Packers-Chiefs Q&A: Post-Mahomes identity of Kansas City’s offense

On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers take on the Kansas City Chiefs in prime time. Pete Sweeney of Arrowhead Pride kindly volunteered to answer our questions about the Chiefs and provide some insight into their strengths and weaknesses.

APC: Patrick Mahomes’ knee injury became the biggest story in the NFL this past week. Both for this week and for however long Mahomes sits out with his knee injury, what does the Chiefs offense look like?

Andy Reid and the Chiefs’ offensive coaching staff had been building Mahomes’ playbook since 2017, so my best guess here is Kansas City simplifies things a bit for Matt Moore, who has only been with the team since late August.

Reid has been known to play to the starter’s strengths — he did so with Alex Smith and then with Mahomes, so I expect the same with Moore.

“I don’t think we’ll have to change the whole offense, but definitely, sure,” said Reid, when asked if the Chiefs might use different looks with Moore running the show. “That’s part of being a coach and knowing your players. You want to put them in the best position for what they do the best and work on those things to make them better that they don’t do the best so you can utilize those tools there. I mean we will look at what he does best and talk with him too and we’ll put together a good game plan. That’s the direction we’re going in is to put together a good game plan.”

More so than relying on the quarterback to go win the game, I think the Chiefs come up with a plan in which they get the ball into the hands of playmakers Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce as quickly as possible, as well as formulating a more balanced attack by calling strictly run plays (rather than RPOs) for LeSean McCoy, who has proven he still has plenty left in the tank (5.4 yards per attempt in 2019).

We’d like to thank Pete. Be sure to check out the rest of our Q&A session with Arrowhead Pride over the course of the week as well as our Q&A session over there. As always, keep your internet machines tuned to Acme Packing Company this Sunday for our comprehensive game-day coverage of Packers versus Chiefs.