anything” when it comes to eliminating them.
“There might be times where we’re in the building just getting through with a meeting and you look outside and see guys on the jugs machines getting extra work in, that’s probably the biggest one,” Nagy said. “Then it would be in between [practice] periods, they go over with the quarterbacks and they run specific routes that are in the game plan.
“Generally speaking, we have several routes that a lot of guys have been doing since OTAs, but then we may have a couple routes that are a little more specific to that defense, so we try to work on the timing of those routes with the time permitted between periods and they stay afterwards as well. … The mental side of it is understanding and just looking at the scheme of where you’re going to be at. Physically getting those throws from Patrick is where they get that extra work in between periods and then those guys on their own you’ll see they’re outside more so on the jugs when Patrick is not out there.”
Physical or mental issue, the Chiefs’ receivers have to be better or it will be tough for Kansas City to put together another deep playoff run this season.
