Head Coach Andy Reid is one of the greatest offensive minds in the National Football League, and since being paired with Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs have boosted one of the best offenses the league has ever seen. No matter what opposing teams do to combat Kansas City defensively, the Chiefs develop new and creative ways to keep the ball – as the late Hank Stram would say – matriculating down the field.
In past years, the Chiefs have proved that you can never have too many playmakers as long as Mahomes is under center, and they’ll continue to live by that philosophy going the 2023 regular season with a crowded room of reivers hungry to catch passes from the two-time MVP and Super Bowl champ.
After the finalized its initial 53-man roster on Tuesday afternoon, Kansas City revealed that they decided to keep seven wide receivers (Skyy Moore, Kadarius Toney, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Rashee Rice, Justyn Ross, Richie James, and Justin Watson) on the active roster for the first time since the Andy Reid era began a decade ago.
Factor in the playmakers the Chiefs have that are non-receivers like Travis Kelce, Isiah Pacheco, Jerick McKinnon, and Noah Gray, and you have a laundry list of guys who Mahomes can spread to the ball to, making the Chiefs’ offense the most lethal it’s ever been.
When he was asked about his decision process that led to keeping seven wide receivers, general manager Brett Veach explained there was too much talent to pass up.
“We have different types of receivers, whether they are guys like Richie James that handle a bunch of stuff with the return game, then you have Ross who’s a size guy,” Veach said during Wednesday’s press conference. “We lost [tight end] Jody [Fortson]; that was someone coach [Reid] always had packages in for short yardage and red zone.,” he recalled. “We have a talented, deep, receiving corps. They’re all different in their ways, and coach does a great job of trying to maximize what they can do and implementing packages for guys.”
Having seven wide receivers who are versatile and can do certain things differently means the Chiefs can dial up some unique packages and play calls to keep the defense guessing, especially when a particular guy matches up well against certain defensive backs each week.
“We’ll have a core group of guys that can handle every package and be involved in every package,” Veach said. “Then we’ll have a group of guys that are tailored and tweaked to what they can do … I think having those seven receivers gives us a variety of different ways to attack a defense.”
One receiver the Chiefs expect to have a more extensive role on offense is second-year man Skyy Moore, who finished last season with 22 catches for 250 yards. Two players Veach mentioned as package guys that will be used for specific situations as the year goes on are first-year receivers Rashee Rice and Justyn Ross.
“I think we’ll see a big jump with Skyy, and I think what you’ll see from both Justyn Ross and Rashee as the games go on, you’ll see them probably have certain packages,” Veach said.
“That will lead into more utilization within the offense and graduating from a package player to an every-down receiver [and that’s] the hope with all these young guys is to gradually make that transition. I think we have a bunch of guys that are candidates to do that on this roster, and I think, in the meantime, coach [Reid] does a great job in finding what they do and putting them in a position to gain their confidence and to help us on game day. Like I said, if they can do that and naturally progress over the volume, they can handle [that] for the course of a season.”
In other words, the Chiefs will likely give Rice and Ross a limited amount of snaps to get their feet wet and allow them to adjust to the speed of the regular season. Don’t expect to see much of them early on, but if they are productive with their portion of the snaps, they should see a heavier workload as the season carries. If Kansas City can get to a point where all seven of their receivers can line up on any down, in any situation, it’ll only make it much more challenging to stop and give defenses more options to pick their poison.
