“Another game, we’re talking about the refs. It’s not what we want for the NFL. It’s not what we want for football.”
Those were the words of star quarterback Patrick Mahomes following the Kansas City Chiefs‘ devastating Week 14 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon, and it’s becoming a running theme for the Chiefs.
Mahomes and Kansas City have decided to embark on a diatribe against NFL officiating in recent weeks, apparently using the referees as a scapegoat for their outright poor play throughout much of this season.
At the end of their 20-17 loss to the Bills this past weekend, a Chiefs touchdown was erased due to an offensive offsides penalty on wide receiver Kadarius Toney.
Pretty much everyone agreed that it was the right call even though Mahomes threw an uncharacteristic tantrum on the sideline that resulted in his teammates having to restrain him. He then complained about the call during his postgame handshake with Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen, which was a questionable display of sportsmanship at best and petulant, childlike whining at worst.
The fact of the matter is that controversial officiating is not the reason why Kansas City has lost four of its last six games to fall to 8-5 on the year.
It’s because the Chiefs have not been very good, and perhaps that is the actual reason why Mahomes is so frustrated.
To put it plainly, Kansas City’s front office has done a terrible job of putting adequate receiving talent around Mahomes this year. This is not necessarily a defense of Mahomes’ shaky play this season, and it is certainly not an excusal of his behavior during and after the Bills game. But it’s a fact that cannot be ignored.
The Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill two offseasons ago and still managed to win the Super Bowl last year. As a result, Kansas City’s front office may have gotten a bit too bold and allowed JuJu Smith-Schuster to walk in free agency this past spring without replacing him.
That left Mahomes with not a whole lot outside of tight end Travis Kelce in the aerial attack. Many expected Skyy Moore to ultimately fill the role of Hill, but that has not happened. Rashee Rice has been solid, but other than Rice, not a single Chiefs wide receiver has made a significant impact in 2023.
Now, Kansas City’s lack of legitimate weapons is becoming increasingly obvious. In the Chiefs’ last four losses, they have failed to crack 20 points. They have scored 30 points just three times all season. They rank 11th in points per game after finishing No. 1 in that category a year ago.
The dearth of top-end receiving talent has also resulted in Mahomes trudging through the worst campaign of his career to date, as he owns a career-worst passer rating of 93.3 and has logged passer ratings under 80 in each of his club’s last four defeats (including a 59.1 stinker back in Week 8).
Perhaps it was arrogance on the part of Chiefs brass, but not acknowledging the issue at wide out this past offseason and continuing to ignore the problem at the trade deadline (sorry, but re-acquiring Mecole Hardman does not cut it) is just mind-boggling. Yes, Mahomes is one of the most talented quarterbacks ever, but even he is showing that you can’t be consistent without support.
Kansas City is behind both the Baltimore Ravens and the Miami Dolphins in the AFC standings. It has the same record as the Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns, so the clear separation that existed between the Chiefs and the rest of the conference (and most of the league in general) over the past several years is gone.
Heck, Mahomes and Co. are just 4-3 at home this season, so even the intimidating mystique of Arrowhead Stadium has faded away.
Teams simply are not afraid of the Chiefs anymore. Even with defensive lineman Chris Jones attempting to instill a sense of urgency into his teammates heading into the matchup with Buffalo, Kansas City still came out and laid an egg in its own backyard, falling behind 14-0 early on.
We keep trying to make excuses for the Chiefs every week, and we continue attempting to come up with reasons as for why they will snap out of what many thought was just a midseason malaise. But it has become blatantly clear that this is not just some sort of temporary issue that will suddenly be remedied once playoff time rolls around. No; there are much deeper issues going on with Andy Reid’s club than most would like to admit, and Mahomes’ outburst on Sunday epitomized them.
The Chiefs are running out of time to get on the right track, and it’s entirely possible that their troubles will not be corrigible until the offseason. Tyreek Hill isn’t walking through that door. Heck, neither is JuJu Smith-Schuster. The organization can’t just suddenly manifest a talented wide receiver with four games remaining in the regular season.
Kansas City is in disarray, and no amount of complaining about the officiating will solve it.
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