Winners and Losers From the KC Chiefs' Week 2 Win Over the Jacksonville Jaguars

For the first time this season, the Kansas City Chiefs are in the win column.

After plenty of mistakes and a back-and-forth battle for either team to establish some momentum, the visitors managed to pull away from the Jacksonville Jaguars with a touchdown early in the third quarter. From that point on, despite some struggles on the offensive side of the ball, Kansas City never looked back and ultimately did enough to secure a 17-9 win on the road.

For Andy Reid's bunch, this gets the team back to .500 on the year and sets the table for an opportunity to build on that success with a win over the Chicago Bears in Week 3. Sunday's game saw plenty of positive and negative developments alike, with there still being significant room for progress in the coming weeks.

With that in mind, let's point out some of the Chiefs' biggest winners and losers from the second week of the NFL season.

Winner: Chris Jones

When Chris Jones ended his holdout earlier in the week, the Chiefs eventually said they weren't one bit worried about him not reporting to the team in excellent shape. Not only did the star defensive tackle manage to play a solid number of snaps in his first week back, but he was Kansas City's best defensive player and had 1.5 sacks on quarterback Trevor Lawrence. If this was Jones at anything less than full capacity — and there's reason to believe that it was — then the Chiefs could be getting the best version of him moving forward. He's a clear winner from Sunday's game.

Loser: Richie James

Two games into the 2023 season, Richie James has underwhelmed as both a return specialist and a wide receiver. The offseason free agent pickup failed to convert on his lone target against the Jaguars, and he also lost a punt in the sun and muffed it in the first half of Week 2. The Chiefs' wideout room was praised for its depth and competition during the preseason, yet James has been unable to capitalize on any of his opportunities. That's bad news for the 28-year-old.

Winner: Skyy Moore

After not catching any passes despite a healthy workload in the Chiefs' season-opening contest against the Detroit Lions, Skyy Moore came back with a vengeance in game No. 2. The second-year wideout hauled in three throws from Mahomes on four targets and scored his first career regular-season touchdown. Helping ice the game late in the fourth quarter, Moore capped off one of the better games of his career. He's not completely out of the woods yet, but he's on his way to getting there.

Loser: Jawaan Taylor

Of all Chiefs players who appeared in Sunday's game, perhaps no one had a worse afternoon than Jawaan Taylor. While Taylor was mostly respectable from a pass protection standpoint, he was penalized a staggering five times for various reasons (holding, false starts and an illegal formation flag). The pricey free agent signing got pulled off to the sideline temporarily and had to get reset by Reid. Here's what the head coach said after the game:

I took him out for a couple plays. Stepped back. This is home, not only home, but also where he played. You know, just stepped back and let's get you back out there. He had some big blocks later in the game there. Did a nice job finishing.

Winners: George Karlaftis and Mike Danna

With Jones either out (Week 1) or not at full capacity (Week 2) and Charles Omenihu not with the team until after Week 6, the Chiefs have relied on George Karlaftis and Mike Danna to pick up the slack along the defensive line. Not only are they helping do that, but they're both playing some of the best football of their careers thus far. The pair combined for six tackles and two sacks in Jacksonville on Sunday, helping complement what Jones was able to offer as a pass-rusher as well.

Loser: Donovan Smith

Taylor's rough outing, in a way, overshadowed the struggles of Donovan Smith on the opposite side of the offensive line. Kansas City's left tackle committed another holding penalty in Week 2, and he also struggled on occasion with pass-rush moves to his inside shoulder. It's still early enough in Smith's Chiefs tenure that it isn't time to worry, but he's been far from perfect a couple of weeks into the season. His shortcomings are noteworthy.

Winner: Noah Gray

After filling in for tight end Travis Kelce in Week 1 and hauling in three passes for 31 yards, backup Noah Gray replicated that success and also had seven more yards in Week 2. The former fifth-round pick saw the field for 16 fewer snaps this time around, yet he made plays on two separate drives to help keep the Chiefs' offense moving. He's already notched 23% of his 2022 yardage output in just two games, which is a sneaky-good development for Kansas City.

Loser: L'Jarius Sneed

Fourth-year cornerback L'Jarius Sneed undoubtedly had some shining moments against the Jaguars, but he also got picked on quite often. Four of Jacksonville's 10 longest plays came with him as the closest play-finisher (one was with safety Mike Edwards accompanying him), and he committed a pair of defensive pass interference violations as well. Sneed's track record suggests that better and more consistent days are around the corner, but he didn't play up to his normal standard on Sunday.