KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Breaking the huddle Wednesday, Patrick Mahomes looked at his four receiving options along the line of scrimmage: Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and receivers Marquise Brown, Rashee Rice and Justin Watson.
The next repetition featured a different set of pass catchers from a group that included tight ends Noah Gray and rookie Jared Wiley, and receivers Mecole Hardman and Skyy Moore.
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Mahomes, the Super Bowl LVIII MVP, enjoyed his surplus of receiving options throughout the Chiefs’ two-day minicamp. He completed many of his passes in the intermediate and deep parts of the field, he distributed touchdowns to several teammates and he had just one interception — and even that pass Tuesday was an accurate one, the ball bouncing off Kelce’s hands to safety Bryan Cook.
One of the biggest positives for Mahomes this offseason is that he believes these receivers can help elevate the Chiefs offense into being one of the NFL’s best units again.
“I thought Hollywood did a great job coming in and being prepared and learning really fast,” Mahomes said of Brown, who joined the Chiefs in the spring on a one-year deal. “I thought Rashee did a great job. All these guys competed and that’s a good thing to have. I’m excited to get (rookie receiver Xavier) Worthy out there more (in) team-based drills and let him work and learn on the fly.”
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Worthy, the Chiefs’ first-round draft pick this year, was the only one of the team’s 13 receivers who didn’t participate in the minicamp. Although Worthy, who is recovering from a strained left hamstring, was held out of the on-field work as a precaution, coach Andy Reid said Thursday that he expects the rookie to be healthy next month for the start of training camp.
When camp begins, Mahomes will continue to refine his passing timing with Brown and Worthy, who ran the 40-yard dash in a record-setting 4.21 seconds at the NFL combine.
“The first impression is that those guys are blazers,” Watson said of his new teammates. “They’re a different level of speed, and defenses are going to have to back up. (Worthy) is doing a great job picking up the playbook. One of the tough things early on in this offense is can you learn all three (main receiver) positions? He’s had a nice opportunity to sit back, look at every position, see the defenses and let the game slow down for him a little bit.”
There's a new duo in Kansas City 😈@PatrickMahomes x @Primetime_jet pic.twitter.com/ScDEv9xeqQ
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) June 12, 2024
During minicamp, Worthy did what he has often done in the past month: He stood next to offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, who radioed the play call into Mahomes’ helmet.
“It’s really valuable for him to tell me, while we’re standing there in practice, where he’s supposed to go and what he’s supposed to do,” Nagy said last month. “It’s been really good for him, and he’s been great.”
Mahomes is eager to see how Brown and Worthy’s speed creates more space for Rice and Kelce in the intermediate area of the field in the upcoming season.
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Last month, Mahomes shared a tip with Brown on a blitz play. Mahomes wanted to target Brown, who possesses the speed to beat the blitz downfield. Mahomes told Brown it was OK for him to not run his deep route exactly how it is drawn up in Reid’s playbook, just that he be in the vicinity as quickly as possible to run underneath the deep pass.
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“As a coach, you look for the communication part of it, that they’re willing to share what they’re thinking with one another,” Reid said of Mahomes and Brown. “They’ve got a good connection. Once Patrick knows what Hollywood’s thinking and Hollywood knows where Patrick physically can get the ball to on the field, then that’s a good thing.”
In the second team period Wednesday, Mahomes recognized a blitz and threw a splendid fadeaway deep pass; the ball traveled more than 50 yards downfield, allowing Brown enough time to sprint away from safety Chamarri Conner before he caught it on his way to the end zone.
“He’s trusting me more and more,” Brown said. “I’m just excited for the opportunity and what’s ahead. They’re letting me be a weapon. I’m not just stuck in this role or that role. Coach Reid is putting me in positions to do a lot of things.”
Hollywood put on a show today 🍿 pic.twitter.com/Amy0fPXWjr
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) June 12, 2024
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo blitzed the offense plenty of times during minicamp, and Mahomes responded by often making the right decision with the ball, whether throwing to a checkdown target or making a more difficult pass against multiple defenders in the secondary.
“This is probably the most comfortable I’ve felt of just being able to not let something affect me,” Mahomes said. “When you go up against Spags, you’re not going to be right 100 percent. There’s been times where I’ve lost on blitzes and Spags gets me with a new pressure that he’s working on. It’s ‘All right, let’s just get the ball out of my hands, get it to the checkdown, wherever that is, and live to play another play.’”
One reason the Chiefs re-signed Hardman to another one-year deal is that he’ll likely be relied on early in the season, especially since Rice is expected to serve a multi-game suspension to start in September for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. In late March, Rice was involved in a multi-vehicle crash in northeast Dallas. He was the driver of a Lamborghini sport utility vehicle that caused the crash, which created a chain-reaction collision involving four other vehicles, police said. Rice is facing one count of aggravated assault, one count of collision involving serious bodily injury and six counts of collision involving injury.
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Receiver Nikko Remigio, who joined the Chiefs last season as an undrafted rookie, is competing for what could be the final roster spot at the position. He has built a connection with backup quarterback Carson Wentz during the offseason program. In Tuesday’s practice, Remigio generated two touchdown receptions, including one on which he outjumped cornerback Kelvin Joseph to catch an improvised pass from Wentz in the back of the end zone.
“He runs all day,” Wentz said last week. “He’s been fun to get to know a little bit. He’s fast and he uncovers well versus man coverage. We have some days out there where we’re down some receivers and Nikko’s just out there running all day long, so a lot of respect for what he’s done so far.”
Year 2 pic.twitter.com/czCZmWNcWZ
— Nikko Remigio (@nikkoremigio) June 11, 2024
Last year, Remigio led the Chiefs with four receptions for 71 yards in their preseason opener against the New Orleans Saints before he sustained a season-ending dislocated left shoulder injury the following week.
Remigio’s minicamp reps were split between the rest of the projected starters and the top backups.
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“Nikko is a prime example of an undrafted free agent that comes in, is an absolute professional every day — in the meeting rooms, at practice, the same mentality — and you root for guys like that,” Nagy said. “He’s showing up. Guys like him find a role and they’ve got to make an impact on special teams. I’m rooting for him, I think he’s a great kid and it could be a fun story.”
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Reid shared Thursday that he and Nagy have spent much of the past two months trying to see how the receivers are going to best fit within the offense. One of the best parts of that process is that Mahomes fully participated in each of the Chiefs’ practices. Many of those reps featured Mahomes alongside his top passing options, such as Kelce, Brown, Watson and Wiley.
“I thought we had a great OTAs and minicamp,” Mahomes said. “The confidence that the defense has, you can see they’re trying to build on that. Offensively, we feel we didn’t play our best last year, even though we won. We knew we had a lot of places to improve, so I think guys had that mentality coming into OTAs.
“That’s something, I think, that has gotten the best out of everybody. It’s one of the best (offseasons) I’ve ever been a part of.”
Injury update
Reid said he believes left guard Joe Thuney, recovering from a pectoral injury, should be available for the start of the regular season.
“Joe is working his tail off, getting better,” Reid said. “We’ve got to get clearance from the doctor, but he’s made good progress. He’ll be one of those guys that’s kind of right on the border, whether he can go or not (at the start of camp).”
(Photo of Marquise Brown: Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)
