The Star's Blair Kerkhoff breaks down Chiefs Training Camp on Day 12. Plays made by recent Chiefs acquisitions were the highlights of the day. By Dominick Williams
Patrick Mahomes backpedaled from the 10-yard line to maybe the 15, searching for an option before his eyes darted to the middle of the field. He saw what he expected there — Xavier Worthy sprinting on the conclusion of a crossing route, uncovered.
A back-foot throw.
A catch.
A touchdown.
It was that easy.
The Chiefs then returned the football to the 10-yard line. Mahomes returned to the huddle, and they started anew. Over the course of a repetitious goal-to-go drill, Mahomes caught fire. He’s been doing that lately here at the Missouri Western practice fields in St. Joseph, and maybe it’s notable that we don’t even talk about it much anymore.
On this day and in this drill, he found tight end Noah Gray on a similar crossing route for another score. He hit running back Kareem Hunt on a screen for a touchdown, then Rashee Rice on a quick slant and finally Jason Brownlee on a back-shoulder throw in the end zone.
He found a lot of ways to complete a task the Chiefs too frequently struggled to complete a year ago: converting red-zone trips into touchdowns.
The Chiefs ranked 22nd in the NFL in red-zone touchdown scoring percentage, per Team Rankings, which was only marginally worse than they finished a year earlier, when they were 19th. It’s a two-year theme, and it must be maddening that an organization in the most prominent offensive era in its history has struggled to score in its most favorable situations.
That’s a perplexing combination for an offense led by the best quarterback in football, and even more so for an offense that has been trained to play move-the-chains football.
But more to the point, it isn’t the frustration nor the confusion — it’s the very real effect.
There are a plethora of ways the Chiefs can improve offensively this season, same as any other team. For the one in Kansas City, we can start that conversation at left tackle, or maybe with the health of the receivers or maybe focus solely on the impact of a healthy and available Rashee Rice.
But there is a more obvious (and far more simple) way the Chiefs can score more points: Take advantage of the easiest chances they’re provided.
The red-zone trips.
The Chiefs visited the red zone more than all but six teams in the NFL last season, yet they finished 15th in scoring. A year earlier in 2023, they had the third most red-zone trips, yet again they ranked only 15th in scoring.
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid watches his offensive backfield at training camp on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, in St. Joseph. Dominick Williams dowilliams@kcstar.com
The Chiefs led the NFL in points in 2022, and, surprise, they had the second-best red-zone scoring percentage in the league that year at 71.08%.
This isn’t hard.
Sure, it’s not the only change in the offense since 2022 — but it’s had perhaps the most obvious, and even most significant, effect on the output. Consider this: If the Chiefs had converted red-zone appearances into touchdowns at the same rate last season as they did in 2022 — that 71.08% figure — it would have led to 5.5 more points per game. And if the Chiefs would have scored an additional 5.5 points per game, they would have ranked sixth in scoring last season.
Would we be talking about a mediocre-performing offense if they finished as the sixth-best scoring offense in the league?
“If we score in some of these red-zone situations, there aren’t as many questions about the offense, because we’re scoring more and more points,” Mahomes told me a year ago.
But those problems persisted throughout the year.
And thus, so did the questions.
The Chiefs eventually turn 74% of their 1st-and-10s into another first down. But once they reach the 20? They have found the end zone barely more than half the time.
What gives?
Well, that has to be among the most frustrating aspects of this — because there is no singular answer. There is no one thing that needs to improve. I covered that a year ago, when the Chiefs got off to a brutally slow start in red-zone production. They had penalties from unusual suspects and drops from even more unusual suspects.
Therein lay the frustration then.
But therein lies the hope now.
There have been studies done that show some randomness to red-zone success — or that year-to-year correlation is pretty faint.
In other words, they can get better at this. They can have game days like they had a practice day over the weekend.
But they have to.
The Chiefs are no longer a quick-strike offense. They had only 42 explosive passing plays (20-plus yards) last season, 27th in the league. They conversely led the NFL in plays per drive. They’re trying to change that, emphasizing the downfield pass for the second straight offseason and second straight training camp.
But they have relied most recently on long drives.
And long drives rely on red-zone success.
It can make or break an offense.
Or, rather, it can make an offense excel or make it mediocre.