New Heights: Travis Kelce Thinks KC Chiefs Have All the Pieces They Need
The Kansas City Chiefs sit at 8-4 through 12 games, and all four of those losses have stemmed from the same general shortcomings.
Entering the season, many expected the Kansas City offense to keep things rolling even after JuJu Smith-Schuster signed elsewhere in free agency and the offensive tackle room got renovated. On the contrary, the team's young wide receiver room has taken a step back and the offensive line isn't living up to its billing. In Week 13 against the Green Bay Packers, a slew of mistakes at various levels of the attack led to a one-score loss that still gave Patrick Mahomes and company a chance in the end.
A lot of this can be attributed to a lack of execution. Of the Chiefs' seven true drives (one was a kneel-down to end the first half), four of them can be narrowed down to find specific mistakes that killed the possession. Those mishaps included sacks, penalties, a route being run the wrong way and even a turnover. On this week's New Heights podcast with his brother Jason, tight end Travis Kelce spoke about Kansas City's accountability and desire to right the ship immediately:
"There are going to be moments in the year that you get challenged more than ever, man. And I think you've got to be able to grow through that. That goes back to kind of what you guys are talking about over there in Philly in terms of the culture. I'm not worried about how everybody played — I think we've got a lot of great character guys in this building who give a damn and want to get s— fixed.
"And we're going to get it fixed. That's never been a doubt in my mind, and that's because of the head man, Andy Reid, setting the tone, setting the tempo, challenging guys [and] maybe having to call a few guys out face-to-face. I love that s—, man. I love it, and I'm excited to get back out there tomorrow, get back at practice, find a way to bring the juice, bring the energy [and] help set that culture that we have in place or help reiterate that culture. Like you said, man, just get an opportunity, and we've got an even bigger challenge this week going up against the Buffalo Bills."
Thirteen weeks into the 2023-24 campaign, Reid and Matt Nagy's offense ranks 11th in scoring and eighth in yardage. It's sixth in EPA per play and fifth in dropback success rate. Dating back to a Week 8 loss against the Denver Broncos — the Chiefs are 2-3 in that stretch — Kansas City ranks 16th in EPA per play and is right down the middle in dropback success rate. With each passing game, the Chiefs look more and more like an average offense rather than a good one. Instead of things improving throughout the season, they're stagnating or even getting worse in some regards.
This weekend's game against the Bills, as Kelce hinted at, is a huge one. The visitors are essentially fighting for their season on Sunday, and they typically play the Chiefs very well with Josh Allen under center. Kansas City is rightfully favored by a bit due to being the home team, although this truly seems to be a game that could shape the rest of the season for both squads. The Chiefs need a win in order to get back on track, especially on the offensive side of the ball. According to Kelce, the Chiefs have everyone they need to bounce back and write a better story this time around.
"I just feel like we have all the confidence that [on] every single drive, we can put up points. I feel like we've got all the guys we need, man. We've just got to keep executing and keep finding ways to win these tight games. Sometimes, it just takes losing one, maybe two, to figure out exactly how to come together in those situations. And I feel like that's what we're doing right now."
