"It's critical" - Chiefs urged to bring help for Patrick Mahomes after disastrous Super Bowl performance, by ex-NFL QB
Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs' quest to complete an unprecedented Super Bowl three-peat fell short at the final hurdle, as the Philadelphia Eagles thrashed them 40-22 and hoisted the Lombardi Trophy.
Despite the scoreline suggesting that the game was a blowout win for the Eagles, it flatters the Chiefs. They were down 40-6 with less than four minutes left in the game and two late touchdowns against Philadelphia's backups made the scoreline look slightly more respectable.
Mahomes was heavily critiqued for his performances, especially for throwing picks on back-to-back pass attempts late in the first half which yielded 14 unanswered points for the Eagles and took the game away from the Chiefs. However, retired quarterback Tim Hasselbeck believes the loss should serve as a wakeup call for Kansas City's front office.
On NFL Live, he absolved the quarterback of some of the blame for the loss and claimed the Chiefs have to surround him with more talent than they did last season.
"It's critical on a couple of levels," the former QB said. "First of all, just the performance and production. You need to protect your quarterback. It's still a dependent position.
"As great as Patrick Mahomes is at generating offense, you do need people around him ... [Patrick Mahomes] is their largest investment. You need to protect him. ... It’s about his future which I’m sure they feel like is hopefully at least another decade."
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs' offense's underwhelming season
When Patrick Mahomes burst onto the scene in 2018, the Chiefs became the most explosive offense in the league with him under center and that remained the case until the 2022 season. However, over the past two seasons, the unit has regressed.
The 2024 was inarguably the worst for the Chiefs offense since Mahomes became the starter. They finished the regular season with a 15-2 record, with one of their two losses coming in Week 18, where they had benched all their starters. However, the offense failed to score more than 30 points even once and 11 of their 15 wins were one-score victories.
They did not have a single player with at least 900 rushing or receiving yards for the first time since the 1999 season. Mahomes also had his worst campaign as a passer. He finished with 3,928 yards, 26 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions. It was the first time in his seven seasons as a starter that he failed to break the 4,000-yard mark.
With Travis Kelce nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career, the Chiefs need to replenish the offense and add a few explosive receivers to help their quarterback. They also need to beef up the offensive line, which gave up 16 pressures and six packs in the Super Bowl, despite the Eagles not calling a blitz once throughout the game.
There's plenty of work for the Chiefs' front office to do this offseason to ensure Mahomes and the offense return to being their potent selves in 2025.