Chiefs made this a theme of camp. Why Patrick Mahomes is only part of the answer

The Chiefs are done living in St. Joseph dorm rooms, moving back home for the fall — but not before they ended training camp much the same way it began.

With a deep shot.

Patrick Mahomes found rookie Xavier Worthy behind the last line of defense during the final day of padded practices this week, though it didn’t have quite the spectacular element of their connection that opened the very first day of practice.

Same result, though — a completed deep throw — and that was the theme of the now-completed Chiefs camp, in action and words alike.

“I’ve been trying to push the envelope, trying to push the ball down field,” Mahomes said after the Chiefs’ final day Thursday. “Trying to make sure we stay in that attacking mindset.”

See? A theme.

There’s a misconception, though, at least in those words and others that have preceded it, about the solution to the deep passing game.

The change in mindset is nice.

The change in execution is the requirement.

This week, I was scrolling the Sports Info Solutions grid, when I came across an astonishing statistic, and keep in mind I certainly knew the Chiefs were bad throwing the ball down field a year ago. Yet, still astonishing:

Marquez Valdes-Scantling ran 36 straight “go” routes last season. Know how many resulted in receptions? Zero. That’s a real stat.

It gets better. Or, well, worse. Justin Watson ran 29 go routes. His reception total on those routes: Zero.

There are several ways to get behind a defense, several routes that could do the trick, but the Chiefs struggled with the most old-fashioned of them all: Just see if you can fly by someone and make a play.

It wasn’t for a lack of trying. That’s 65 routes between the two of them. It’s from a lack of execution.

In play design.

In personnel.

For a few seasons now, defenses have keyed on the elimination of deep throws, and that’s not only a response to Patrick Mahomes. We’re seeing it across the entire league.

Mahomes was the NFL’s worst-rated passer on deep throws last season, per PFF data, but barely in front of him sat Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert and Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Is anyone questioning the arms of those three? They can sling it.

For the full context in that aforementioned stat, the straight go route is obviously among the most difficult passes in the league to complete. It’s why teams use variants to affect the deep throw. The best receivers in the category have closer to a half-dozen catches than dozens of them. Tyreek Hill was targeted on the route six times in 2023. He did catch five of them, though, and he turned all five of them into touchdowns.

Even among those who firmly believe part of the Chiefs’ ability to compete for Super Bowls for years to come is their willingness to pull the trigger on that Hill trade — and I’ll raise my hand here —we have to admit: The personnel plays a far more significant role in this category than anything else.

It is quite difficult to execute that route against particular defenses, the ones that Chiefs see frequently, but the Chiefs turned the difficult into the impossible. And we’re kidding ourselves to rank the quarterback’s mindset among the top culprits.

The creativity has to get better. And so do the receivers.

The month-long camp preview at Missouri Western State looked pretty good, if you want the 30,000-foot view of it, though the most creative of plays are rarely showcased to the crowd of 5,000 fans and the dozens of media attending practice every day. It’s done behind closed doors, and Mahomes has made a point to hold extra meetings with his receivers.

But there was a lot to like about the parts we did see. Xavier Worthy and Marquise Brown can track the ball in the air in a way that confounded Valdes-Scantling (and those watching him) a year ago.

The Chiefs escaped the worst news with the preseason clavicle injury to Brown he suffered in Jacksonville a week ago, but he will still miss some time, and that will have an impact on this entire offseason theme.

Because it’s not just his production the Chiefs would miss. It’s the mere threat of his production. It’s that having two receivers who can put fear into the back end of a defense — two who can not only combine for 65 go routes but turn, I don’t know, maybe one of them into an actual reception — subtracts the predictability.

I don’t recall which defenses were fearful of the Valdes-Scantling wind sprint by year’s end, but it wasn’t many.

The threat can also, more notably than we’ve discussed so far, can present more open opportunity for the actual two most dangerous pass-catchers on the roster: Travis Kelce and Rashee Rice.

Brown will be back.

This theme will remain until he does.

The opportunity for that effect will return more significantly when he returns.

If they can just prove the ability to execute a few more of them.