The Kansas City Chiefs picked up a 26-13 win over the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football to move to 5-0 on the season despite the injury to wide receiver Rashee Rice, and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to give Patrick Mahomes credit for his performance.
“KC just so good man! Doesn't matter who's not in the lineup as long as QB1 is!” LeBron James wrote on X.
Mahomes turned in a good performance, completing 28-of-39 passes for 331 yards and one interception. He did not throw a touchdown, as Kareem Hunt and Xavier Worthy scored rushing touchdowns in the game. The leading receiver for the Chiefs was JuJu Smith-Schuster, who caught seven balls for 130 yards, while Travis Kelce caught nine passes for 70 yards. It is similar to how James elevated teams to go on deep playoff runs throughout his career.
As mentioned before, the Chiefs' top receiver, Rashee Rice, was out, and is expected to be out for the remainder of the season. That elevated Smith-Schuster and Kelce into bigger roles. Both players have been in bigger roles in the past, but Smith-Schuster is seemingly in the later stages of his career, while Kelce has seen a bit of a dip in production this season.
Regardless, the Chiefs were able to get a win to remain undefeated heading into the bye week.
Chiefs head to bye week undefeated
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The Chiefs have not necessarily looked like world beaters in their five games so far this season, but the performance against the Saints indicates that they might be getting better as the season goes along. Kansas City's defense has been strong in the early going, which is not a surprise given the talent on that side of the ball along with Steve Spagnuolo calling plays as the defensive coordinator.
On offense, the Chiefs would like to put up better performances than they have so far this season, but with Mahomes under center, they have an infrastructure to keep getting better. However, they might want to make a trade to replace Rice at some point. It would seem tough to acquire Davante Adams from the division rival Las Vegas Raiders, but someone like Amari Cooper could be a good addition.
The trade deadline is on Nov. 5. In the meantime, the Chiefs will enjoy the bye week before heading on the road to play the San Francisco 49ers in a rematch of last year's Super Bowl.
