Biggest offseason need for every AFC West team in 2022
By Lucas Schuh
AFC West needs in 2022: Chiefs need WR help
The Kansas City Chiefs have had one of the most potent offenses in the NFL with the likes of Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, and Patrick Mahomes. The Chief’s offense was so good last season that they had the 2nd highest EPA per play during the regular season. While the Chiefs offense clearly has some serious firepower, they actually could use some help on offense, notably at wide receiver.
When Patrick Mahomes became the starter of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018, it’s more than fair to say that he landed in a great situation. The 2018 Chiefs had current stars like Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce, but they also had other quality players like Sammy Watkins.
Kansas City had things figured out in terms of weapons, but in recent years, there has become a clear problem at the receiver position. It sounds odd to say that the Chiefs have a problem at the receiver position when they have one of the best receivers in the NFL in Tyreek Hill, but the problem isn’t the number one receiver slot, it’s pretty much every other receiver outside of Hill.
When Mahomes first came to be the starter of the Chiefs, he had a clear number one receiver in Tyreek Hill and a clear number two receiver in Sammy Watkins. Watkins would only last three years in Kansas City until he eventually landed in Baltimore. The year before Watkins left the Chiefs, Kansas City drafted Mecole Hardman.
It seems fairly apparent that Hardman was supposed to be the receiver to take over for Watkins when he left, but that idea hasn’t quite come to fruition. Hardman has been a solid deep threat at best but has never been able to take over for Watkins.
To make things somewhat worse, the Chiefs have only drafted two receivers in the past three years, with one of those receivers being Hardman.
One positive for the Chiefs is that there are plenty of receivers in this draft for the Chiefs to take. The Chiefs should be able to fix this problem, or at least be able to attempt to fix this problem by taking at least one of these receivers in this draft.