2022 turned out to be an excellent season for the Chiefs. Despite potential for regression after the departure of Tyreek Hill they lost none of their offensive potency. They finished the season 14-3, marking just the second time in franchise history that they had won 14 games in a season. After a couple of near misses in recent seasons they were also able to go all the way and win the second Lombardi Trophy of the Mahomes-Reid era. Optimism is understandably sky high entering 2023.
Roster changes
The Chiefs saw a decent amount of turnover to their roster this offseason and they enter 2023 with several notable new faces. The biggest change will come at offensive tackle, where they signed Jawaan Taylor and Donovan Smith to replace the departing Orlando Brown and Andrew Wylie, who signed with the Bengals and Commanders respectively. Taylor was comfortably Kansas City’s biggest addition, inking a four-year $80 million deal.
The only other addition of note was former 49ers edge rusher Charles Omenihu, who joins on a two-year $16 million deal. As for departures, there were several big names to leave Arrowhead in addition to their tackle pairing. Safety Juan Thornhill, wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, and edge rusher Frank Clark all left for pastures new.
Coaching situation
The Andy Reid era continues in Kansas City, with 2023 marking his 11th season as head coach. It is probably no surprise that very little has changed with the rest of the coaching staff, outside of the departure of former offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy, who joins Washington.
Bienemy has been replaced by former Bears head coach Matt Nagy, who spent last season as senior offensive assistant and quarterback coach. Nagy previously held the offensive coordinator role for two years from 2016-17. The only other changes have been a handful of promotions, including wide receiver coach Joe Bleymaier being elevated to passing game coordinator.
2023 NFL Draft
| Pick | Player |
| 1.31 | Felix Anudike-Uzomah – EDGE, Kansas State |
| 2.55 | Rashee Rice – WR, SMU |
| 3.92 | Wanya Morris – OT, Oklahoma |
| 4.119 | Chamarri Conner – S, Virginia Tech |
| 5.166 | BJ Thompson – EDGE, Stephen F. Austin |
| 6.194 | Keondre Coburn – IDL, Texas |
| 7.250 | Nic Jones – CB, Ball State |
The Chiefs look to have struck gold with their first pick, with Anudike-Uzomah adding some much-needed juice up front for their defense to help replace the departing Frank Clark. The rest of the draft was somewhat less inspiring. Their other picks all felt solid enough, but outside of Anudike-Uzomah it didn’t really feel like the Chiefs came away with any obvious needle movers. Only time will tell if that is true.
Offense
With the departure of Tyreek Hill, the Chiefs fully embraced diverse personnel usage in 2022. Despite leading the NFL in pass rate over expected, they ranked sixth in multiple tight end sets on first down. Their deep ball was unaffected by Hill’s departure too. Mahomes ranked fifth in deep passing yards, just as he did in 2021. He was also helped out by Travis Kelce seemingly defying the laws of aging and logging his seventh straight 1,000 yard season.
What sets this incarnation of the Chiefs offense apart from others is that they now possess an excellent offensive line. They ranked third in adjusted line yards and fifth in adjusted sack rate in 2022, the only team to rank in the top five in each metric. Isiah Pacheco’s 1.9 yards before contact ranked fifth amongst running backs with at least 100 attempts. Whilst they will be starting two new tackles in 2022, the interior offensive line is so good that this shouldn’t be a major worry.
If you are determined to find a flaw with this unit it might be their receiving options outside of Travis Kelce. None of the names at wide receiver are overly inspiring and they will roll into the season with some combination of Skyy Moore, Kadarius Toney, Rashee Rice and Marquez Valdez-Scantling as their starters. On any other team we would be talking about this as one of the weakest units in the NFL, but if 2022 taught us anything it is that Mahomes is excellent at elevating his supporting cast to a league-leading level.
Defense
The Chiefs had a fierce pass rush in 2022, ranking second in adjusted sack rate behind the Eagles. Chris Jones is the obvious star and deserves to be in the conversation as the league’s best interior lineman. His 77 pressures were 14 more than the next best interior rusher in 2022. Their defensive line got even better in the offseason too, replacing Frank Clark with a younger, cheaper, and more productive alternative in Charles Omenihu and picking up Felix Anudike-Uzomah in the first round.
That line should free up perhaps the most exciting linebacker room in football to get into the backfield and make plays. Nick Bolton led the team with 55 defensive stops and logged just 10 misses on 184 tackle attempts in 2022. They also have Willie Gay who, like Bolton, is capable of covering, tackling in space, and rushing the quarterback. Leo Chenal also flashed as a rookie and could be in for a bigger role in 2023.
The concern with this unit will once again be their lack of depth at cornerback. L’Jarius Sneed is excellent and Trent McDuffie showed promise as a rookie, but the other boundary corner spot doesn’t look great. Joshua Williams gave up a lot of big plays last season, allowing 0.26 EPA per target. For context, that’s equivalent to the second most efficient passing offense in football. Jaylen Watson was better, but he still gave up four touchdowns.
Prediction
There might be a few holes on the Chiefs roster, but in reality it probably doesn’t matter so long as they have Patrick Mahomes. That might sound like hyperbole, but it is actually just a sign of how special he is as a talent. Barring an injury to their quarterback, this team should once again be competing for another Lombardi Trophy.
