Andy Reid Not Worried About Chiefs' Lack of WR Production: 'There's Just One Ball'

Although the Kansas City Chiefs managed to defeat the Houston Texans by nine points in the divisional round, their offense didn't do a ton to inspire confidence. The reigning Super Bowl champs averaged just 2.3 yards per rush and through the air, quarterback Patrick Mahomes failed to even sniff the 200-yard mark on 25 attempts.

It was a quiet game for an offense that had previously seemed to build some momentum. Late in the regular season, the return of Marquise "Hollywood" Brown from injured reserve and the continued development of rookie Xavier Worthy both led to some solid performances in December. That, paired with veteran DeAndre Hopkins on the verge of being unleashed, was supposed to cause the offense to soar in the playoffs.

One postseason game in, it's safe to say that hasn't been the case, especially at the wide receiver spot. Despite that, head coach Andy Reid isn't worried even a bit. Speaking to the media this week, Reid had a simple explanation for the surprising lack of wideout production.

"Yeah, just, that's the way it worked out," Reid said. "I mean, we want to use all of them, so they're all good players. There's just one ball, so it happened to go the other direction, but it's not for any reason that it didn't come their way. They're all part of it."

In fairness to Worthy, he did lead the group in both snaps (42, 82% of those available) and statistical output. On six targets in the passing game, he poured in five receptions for 45 yards. With that in mind, however, the rest of the receiver room combined for four targets and zero receptions despite logging 75 snaps between them. A small handful of failed attempts was all Kansas City needed to stick to a Worthy and Travis Kelce-heavy game plan.

Additional context is also key. Lengthy possessions and overall opportunities were at a premium in the divisional round. The Chiefs ran just 50 offensive plays on Saturday against Houston, which was far fewer than December wins against the Los Angeles Chargers (65), Cleveland Browns (75), Texans (70) or Pittsburgh Steelers (58). On top of that, avoiding the Texans' cornerback duo of Derek Stingley Jr. and Kamari Lassiter appeared to be a focal point in the second matchup. Playing into favorable matchups – and those only – was something Mahomes himself alluded to on Tuesday.

Taking that into consideration, Reid stresses the larger sample size of recent games as something that's more indicative of the wide receivers' caliber.

"The last few weeks have been great," Reid said. "Everybody's been up and ready to go. Hadn't been a problem that way. They're all getting in and having a chance to play. It's just, as far as the pass game goes, just depends on where the ball is headed. We have full trust in all of them, they're all really good players."

Reid may have a point. Each of the aforementioned four games, after all, featured some flashes. In Week 14, Hopkins had a touchdown grab and Smith-Schuster added 31 yards while converting on both of his targets. In Week 15, Hopkins had just 36 yards but hauled in five passes. Week 16 saw Brown make his regular-season debut and reach the 45-yard mark while leaving plenty of other yardage on the field. On Christmas Day, he had 46 yards and Justin Watson had 60 with a touchdown to boot.

While the team's 2025 playoff debut wasn't what anyone had hoped for, it still afforded the receiver collective another chance to showcase its ceiling. Doing so against a banged-up Buffalo Bills secondary in Sunday's AFC championship game would be a great start.

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