Chiefs Head Into Opening Night With History on Their Side
Mahomes and Reid should help KC feel confident against the Lions
Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid give the Chiefs swagger as a team. With a coach in Reid who is as innovative as they come on offense and a multi-generational talent in Mahomes, the Chiefs have history on their side on Thursday night. Mahomes and Reid together is a potent combo for most opponents to overcome but let’s look at the teams’ recent history.
Andy Reid
Reid is known for the offense he puts on the field and for being a player’s coach who everyone in the league seems to love. While Reid came to Kansas City with an already impressive career he’s only improved since starting coaching in KC. Reid’s offenses have been some of the best in the NFL year in and year out regardless of who the QB has been while he’s been in Kansas City.
What makes Reid such a great coach is his ability to adjust every year and bring new wrinkles to the league that other coaches will copycat. Reid has consistently had a great start to most seasons while the Chiefs head coach with a 9-1 record in the first game of the season since 2013. The only game the Chiefs lost to start the season was a forgettable game against the Tennessee Titans in 2014 in which the entire team looked ill-prepared.
Patrick Mahomes
Since Mahomes has arrived in Kansas City the Chiefs have done a lot of winning. Even in his rookie year where he only played a single game, the Chiefs were 10-6 and Mahomes got a chance to play because the Chiefs had wrapped up the division before their final game.
Let’s take a deeper dive into the games that Mahomes has started to kick off an NFL season. In his career, Mahomes is 5-0 in the first games of the year. He’s never a season opener. In fact, if you look at the first season as a starter he started 5-0 averaging close to 300 yards a game and almost 3 TD’s a game in 2018.
When looking at the stats for his season openers in his career the numbers are even better. Over the past 5 seasons, Patrick has started the season averaging over 300 yards per game, over 3.5 TD’s passing a game, and with no interceptions. Mahomes has started the season hot every year he’s been the starter.
If you look even deeper the numbers continue to be impressive as he’s only been sacked 4 times in those 5 games. He’s also averaged 9.22 yards per attempt throughout the five games to start the season. Mahomes is on a different level every year and keeps getting better throughout each season.
Obviously, this doesn’t guarantee a victory on Thursday night against a good Lions team. But it does show that between Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes the Chiefs have been in the best position possible to win when the season starts. I’m betting that trend continues this week against the Lions.