Two receiver trades made for a busy Tuesday in the NFL.
It's not quite an arms race, but we could call it a hands race. Just don't expect Patrick Mahomes to lobby Chiefs general manager Brett Veach to join in on the action.
"I have extreme confidence with the guys that are on that football field," Mahomes said on Wednesday, via ESPN. "They've won games, they've won Super Bowls, they've made plays in big moments and Brett Veach has done a great job of bringing players in that can step up whenever their number is called.
"Every time I step on that football field, I feel like we have the best ability to win, and I think that's a credit to Brett Veach and coach (Andy) Reid bringing in guys that really get after it and put in the work to be great every single day."
Veach has certainly tried to help his quarterback in the personnel department, adding Marquise Brown in the offseason and drafting Texas speedster Xavier Worthy in an attempt to build out the receiving corps in 2024. Despite the intent, Veach's Chiefs find themselves in a situation that is eerily similar to the one they navigated in 2023, in which Mahomes was forced to make the best of a situation by relying on another rookie -- second-round selection Rashee Rice -- future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce, and a cast of unheralded receivers.
This time around, Mahomes' cast of targets includes Worthy, veteran JuJu Smith-Schuster (who is on his second stint with the Chiefs) and Kelce, who has gotten off to his own slow start through five games. Justin Watson, Mecole Hardman and Skyy Moore are also available but predictably haven't done much, and after losing Brown to a collarbone injury suffered in the preseason and Rice to a knee injury suffered in Week 4, things aren't going to get easier anytime soon.
Logically, it would make sense for the Chiefs to add a receiver. So far, though, they've stood pat, and with Davante Adams and Amari Cooper now off the market, fewer options remain available.
On the bright side, against all odds, the Chiefs are still managing to make it work. A collection of injuries like this would sink most teams, but Kansas City enters their Super Bowl LVIII rematch with San Francisco with an undefeated record.
"Whenever you have two great football teams that meet up in the Super Bowl and meet up in all these big games, there's going to be a history between that and so obviously we've been able to win those games," Mahomes said. "But we know how good this football team is and we have a ton of respect for them and so it's not like one play couldn't have changed all these football games and so we're going with that mindset of we've just got to make the plays whenever they count."
If we've learned anything, it's that doubting the Chiefs is a mistake -- even with circumstances stacked against them. We'll see if Veach works the phones before the trade deadline.
