Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes targeted Tyreek Hill 15 times and Travis Kelce seven times in his 36 pass attempts Sunday. That didn’t leave many for six other players, with no other player seeing more than three targets.
Some have expressed concern (seriously!) about the distribution, even though Hill and Kelce are the team’s best weapons. Mahomes, for his part, isn’t worried about the departure of Sammy Watkins affecting the proportion of passes going to Kelce and Hill.
“To me, it’s just kind of going through the reads of the game and seeing what the defense kind of gives you,” Mahomes said Wednesday, via John Dixon of arrowheadpride.com. “This last week, they kind of left the middle of the field a little bit open, so I was able to hit Tyreek and Trav over the middle a lot.”
Kelce and Hill combined for 280 targets last season, which accounted for 44.4 percent of the team’s targets. Mecole Hardman was third with 62. Hardman caught all three of his targets Sunday for 19 yards.
“As we get into games like this week, where they play more man coverage — I’m sure they’ll have a plan for Tyreek and Trav — that’ll give other guys more opportunities,” Mahomes said. “We have play calls for every single person. They know in every single play they have a chance of getting the ball.”
Mahomes said he trusts all of his receivers, even if Hill and Kelce are his favorite targets, and whoever is open is getting the ball.
“I have full confidence in everybody who’s on that football field,” Mahomes said. “I mean, we have guys that can make plays everywhere. This last week, Trav and Tyreek made the plays. But I’m sure that throughout the entire season — and what we’ve seen in our past — is that we have guys like Mecole Hardman, Demarcus Robinson and Byron Pringle who can make the big play happen at any moment. I have full confidence in that.”
