Improvise. adapt, and overcome! This is the philosophy that the Kansas City Chiefs have been adhering to ever since Tyreek Hill left the KC team. Sure, Tyreek Hill was the afterburner for the Kansas City Chiefs; they’ve won two Super Bowls without him. While people thought that Patrick Mahomes’ performance would plummet post-Cheetah’s exit, that wasn’t the case.

Colin Cowherd talked about this on his YouTube show, The Colin Cowherd Podcast. He explained how Hill’s exit has forced Mahomes to be better at his job. It came to a point last year that the Chiefs won a Super Bowl with Patrick Mahomes and their defense carrying them throughout the season.

“Take your feelings out of it. The Chiefs have won back-to-back Super Bowls without Tyreek Hill,” said Cowherd. “I do think with Mahomes and Tyreek it became sort of a, ‘he’s always open,’ and it’s forced over the last two years to throw underneath, to take what the defense gives you. I think Mahomes has actually, I’ll argue, has grown as a quarterback without Tyreek Hill.”

It’s true on a lot of accounts. Players like Chris Jones, L’Jarius Sneed, Drue Tranquill, and Trent McDuffie made Patrick Mahomes’ job a lot easier last year. The Chiefs’ defense ranked second last year, as they only allowed 289.8 yards per game on average. They only allowed 32 regular-season touchdowns and five playoff touchdowns last year. The only team that ranks higher than the Chiefs is the Cleveland Browns, a team that’s known primarily for its defensive prowess.

Coming back to Mahomes, we’ve seen his receivers Kadarius Toney and Marquez Valdes-Scantling drop passes on a regular. It came to a point where Mahomes stopped throwing long passes because no one was there to catch them. Instead, he had to rely on Rashee Rice and Travis Kelce to take the team to the Super Bowl.

While it’s true that Mahomes kept improving after Tyreek Hill left, He even put up a 5,250-yard season with 41 touchdowns in 2022 and won the Super Bowl against the Eagles. It was reminiscent of the time when Mahomes became the starter for KC and, in his first starting year, had a 5,000-yard season. He even won a Super Bowl with Hill. Hence, the fact that Hill has helped Mahomes improve stands 100% true. However, there’s a small problem as we go into the 2024 season.

Are Patrick Mahomes’ and the Chiefs doomed this year?

A quick look at the data will suggest that Patrick Mahomes’ performance is declining. Last year was his second-worst season, where he recorded just 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. Yes, Mahomes can clutch it at any given moment, but that TD-INT ratio is looking bad. Also, have you seen the training camp footage?

Yes, Xavier Worthy is catching Hail Marys from Mahomes, but he is also getting manhandled and thrown around like a rag doll. Moreover, Rashee Rice will be suspended from the first couple of games due to the March debacle, and Travis Kelce is just aging and cannot carry the Kansas City Chiefs on his back any longer.

Even Chris Jones, who is 30 now, might have a hard time pushing his limits this year. If all these things weren’t reason enough, the Chiefs traded L’Jarius Sneed, their top corner, to the Titans. Sneed helped the Chiefs get back-to-back Lombardi’s, and now he’s gone. The odds of them 3-peating this year don’t look very exciting.