19. Kansas City Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes
RB: Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Ronald Jones
WR: JuJu Smith-Schuster
WR: Mecole Hardman, Skyy Moore
WR: Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Josh Gordon
TE: Travis Kelce, Noah Gray
Kansas City Chiefs fans are probably going to be in an uproar over this, but somebody has to say it.
Without Tyreek Hill, the Kansas City Chiefs’ supporting cast for Patrick Mahomes just simply takes a substantial dip.
Hill is arguably the most dynamic receiver in the game. I have the utmost confidence in Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid to keep this train chugging along, but there’s no doubt that the supporting cast is worse on paper now than it was a year ago.
Mecole Hardman simply hasn’t stepped up in the way that I think the Chiefs figured he would when he was picked in the second round out of Georgia. He’s done some good things for them, but he’s also struggled with drops.
Actually, so did Travis Kelce last year.
Hardman cut his drops from eight in 2020 to just two in 2021, a nice and needed improvement.
Kelce was credited with 10 drops last year, his highest total in the last four years.
Still, Kelce is one of the best players in the NFL on the offensive side of the ball and frankly, he’s the reason the Chiefs are as high as they are on this list.
I don’t love their running back group because neither Clyde Edwards-Helaire nor Ronald Jones inflicts a ton of fear as a featured runner.
Edwards-Helaire, a first-round pick, was out-touched last year by Darrel Williams.
I’m not a huge believer in JuJu Smith-Schuster, but it will be interesting, at the very least, to see what he can do with Mahomes throwing him the ball.
The redeeming player in the wide receiver group for Kansas City has got to be Skyy Moore out of Western Michigan. He’s not Tyreek Hill, but he’s a dangerous vertical threat.
The same can be said of Marquez Valdes-Scantling, although the receiver-needy Packers didn’t bring him back so what does that tell you?