Patrick Mahomes Says He's 'Got To Be Better' at Throwing Ball Downfield to Help Chiefs

Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes has been the gold standard at the quarterback position for quite some time, but he knows he's not perfect.

When asked Tuesday about how he can help make the Chiefs offense better in 2025, Mahomes admitted that he needs to work on his deep passes.

"I've got to be better at throwing the ball down the field," Mahomes told reporters. "In order for the offense to be great, you've got to complete those passes. It starts with me and giving those guys chances, but if we can do that, it's going to open up the offense in general."

ESPN's Adam Teicher reported last month that the Chiefs have made a strong effort to incorporate more deep passes into the offense this offseason. Offseason practices have featured more attempts to create big plays, which is what Kansas City was known for in Mahomes' early years.

While the Chiefs dominated the rest of the NFL with a 15-2 record in 2024, their offense noticeably lacked the explosiveness it was once known for. Per Teicher, Kansas City's 12 completions that were thrown downfield at least 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage ranked second-to-last in the league. The team's 47 such attempts were the fourth-lowest total.

With speedsters like Xavier Worthy, Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown leading the receiving corps, the Chiefs want to take advantage of their potential for big plays.

"Talk is cheap, right?" Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said last month, per Teicher. "You can't [just] talk about it. You've got to be able to do it. So I think it's a mentality of every day in practice trying to make sure you stress not only the importance of talking about it but then doing it in practice.

"It's our job as coaches to emphasize it more and then let these guys go out there, and then their mindset, too, is cutting it loose every now and then and not every one is going to be perfect [or] complete, but … so far up to this point it's been beautiful with the attack mindset."

If the Chiefs can work the deep plays back into their offense, Mahomes could be in the running for a third career NFL MVP award in 2025.