The Kansas City Chiefs' fifth win of the season almost felt like an alumni night or something at Arrowhead Stadium. With the New Orleans Saints in town for a primetime matchup on Monday Night Football, the Chiefs turned to a couple of new-yet-familiar faces on offense to put away the visitors fairly easily.
From the physical rushing prowess of Kareem Hunt to the reliable hands of JuJu Smith-Schuster, the Chiefs offense had little problem moving the chains down the field (at least until they hit the red zone). And given their recent offensive concerns and even bigger losses to injury, it's amazing the Chiefs could string together so many sustained drives.
Remember this: the Chiefs are down their top running back in Isiah Pacheco as well as their top two wide receiving options coming into the season, Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown. The decisions to add Hunt and Smith-Schuster back to the roster were intended to bolster positions—not take them over. Or at least that's how it seemed it'd have to be knowing their age and run of recent production.
While both players are older and perhaps a bit more limited athletically than the last time Chiefs Kingdom saw them, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce says it's that familiarity that allowed them to take over the game like they did.
On the latest episode of Kelce's New Heights podcast, his brother Jason Kelce asked him all about the win over the Saints. Kelce credited their previous history with the team.
"Well, both of these guys are familiar with the offense," said Kelce. "They’re familiar with the scheme. I think they’re familiar with the nucleus of the coaching staff and the layers that we have here. Honestly, it just felt like we got our guys back in the building. There was no, ‘All right, let’s ease them into it.’ It was, ‘No, they’re ready to rock ’n’ roll right now.'
"JuJu’s won a Super Bowl with us," he continued. "Kareem’s had unbelievable success in this offense before, so I think when it comes down to what Coach Reid is gonna call, everybody’s very familiar with how we’re gonna have success with it."
Kelce is referring to the fact Smith-Schuster was with the team for the entire 2022 season before leaving in free agency for a three-year deal with the New England Patriots. As for Hunt, he's a former third-round pick by the Chiefs in 2017 (the same class at Patrick Mahomes) and was in K.C. for nearly two full seasons before being released after assaulting a woman (and lying about it to the team).
On Monday, Hunt led the rushing charge with his first 100-yard game since 2020, while Smith-Schuster broke the 130-yard mark as a receiver—providing a huge boost in the wake of losses at the position. While K.C. could still make other moves, the truth is that such preseason discount signing have yielded some great dividends of their own—making Brett Veach's decision-making down the stretch a bit easier.
Both Smith-Schuster and Hunt are making the league minimum for vets, which at their experience level equals approximately $1.2M per player. That's $2.4 million for those counting, or just slightly less than what Felix Anudike-Uzomah will pull in this year.
Can the Chiefs count on such sustained production going forward? That's a tall order, but on Monday the Chiefs proved that they can get through with savvy transactions and smart coaching. And that's enough for now to be in the driver's seat in the AFC.
