Welcome back to the Arrowhead Pride Mailbag! *Each week, watch for your opportunity to submit your Kansas City Chiefs questions in The Feed, which is found on AP’s home page.*
After a painful loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on “Monday Night Football” — and with the 4-1 Detroit Lions coming to GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Week 6 — let’s see what is on our readers’ minds.
RedAngus123 asks:
Is it time to start trading the aging core of the team — and a few young players — for draft picks? Travis Kelce could put butts in the seats in Cleveland. Jawaan Taylor might be more suited for the New England Patriots’ offense. Chris Jones might like a change of scenery; he looked lost in Jacksonville. Leo Chenal and Trent McDuffie could bring in a haul close to the trade deadline.
Barring catastrophic injury, I don’t think there’s a scenario that would make the Kansas City a seller before the NFL’s November 4 trade deadline.
Yes… the Chiefs have been frustrating to watch. But have you seen some of the other AFC squads? Even if some of its recurring problems don’t improve, Kansas City is still likely to finish among the top seven teams in the conference. It should at least secure a Wild Card berth.
Time will tell whether Kelce and Jones eventually end their tenures in Kansas City on their own terms, but neither is going to be traded in-season. With $35 million guaranteed in 2026, Jones’ contract might be the most untradeable in the sport — outside of quarterbacks.
I would be surprised if any team had interest in trading for Taylor. Besides his high remaining salary for 2025, injury concerns haven’t gone away. Even after reportedly receiving an experimental treatment in Panama this past offseason, Taylor has appeared on every injury report this season while receiving treatment for his knee. At this point, we should probably expect that to continue for the rest of his playing career.
I predict the Chiefs and McDuffie will agree to an extension next spring, but I wouldn’t put the odds of a trade at zero. If it ever happened, it would be far more likely before next April’s draft than in the next few weeks. In that hypothetical, both sides would benefit from a broader range of interested teams during the offseason rather than being limited to select playoff contenders.
Chenal is an interesting case, because it’s unclear how aggressively the Chiefs plan to pursue re-signing him — or what his market might look like in free agency. If the worst-case scenario unfolded, Kansas City would have to consider trading him before the deadline. But as it stands, he’s too valuable to the team’s playoff hopes to consider trading him.
Richardmillhousenixon asks:
What is the Chiefs’ defensive third down conversion rate? How many times does the team get off the field? How many times has Kansas City allowed other teams to convert on third-and-long?
By almost any metric, the Chiefs are near the middle of the league on third down. Overall, Kansas City is currently tied for 13th, allowing 37.5% — or roughly three of every eight — third-down plays to move the chains. That perception was skewed this week when Jacksonville converted five of nine third-down attempts.
The five-game sample doesn’t suggest major issues on third-and-long. Per Next Gen Stats, the Chiefs rank 10th with a -0.31 expected points added (EPA) on third-down pass plays. The 6.2 yards per pass play on third down (22nd overall) is somewhat concerning, but that number also includes short passes that were never designed to convert. For example, Jacksonville’s second drive featured a third-and-14 play where the Jaguars gained 12 yards before punting.
Kansas City is also middle of the pack in allowing 4.6 yards per rush play on third down. Its +0.09 EPA against the run on third down likely reflects mobile quarterbacks — such as Los Angeles Chargers passer Justin Herbert and Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence — having success scrambling in those situations.
Oldetyme Chief asks:
With so many gaffes to choose from on Monday night, how many are just things that happened that night, how many are likely to be persistent issues — and how long will it take to clean up the mess?
It’s probably best to let some of Week 5’s issues regress to the mean before panicking too much. To put it another way: it’s rare for teams to lose games where they outgain their opponent by more than 150 yards and win the turnover battle.
Penalties are the most glaring issue. Because so many calls are subjective — and therefore vary from crew to crew — they’re not always an easy or quick fix. Cognizant of a minimal margin for error against one of the league’s best offenses — the Detroit Lions — I expect the Chiefs to focus on playing more disciplined football Sunday night.
Defensively, Kansas City has been creative. Bad performances in Weeks 1 and 5 have sandwiched three inspired efforts. But there’s little doubt the team’s four-man pass rush has been ineffective. The Jaguars’ final offensive play on Monday night — the one where Trevor Lawrence fell, got back up and ran in the game-winning touchdown — is compelling evidence; I don’t foresee much improvement in this area without an outside addition. While the Chiefs have had solid game plans against mobile quarterbacks such as Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson, their inability to contain more traditional passers like Lawrence and the Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert — both of whom hurt the team with their legs — is concerning.
It’s also worth noting that Jaguars’ head coach Liam Coen might be the NFL’s offensive mind best equipped to match up against the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Between Week 5 and last season’s overtime thriller (when Coen was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator), he’s now outschemed Kansas City twice in the last calendar year. It’ll be interesting to see if they meet again before Jacksonville’s scheduled trip to Arrowhead in 2028 — and what those coaching staffs look like by then.
KU_Lew asks:
How many games this year will a running back be the Chiefs’ leading rusher? Through five games, it has only happened once — against the Giants.
Against Jacksonville, Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs in rushing for the third time this season. But this time, it wasn’t as concerning as it was in Weeks 1 and 2, when Mahomes accounted for more than half of Kansas City’s total rushing yards. With Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt both running well, Mahomes’ 60 rushing yards made up only 39% of the team’s total.
Unless the Chiefs trade for a true workhorse back — which seems unlikely given the league’s current injury situation — Mahomes may again lead the team in rushing in certain games, even when the backs are productive. As rookie Brashard Smith’s role continues to expand, Kansas City may evolve into a true running back-by-committee team, with no single back putting up standout individual numbers.
In Week 4, wide receiver Xavier Worthy led the team in rushing against the Baltimore Ravens. Once fellow wideout Rashee Rice returns from suspension (which happens on Monday), Worthy should find more success on end-arounds. That will increase the chance he will lead the team in rushing in one or two more games — on only a handful of carries.
Thank you for reading this week’s Arrowhead Pride Mailbag! Keep watching The Feed for a chance to ask your questions.